There was a pause and in it they could distinctly hear Nan's feet going to and fro on the floor above their heads, and her sharp young voice shouting the chorus of some tuneless popular air, in her own perfectly cheerful, earless fashion. "Oh, Miss Blake, please!" quavered Ruth. If she had known the governess as well as Nan did she would have known that it was worse than useless to "tease." As it was, she was aware of some force here that did not appear in her own easy-going mother, and unconsciously she bowed to it--but even as she did so she gave a last wail of entreaty from pure force of habit. "Please, Miss Blake!" "No, Ruth. I can't consent to Nan's joining you. If she goes, it will be in direct defiance of my authority and against my wish and approval. But when she hears what I have to say I do not think she will go." "Don't think who will go?" demanded an eager voice, as Nan came pelting in at the door, having flung down stairs in such a whirl that they had scarcely realized she had started before she was here. "Heyo, Ruth! When did you come? You're a dear girl to venture out a day like this! Who'll go where, 'you don't think,' Miss Blake?" Ruth rose and began dragging on her gloves. "Hello," she said, blankly, in return for the other's greeting. "Who'll go? Who'll go?" insisted Nan, tapping the floor with her foot to emphasize her impatience. Ruth looked at Miss Blake a little sullenly, and said nothing. Miss Blake looked at Nan. "You," she returned simply. "I was just saying to Ruth that I am sure you would not go anywhere against my plainly expressed wish." The girl threw back her head with an unrestrained laugh. "Oh, now, you're bragging!" she cried breezily. "Don't count too much on me. I'm a queer creature. I don't know what I'd do if I were hard put!" Ruth glanced at Miss Blake again as she buttoned her coat. The governess' face was quite placid, but there was an expression in her eyes that was quite new to the girl and that she did not care to face. "The fact of the matter is, Nan," Miss Blake explained, "Ruth has come here to invite you to join a sleighing party to be given--what night did you say, Ruth?" "The first clear one," responded the girl still sullenly. "The first clear night," resumed Miss Blake. "All your friends are going, and it would give me as much pleasure to have you join them as it would you to do so, but--under the circumstances it is impossible to do anything save--" she paused an instant, and Nan broke in impatiently: "Under what circumstances? There aren't any circumstances! A sleighing party! Why, it'll be just magnificent and gorgeous! Of course I'll go. Hurrah! Ruth, you're a dear to ask me! Go? Well, I should think so!" Ruth fastened her fur boa about her neck, and murmured something almost inaudible about having to hurry home.