"We have won! We may do it!" she said, speaking in a low tone. "Oh, she's--she's like no one else! I don't know how you will take it, girls; but if you're not just delighted you ought, to be. Why, what _do_ you think? She wants to come herself." "Mrs. Ward!" said Maggie in amazement. "Yes, just to supper. She says she will come--she wishes to come--that we're to invite her; in fact, she makes it a _sine quâ non_. She will go away again after supper, and we're to have the whole glorious day, next Saturday week, from two in the afternoon until bedtime. Oh, sha'n't we have fun!" "Yes, of course," said Maggie. "It's much better even than I thought. I will write the letters of invitation immediately." "But why should you write a whole lot of letters?" said Kathleen. "You are one queen. Write to the other queen and mention that Mrs. Ward is coming." There was nothing like the present time for making arrangements; and Maggie wrote on a sheet of headed note-paper provided for her by her satellites the following words: "Queen Maggie presents her compliments to Queen Aneta, and begs for the pleasure of her company with all her subjects on Saturday the 15th of October, to an entertainment from three to nine o'clock. She hopes that the whole school will be present, and writes in the names of her own subjects as well as of herself. "_P.S._--Mrs. Ward has most kindly promised to attend." This letter was subjected to the approval of the group of girls who surrounded Maggie. It was then addressed to "Queen Aneta," and Kathleen crossed the room with it and dropped it, there and then, into Aneta Lysle's lap. It caused very deep amazement in the hearts of all the girls who belonged to Aneta's party, and it is highly probable that they might have refused to accept the invitation but for that magical postscript, "Mrs. Ward has most kindly promised to attend." But there was no withstanding that patent fact, as Mrs. Ward knew very well when she made the proposal to Kathleen. After a lapse of about twenty minutes, Cicely Cardew crossed the room and laid the answer to Maggie's note in her lap: "Queen Aneta and her subjects have much pleasure in accepting Queen Maggie's invitation for the 15th inst." "Hip, hip, hurrah!" cried Kathleen. "The thing's arranged, and we'll have about the jolliest flare-up and the most enticing time that girls ever had at any school." She sprang from her seat, and began tossing a book which had lain in her lap into the air, catching it again. In short, the subjects of the two queens broke up on the spot and chatted gaily together, and Maggie and her subjects could not be induced to say one word of what was to take place on the 15th of October. "It is wonderful," thought Aneta to herself. "Why does Mrs. Ward come? But, of course, as she comes we must all come." CHAPTER XVIII. THE TREASURE.