Lizzie looked quickly at her sister, as if asking how long since she had come to this conclusion; but Lucy’s face was calm and unruffled, betraying no secrets, although her tongue did when, after dinner, she found herself alone with Lizzie in their dressing-room.  A long conversation followed, in which Lucy seemed trying to persuade Lizzie to do something wrong.  Possessed of the stronger mind, Lucy’s influence over her sister was great, and sometimes a bad one, but never before had she proposed an open act of disobedience toward their father, and Lizzie constantly replied, “No, no, Lucy, I can’t do it; besides, I really think I ought not to go, for that pain in my side is no better.”

“Nonsense, Lizzie,” said Lucy.  “If you are going to be as whimsical as Miss Berintha you had better begin at once to dose yourself with burdock or catnip tea.”  Then, again recurring to the dress, she continued, “Father did not say we must not wear them after we got there.  I shall take mine, anyway, and I wish you would do the same; and then, if he ever knows it, he will not be as much displeased when he finds that you, too, are guilty.”

After a time, Lizzie was persuaded, but her happiness for that day was destroyed, and when at tea-time her father asked if she felt quite well, she could scarcely keep from bursting into tears.  Lucy, however, came to her relief, and said she was feeling blue because Harry would not be present!  Just before the hour for the party Lucy descended to the parlor, where her father was reading, in order, as she said, to let him see whether her dress were fussy enough to suit him.  He approved her taste, and after asking if Lizzie, too, were dressed in the same manner, resumed his paper.  Ere long the covered sleigh stood at the door, and in a few moments Lucy and Lizzie were in Anna Graham’s dressing-room, undergoing the process of a second toilet.

Nothing could be more beautiful than was Lucy Dayton, after party dress, bracelets, curls, and flowers had all been adjusted.  She probably thought so, too, for a smile of satisfaction curled her lip as she saw the radiant vision reflected by the mirror.  Her bright eye flashed, and her heart swelled with pride as she thought, “Yes, there’s no help for it, I shall win him sure;” then turning to Anna Graham, she asked, “Is that Mr. St. Leon to be here to-night?”

“Yes, you know he is,” answered Anna, “and I pity him, for I see you are all equipped for an attack; but,” continued she, glancing at Lizzie, “were not little Lizzie’s heart so hedged up by brother Hal, I should say your chance was small.”

Lucy looked at her sister, and a chill struck her heart as she observed a spasm of pain which for an instant contracted Lizzie’s fair, sweet face.  Anna noticed it, too, and springing toward her, said, “What is it, Lizzie? are you ill?”

“No,” answered Lizzie, laying her hand on her side; “nothing but a sharp pain.  It will soon be better;” but while she spoke her teeth almost chattered with the cold.