and it helps a lot to have someone who really cares, tell us about them.”

Emma said no more on the subject; but the girls noticed after that a tendency to lower her voice and check her laughter. Nancy and Jeanette had been early trained to buy wisely and well, and knew good values as well as up-to-the-minute styles. All the rest of the day was spent in obtaining a coat, a couple of hats, gloves, and footwear.

“To-morrow,” said Nancy, when they were riding home, “we’ll go down again and get underwear and dresses—I just love to buy dresses!”

“Then next day,” added Jeanette, “Emma can have a manicure, and get a bag and the other things that we’ve forgotten; then she’ll be all fixed, outside.”

“Outside?” repeated Emma, somewhat puzzled.

“Well, you see,” replied Nancy lightly, “there are various personal and social customs which should go with a lovely wardrobe like yours; and you’ll want to adopt them, I’m sure. Janie is awfully good at that sort of thing, and you’ll learn lots when you are with her.”

“That’s so! My visit at your house is nearly over. I’ve had such a lovely time that I hate to leave; though, of course, I’m glad to stay with the rest of the girls too.”

The remainder of that week and the next passed more quickly than the girls had thought possible. They had just seen Emma off on the night train, which would get her to Plattsburg early the following morning, where Ethel King would meet her and drive her to the King cottage on the shore of Lake Champlain.

“Well, Janie?” said Nancy, as they came out of the station.

“Well, Nancy?” replied Jeanette.

“It’s over.”

“Yes; and how much of an impression do you suppose we’ve made—lasting impression, I mean?”

“A decided one, I think. You, poor dear, had a harder time than I did.”

“Why?” asked Jeanette, in surprise.

“Because you had to be a kind of habits-and-manners instructor, while I was only a costumer.”

“Oh; but Mother helped me a lot. She was very lovely to Emma, and really did much for her. Mother is so tactful, you know.”

“Yes; and she is something like Miss Ashton in her affection for and interest in young girls; isn’t she?”

“Something; even more so, I think, since Georgia disappeared.”

Georgia Crane was a girl whom Nancy and Jeanette had met under rather odd circumstances during their Sophomore year at Roxford. After a time she had gone to board with Mrs. Grant, who mothered her very much as she did her own daughter. Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, Georgia left their house one night, without their knowledge, and, despite their efforts to find her, had never been heard of since.

“I wish I knew where she is.”

“So do I. Do you suppose she will ever come back?”

“I doubt it; but I feel quite sure that we shall hear from her or run across her sometime; probably when we least expect it.”

“Now for our own shopping, and preparations for our trip.”

“I’m just crazy to go!”

Nancy gave vent to her pleasant anticipation by dancing a few steps, to the great disapproval of the man in front of her, upon whose heels she trod.

“We had a letter from Miss Ashton to-day,” said