"We might have sent for them, but I thought you wouldn't mind, and I should have had to explain it all to Aunt Kate. Why, I feel as if I had run away on some secret expedition. Do I look guilty?" and she laughed softly. "You are to be my girl you know. Oh, I hope you wont think me exigent? I can't endure fussiness, and I do believe that I have given in to Zay's desires when I did not think them wise or necessary, rather than have any discussion. But Aunt Kate loves her so and she has been so good to me." Mrs. Barrington was delighted to see them. While the two ladies discussed studies and future plans, Marguerite ran through to the study where the left-over scholars were arranging a little play they were to amuse themselves with that afternoon. But Miss Nevins uttered a shriek of delight and nearly toppled her over in an exuberant embrace. "Oh, my dear Miss Boyd--Crawford, I mean, will we get used to the new name! Isn't it all splendid! And to be so rich and to belong to a first class family! It _does_ make a difference. I've been writing to mamma all about it. It ought to be put in a book. But I liked you so from the very first, and you were so good to me. But the girls kept hectoring me and saying mamma wouldn't approve. She's very particular about the friends I make, because I shall go in the best society when I get introduced. I think papa will give me a ball. It is real stylish to have it at Sherry's. And I want you and your sister; only you ought to look more alike, being twins; I'm just as glad as if something grand had happened to me. And your father ought to give you a splendid party at Crawford House. I suppose it is very fine and all that." Her face was in a glow and her dull brown eyes had a glint in them that improved them very much. "I am just the same as when I was Lilian Boyd," she began. But Alice interrupted--"Oh, no, you're not, and you will soon find it out. It's all right, too. Rich people _do_ have more chances, and seeing the world and mixing with high up style gives you an air. Why you couldn't imagine that plain little Mrs. Boyd with her meek air going to dinners and balls, and she never could have earned money enough to dress any. That's what tells. And when you can't go into society or meet nice people but just stay at home and work or teach--what fun is there in life? Why I'd rather be dead." "I should want to be alive even if I were Lilian Boyd. I think it is a grand world, and there is so much happening all the time. And I don't care so much about being rich--" "But you _will_ and your mother is so lovely. Major Crawford looks rather stern and that handsome young man--what a pity he's to follow the sea, unless he gets to be an Admiral, and then he'll have to be quite old. I'd rather be at West Point. Oh, I wish I had a brother."