"Flowers of feeling pure and warm, Hearts that cannot wither, These for thee shall bide the storm As the sunny weather." --FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD. It was not long after this that Mrs. Winans made the discovery that Mr. Stanley had come in as an office-holder under the new administration and that therefore he and his family were living in Washington. So with a definite purpose she called very soon on Miss Stanley, taking with her Ethel and Precious. The latter she had instructed to ask casually for Ladybird's address. Precious was so eager over the matter that she soon asked the question in a thoroughly natural manner, for she loved Ladybird very dearly. "Miss Stanley, I wish very much to have the address of my old friend, Miss Conway." Aura's red cheeks turned a deeper shade, and she said hesitatingly: "She is married now, you know!" "Yes, I have heard so, and I wish very much to write to her, as we were so fond of each other last summer," answered Precious, with such a loving light in her deep blue eyes for her old friend that Aura hated Ladybird more than ever. Tossing her dark head with a careless grace she exclaimed: "Indeed, I'm very sorry, Miss Precious, that I can't give you her address; but, really, I have not the faintest idea where she is at present. She was such an ungrateful girl that she has never written us a line since she married Jack Tennant and went away." "Oh, I am so sorry, for we all loved Ladybird dearly, and I wished to invite her to my wedding," murmured Ethel, suddenly taking part in the conversation. "Perhaps your father knows her address," Mrs. Winans said, looking suspiciously at the changing color of the crafty girl. "Oh, dear, no, papa hasn't the slightest idea where--" began Aura hastily, but just then she was interrupted. The curtains at the door had been twitching nervously several moments, and now they suddenly parted, and a slender little figure rushed into the room. It was all in black, and the pretty face was pale and sad, but they knew it in a minute by the mass of dancing golden-brown curls for Ladybird! "Aura Stanley, you wicked girl, how dare you tell my friends such falsehoods about me? You know very well I am not married, and that I have lived under your father's roof ever since the day I came from Europe!" she cried angrily, her hazel eyes flashing like stars, and her pale cheeks beginning to glow with resentment. It was certainly a very trying moment for Aura, for now she knew that her last chance of ingratiating herself with the Winans family and winning Earle was over. They would be sure to cut her acquaintance after this terrible _exposé_. Her first impulse was to fly from the scene of her discomfiture, but the next moment a clever thought came to her, and she stood her ground boldly. Coolly facing angry little Ladybird, she exclaimed: