of his eloping, but because she loves him so much she can’t part with him. Teddy wants to be an artist, and Mr. Carpenter says he has genius and should have his chance, but everybody is afraid to say anything to Mrs. Kent. She is a little bit of a woman—no taller than I am, really, quiet and shy—and yet every one is afraid of her. I am—dreadfully afraid. I’ve always known she didn’t like me—ever since those days long ago when Ilse and I first went up to the Tansy Patch, to play with Teddy. But now she hates me—I feel sure of it—just because Teddy likes me. She can’t bear to have him like anybody or anything but her. She is even jealous of his pictures. So there is not much chance of his getting to Shrewsbury. Perry is going. He hasn’t a cent, but he is going to work his way through. That is why he thinks he will go to Shrewsbury in place of Queen’s Academy. He thinks it will be easier to get work to do in Shrewsbury, and board is cheaper there.
“‘My old beast of an Aunt Tom has a little money,’ he told me, ‘but she won’t give me any of it—unless—unless’
“Then he looked at me significantly.
“I blushed because I couldn’t help it, and then I was furious with myself for blushing, and with Perry—because he referred to something I didn’t want to hear about—that time ever so long ago when his Aunt Tom met me in Lofty John’s bush and nearly frightened me to death by demanding that I promise to marry Perry when we grew up, in which case she would educate him. I never told anybody about it—being ashamed—except Ilse, and she said,
“‘The idea of old Aunt Tom aspiring to a Murray for Perry!’
“But then, Ilse is awfully hard on Perry and quarrels with him half the time, over things I only smile at. Perry never likes to be outdone by any one in anything. When we were at Amy Moore’s party last week, her uncle told
