I said I'd be delighted, and I thought Mrs. Noyes would dress up too." Then, with an appeal also to her vis-a-vis: "Say, that was right, was it not?"

"Quite right, if you ladies do not mind the trouble for such a small impromptu affair. It was just like Mollie Campbell to propose it. She is a child still about what you call dressing up!"

"Perhaps we all are. I can answer for one, at least. What do you say, Mrs. Noyes?"

"Certainly, if we are still here—I am not sure--"

"Oh, you must stay for it. "We cannot let you off. And about costumes: the dear mater and I talked it over in the carriage coming home. She is going to wear a great-grandmother dress that she has stowed away with a lot of others in those chests on the gallery, and I am to try on a particular one that she thinks will suit me. It is like the dress Lady Sibell wears in the picture, where she has on the heirloom pearls and that queer harp-shaped brooch. Oh, Ian,"—with a sudden thought, and striking together the pink palms of her pretty hands. "It would be just splendid if you'd lend me the pearls for that one night! Say, will you? I'd take the greatest care of them. That is, if you keep them here, and not lodged at the bank. Are they here at Dunowe?"

"Yes," he sad, "I have them here. "He did not refuse the request, but he met it gravely, and might have been divined unwilling by one less eager.

"Then you'll let me have them, won't you?"—the piquante little face eloquent with appeal, and the clasped hands held out. "I'd like—oh, I would like to be Lady Sibell, just for the one night. I'd say I was Lady Sibell come alive out of the picture, if they can't guess who I am. I might even pretend to be the ghost!"

"A good idea," he admitted, but still there was that air of a reluctance he would not put into words. "But I wouldn't call myself Lady Sibell, if I were you. She mightn't like it. Couldn't you for the same period find a different name?"

"Why, is Lady Sibell the--! But I must not ask you that! It's charming of you, Ian. I must tell Noel. I feel as if I could hardly wait for Wednesday. If they are here in the house, could you show them me to-night?"

"I have them here—yes. In fact, they are in the built-in safe in my den, for they are not allowed to leave Dunowe. They don't often see the light. But you may be disappointed in them. They are not pure white, and some of them are irregular. No doubt they are Scotch river pearls, not oriental."

The description, though depreciatory, seemed to excite interest in both his hearers.