"She said John had taken you, and that you kind of walked as if you were dizzy or something. We've run all the way! Do say, are you sick?" pleaded Louie. "Or hurt?" articulated Ruth. John and Nan regarded each other solemnly for a moment. Then they both broke into a peal of laughter. Nan was the first to speak. "No, I'm not sick and I wasn't hurt--the way you mean. I was a goose--that's all. I want you to forgive me." "What for?" demanded the girls, in a breath. "Why, for--for--making you run after me," replied Nan. CHAPTER XIV CHANGES "Let's go back after luncheon," suggested Ruth as they tramped homeward. The others assented heartily enough, and Nan was so eager to return to her sport that she did not wait for Delia to let her in at the upper door, but burst through the basement way, and ran against Miss Blake in the lower hall. "Oh, excuse me!" she panted. "We've had a glorious time. We're going out again. Please may I have a bite of something quick, so I can run? We want to make the most of the daylight, and Lu can almost go alone." "Certainly. Delia has everything on the table. But won't you want to run upstairs and give your face and hands a little scrub?" Nan's forehead wrinkled, and she was on the point of uttering an exclamation of disgust. But she caught herself up, and pressing her lips together hard, flew upstairs without a word of protest. She finished her luncheon in marvelously quick time. "If you wish to go you may be excused," her companion announced, as the last crumb was swallowed. A gleam of surprise lit upon Nan's face. "Thank you," she said, and went her way feeling more contented with herself than she had done in many a long day. It was late when she returned, and not finding Miss Blake in any other part of the house, she went to the governess' room and tapped on the door for admittance, a thing she had never done before, from pure perversity and a determination not to "let any person suppose she cared to see them when she didn't have to." Miss Blake herself opened the door to her and invited her to "step into her parlor," most cordially, adding: "I'm just having my afternoon tea. Won't you take a cup with me?" At first Nan could scarcely find voice to reply, so strange did she feel in this altered room. When she had last seen it it was bare and cold and comfortless, and now--