"Yes," said her sister; "and in some ways it is a good thing for Lavinia. She is so hoydenish and daring that I think a nice, quiet girl like Stella Russell will have a refining influence over her." "Ladybird isn't unrefined, Priscilla," said Miss Dorinda. Insinuations against her niece were the one thing which could rouse the meek and mild ire which this good lady possessed. "No, not unrefined, since she is a Flint; but you must admit, Dorinda, that at times she is exasperating beyond all measure. Why, only this morning she cut the strings from my best bonnet, and tied them round the kittens' necks, because, she said, she never had seen kittens with black ribbons on, and she wanted to see how funny they looked; and she said, too, that the bonnet looked better without strings." "Yes, she's thoughtless and careless," sighed Miss Dorinda, "but not wicked. I think she means all right." "Then she very seldom expresses her meaning," snapped Miss Priscilla. "Well, she's only a child," said Dorinda; "you can't put old heads on young shoulders. Sometimes I think perhaps Stella's influence isn't altogether good for her: it may fill her head with grown-up nonsense. You know she's so imaginative." "Oh, Stella isn't flighty," said Miss Priscilla. "She's a fine, wholesome young woman, and I am sure Lavinia is already better for having known her." At that moment Ladybird came flying in. Her cheeks were red, her eyes big and bright, and she seemed in a state of wild excitement. She flung her hat one way and her cape the other, and dropped into a chair. "My, aunties," she exclaimed, "what do you think! Stella Russell thinks maybe--perhaps--she's going to be engaged to be married!" "Goodness gracious me, child!" exclaimed Miss Priscilla, "what are you talking about?" "I told you so," said Miss Dorinda. "And she doesn't want to a bit," Ladybird went on; "it's perfectly awful. They're making her do it--her cruel, cruel grandparents and that silly Charley Hayes; and there isn't anybody else. And she wouldn't have confidanted to me only I guessed it, and she said yes; and then I made her tell me all about it. And isn't it perfectly awful, and can't we help her some way?" "Lavinia Lovell," said Miss Priscilla, "do you know what you're talking about? And if so, can you tell it so any one can understand it?" "That's the way it is, aunty; and if you can't understand it, I can't help it. Charley Hayes wants to marry Stella, and he says she must; and Stella's grandfather and grandmother they say she must; so everybody wants her to, except Stella herself and me. I think it's just dreadful. He's as silly as a loon. He doesn't know anything, and he's awkward and rude and countrified and awful homely, and I don't care if he is rich." "Lavinia," said Miss Priscilla, with a tone of displeasure, "you have no business with these matters at all, and I am surprised that Stella should have talked to you about this."