She went to her room, laid aside her mother's wedding-dress, and put away with the ring and locket the withered passion-flowers that Ronald Valchester had gathered for her. "I will keep the flowers in remembrance of to-night," she said, artlessly. "It would have been the happiest night of my life," she added, "if only----" a vague sigh followed the broken sentence. CHAPTER IX. Jaquelina was lying at ease under her favorite apple tree the next afternoon when the murmur of voices roused her. She lifted her head, and saw Walter and Violet Earle with Mr. Valchester. "I knew we should find you here," said Violet, with her soft laugh. "I have heard about your pretty retreat under the apple trees." She did not say that she had come straight there, feeling quite sure of catching Jaquelina at a disadvantage. Violet would not have owned to herself that she was prompted by a spiteful little feminine instinct. But she gave Ronald Valchester an arch little smile that said plainer than words: "Did I not tell you the truth? Is not the little beauty of last night brown, awkward and shabby to-day?" Violet herself looked as fair and pure as a lily in her cool, white dress and white chip hat with its delicate wreath of violets. She had some violets fastened with the lace at her throat, and they were just the color of her eyes. She was fully conscious of the pleasant fact that though Jaquelina had rivaled her last night, she had a very decided advantage over her to-day. But men never _do_ see with woman's eyes. Ronald Valchester only saw that the _brune_ skin was glowing with the rosy tint of health, that the careless, boyish locks of chestnut hair had caught and held some stray gleams of summer sunshine, that the brown hands were slender and delicately formed. He noticed, too, that the girlish form, guiltless of stays or laces, was very graceful with the willowy lightness and roundness so lovely in youth. But he never realized at all, until he heard Violet telling her mamma at tea that night, that "poor Lina Meredith had on a faded and darned calico, and worn-out boots with half the buttons gone." Jaquelina had been reading a book of poetry, and some of the dreaminess still lingered in her eyes as she rose to greet her visitors. A half wish darted into her mind that they had gone into the house at first, that she might have slipped into the back way and donned her Sunday dress, but no one guessed the thought, not even Walter Earle, who said, with a careless laugh: "Ah! Miss Cinderella, we have caught you without your ball-dress to-day. Where are your diamond ring and gold locket?" Jaquelina looked at them a little surprised. "I have put away the ring and locket," she said. "I do not wear them usually; they belonged to my mother." Then she added, a little shyly and anxiously: "Will you come into the house and see Aunt Meredith?" "Thanks--no," answered Violet, promptly. "It is so pretty out here in the orchard, we would rather stay."