Cecilia of the Pink Roses
 Upstairs in another room, a group of girls were laughing uncontrollably.  "You know she actually invited Annie to sit down!" said one.  (Annie was the slender maid.) 

 "That is not reefined," answered Annette. There was more wild laughter. 

 "Do ask her up to-night," suggested a tawny haired maiden with cat-green eyes.  "Do! It would be simply screamingly funny!" 

 Annette, although one of the most unkind, objected.  "It doesn't seem quite nice," she said. However, as the idea promised fun, the majority ruled. 

 Cecilia answered the tap on her door. "Come up to your room to-night?" she echoed after the invitation.  "Oh, Miss Annette, I'd be that glad to come!" she smiled, and her smile was like sunshine after rain. 

 "I do thank you!" she said.  "I do!" 

 Annette turned away. Cecilia closed the door, then she covered her eyes.  "Gawd, thank you ever so much!" she whispered, "thank you! I have been so lonely! Make them love me. Please make them love me, Gawd."  Then she lifted her head. Her face shone.  "I wonder what I shall wear?" she said. 

 To meet the ideal of one's dreams while carrying a sick cat is humiliating. And that is what happened to Cecilia Evangeline Agnes Madden. Her shadowy dream-knight had materialised into human shape through a photograph. And she met him while chaperoning a sick cat. 

 Two weeks before she had gone to a party in Annette Twombly's room. She'd not enjoyed the party very much, in fact she'd been rather unhappy until she saw the photograph. After that she didn't care what happened. All the romance of the Celt had leaped.... Her shadowy dreams took form. The ideal lover developed a body. 

 "Oh, your heavenly cousin, Annette!" said the green-eyed.  "I adore his hair!" She stood before a large photograph, framed elaborately. 

 "He is a sweet boy," Annette had responded, "but so particular! I never knew any one quite so fastidious. It is fearfully hard to please him!" 

 "Does he get crushes?" asked the green-eyed. 

 "My dear," said Annette, "it would be impossible. He's terribly intellectual and all that, and girls so easily offend him. He doesn't say so, but he simply stops paying them any attention." 


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