`She has a nice, sensible sort of face,' he thought, `and she looks like a lady, but for beauty there is no comparison between the two.' Then he turned to listen to his sister as she replied:

`No, indeed, not the least; no two girls could be less like.' Mrs Ashe had made the same comparison, but with quite a different result. Katy's face was grown dear to her, and she had not taken the smallest fancy to Lilly Page.

Her relationship to the young naval officer, however, made a wonderful difference in the attitude of Mrs Page and Lilly toward the party. Katy became a person to be cultivated rather than repressed, and thenceforward there was no lack of cordiality on their part.

`I want to come in and have a good talk,' said Lilly, slipping her arm through Katy's as they left the dining room. `Mayn't I come now while mamma is calling on Mrs Ashe?' This arrangement brought her to the side of Lieutenant Worthington, and she walked between him and Katy down the hall and into the little drawing room.

`Oh, how perfectly charming! You have been fixing up ever since you came, haven't you? It looks like home. I wish we had a salon, but mamma thought it wasn't worth while, as we were only to be here such a little time. What a delicious balcony over the water, too! May I go out on it? Oh, Mr Worthington, do see this!'

She pushed open the half-closed window and stepped out as she spoke. Mr Worthington, after hesitating a moment, followed. Katy paused uncertain. There was hardly room for three on the balcony, yet she did not quite like to leave them. But Lilly had turned her back, and was talking in a low tone; it was nothing more in reality than the lightest chit-chat, but it had the air of being something confidential, so Katy, after waiting a little while, retreated to the sofa and took up her work, joining now and then in the conversation which Mrs Ashe was keeping up with Cousin Olivia. She did not mind Lilly's ill breeding, nor was she surprised at it. Mrs Ashe was less tolerant.

`Isn't it rather damp out there, Ned?' she called to her brother; `you had better throw my shawl round Miss Page's shoulders.'

`Oh, it isn't a bit damp!' said Lilly, recalled to herself by this broad hint. `Thank you so much for thinking of it, Mrs Ashe, but I am just coming in.' She seated herself beside Katy, and began to question her rather languidly.

`When did you leave home, and how were they all when you came away?'

`All well, thank you. We sailed from Boston on the fourteenth of October; before that I spent two days with Rose Red - you remember her? She is married now, and has the dearest little home and such a darling baby!'

`Yes, I heard of her marriage. It didn't seem much of a match for Mr Redding's daughter to make, did it? I never supposed she would be satisfied with anything less than a member of Congress or a Secretary of Legation.

`Rose isn't particularly ambitious, I think, and she seems perfectly happy,' replied Katy flushing.

`Oh, you needn't fire up in her defence! You and Clover always did adore Rose Red, I know, but I never could see what there was about her that was so wonderfully fascinating. She never had the least style, and she was always just as rude to me as she could be.'

`You were not intimate at school, but I am sure Rose was never rude,' said Katy with spirit.

`Well, we won't fight about her at this late day. Tell me where you have been, and where you are going, and hob long you are to stay in Europe.