"You can put on my apron and finish, but don't change a thing, now mind. I'll go and dress. I brought my whole wardrobe over early in the week," Jo rattled on, and thrusting her gingham apron into Leigh's hands she dashed through the hall toward the stairway. Rosie Gimpke, the tow-headed image of her mother, Gretchen Wyker, stared at Leigh, who smiled back at her. Rosie was stupid and ignorant, but she knew the difference between Jo Bennington's frown and Leigh Shirley's smile. A saving thing, the smile of good will, and worth its cost in any market. "Shall I help you too, or shall Rosie and I look after the refreshments?" Virginia asked as she greeted Leigh. "No, run along and get dressed. Rosie knows just how to fix things in the kitchen, and I never need anybody else if Leigh can help me," Thaine declared. "How is this, Leigh?" Leigh gave a quick glance and answered: "Too heavy everywhere? Can we fix it right?" "You bet we can. I'm not going to have a thing wrong tonight," Thaine answered her. "But Jo fixed it, and you know Jo." Leigh made no reply, but went about the rearrangement with swift artistic skill; while Jo, who had changed her mind about being in a hurry, slipped down stairs to the dining room again. At the doorway she discovered the undoing of her work. For a minute or two she watched the pair, then passed unnoticed up stairs again. Leigh Shirley was the only girl who ever dared to oppose Jo, and she did it so quietly and completely that Jo could only ignore her. She could not retaliate. "Jo Bennington, you are the prettiest girl in Kansas, and I claim the first dance and the last, and some in-betweens, right now," Thaine declared when she appeared again. Jo was tall and graceful and imperious in her manner. The oldest and handsomest child in a large family, she had had her own way at home and with her associates all her life. Her world was made to give way to her from the beginning, until nothing seemed possible or popular without her sanction. Tonight her heavy black hair was coiled in braids about her head, her black eyes were full of youthful glow and her cheeks were like June roses. She wore a pink lawn dress vastly becoming to her style, and a string of old-fashioned pearl beads was wound through her dark braids. "You'd better make amends for spoiling all my pretty work as you and Leigh have done," she said in reply to Thaine's frank compliment. "I'll make it a few more dances, for you do dance better than any of the other boys--"