"Pooh!" shrieked the chorus again. "This one's easy enough! Nan Cutler! first guess," and she was released as hurriedly as she had been set upon, while the entire company fell upon a later comer and tried to discover the identity of the muffled, veiled individual before she had either spoken or recovered from the unexpected onslaught.
"Well, Nan," cried Harley Morris, jovially, "you're the only girl who isn't muffled out of all recognition. We've had a dandy time trying to identify some of them."
"I never saw you look so well," declared Louie Hawes, generously, with her eyes glued to the fascinating peak.
"Nor I," broke in Mary Brewster. "Really, I didn't know you at first. That hood is as disguising to you as our veils are to us."
Nan flushed, but made no response. Harley Morris gave a low whistle and strolled off to join John Gardiner, who was standing before the fire talking with grave-faced Mr. Cole, and as he went she heard him murmur under his breath:
"Sweet remark! Oh, these dear girl friends!"
It instantly changed her feeling from momentary resentment toward Mary to pity for her.
All at once Mrs. Cole's shrill treble was heard high above the hum and murmur of the other voices, crying:
"Now, girls and boys, time's almost up! It any of the party's missing, he or she will be left behind! Prompt's the word."
Then, stepping over to her husband, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder and said: