"I don't care if I'm not a young lady, mamma; I'm determined to go to the ball," cried Precious, with hysterical symptoms, and Mrs. Winans sighed gently. "Indeed, my darling girl, I'm sorry to refuse you, but--" she began, and paused in dismay, for a sound of petulant weeping filled the room. Precious lay in her father's arms transformed into a Niobe. "Oh, Precious, pray don't be such a baby," implored Ethel impatiently, but the sobbing only grew louder, and between whiles came the pathetic plaint: "Nobody cares for me." Those tears and sobs melted the father's doting heart. He cried out pleadingly. "Poor little love, her heart is almost broken. Do let her go, mamma." "Papa is the only friend I have in the world!" wailed the diplomatic little darling, and he pressed her closer to his throbbing heart. "Ah, Gracie, how can you refuse?" he exclaimed, but Ethel cried out pettishly: "Papa, you have spoiled Precious until she is a perfect baby, and if she cried for the moon I believe you'd try to have a ladder built up to it. You always find it easy enough to refuse me when I ask imprudent things, and I don't think you ought to take sides against mamma in this. Let Precious wait a few years before she comes out." But dismal sobs were the only answer to this plea, and Precious wept, persuasively: "Oh, papa, darling papa, do say that I may go, for mamma will do anything you wish." The senator's pleading dark eyes met the anxious blue ones of his wife, and he said eagerly: "Dearest, she wants to go so very, very much, and it will break her sweet little heart if you refuse. Besides, this is different from a regular ball, for thousands and thousands of people attend the Inauguration Ball just to see the new president. There will be a great crush as usual, and you will bring the girls home very soon, I know. So for this one time I think we may humor our baby's curiosity. Now dry your eyes, my pet." "Oh, you darling! you darling!" cried Precious ecstatically, and lifted her face, all lovely and damp like a rain-washed rose. She embraced him rapturously, then flew to her mother. "Mamma, you shall never repent this, for I'll be as good as gold hereafter." Ethel had turned away and left the room with a frowning brow and darkly flashing eyes. "He loves her best," she murmured bitterly. "He would never have yielded like that to my entreaties for anything against dear mamma's wish. Ah, why is it so? Am I not beautiful and good, and his elder daughter? Why should Precious be always first in my noble father's heart?" That jealous heart-cry strikes the keynote of our story, dear reader, for had the senator not loved Precious best, this story of Ethel's temptation and her sister's suffering would never have been written. * * * * * Ethel Winans was bitterly unhappy. Unhappy? and why? Externally she had everything to make her blessed.