"My Aunt Jane's Poll-parrot!" Sally exclaimed, jumping up. "Look at the time," and she held out her wrist watch. "Ten minutes past five. If we're going to meet Taffy we'd better hurry."

They found sweaters and started off down the long avenue that lead to the gate.

Prue turned to Gladys and Ann.

"Are the twins elected?" she inquired.

"They are," they replied. "To the very heart of Hilltop," Ann added.

They sauntered back to their room.

"Look at my beautiful bed that a perfectly good Countess has slept in,"

Gladys wailed, as she saw the contents of three drawers piled high on the blue and white counterpane.

"Oh, never mind that," Prue brushed some of the things aside and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Speaking of Countesses," she began, "Janet wanted to know if anybody really important had ever slept in their room, and I thought it was a good chance for a ghost story."

"Of course, the very thing," Gladys agreed decidedly.

"We might as well have a good one while we're about it. You'd better make it up, Prue," Ann suggested.

Gladys had been gazing out of the window; she turned half way around now.

"Don't have to make it up," she said slowly. "There's a perfect cracker-jack about a pretty lady popping off the balcony when they brought in her lover who had been shot in a duel."

"Which balcony was it?" Prue demanded.

Gladys's eyes twinkled. "Well, it might just as well have been theirs,"

she said.

The other two nodded in understanding.

CHAPTER VIII-More Twins

The twins and Sally were breathless when they reached the gate, but they were in time to see two carriages coming down the turnpike.

"Two carriages!" Phyllis exclaimed.

"Maybe they're not both for here," Janet replied.

Sally smiled a broad smile.

"Oh, but they are," she said.

"What's the mystery?" Phyllis demanded.

"Wait and see," was all the satisfaction Sally would give them.

They watched the carriages as they crawled along. The little station of Hillsdale did not boast taxicabs, but contented itself to the old-fashioned surreys driven by talkative old negroes.

At last the first carriage turned in at the gate and the girls saw Daphne and her mother sitting on the back seat. They jumped on the steps, and Phyllis climbed in beside the driver.

Daphne at their unexpected appearance was so delighted that she fairly danced, and Mrs. Hillis, who had feared Daphne's silence on the way up from the station was the first sign of homesickness, was relieved.

Daphne had tight hold of Janet's hand. A year ago she had understood, when things looked very black for Phyllis's twin. And now the tables were turned, and in this new world of boarding school she looked to Janet.

Janet gave her hand a tight squeeze.

"Taffy, it's so good to see you," she said.

"At first we were just sick that you couldn't come with us, but really, it's more fun this way," Phyllis turned around in her seat as she spoke and saw the other carriage still following.

"Why, look," she said. "That is coming here, too." But Sally interrupted her.

"The twins are regular old girls now at Hilltop," she said to Daphne.

"Oh, isn't it great we're all four together!"

Mrs. Hillis smiled. Her laugh was a little like Daphne's.

"How happy you girls are," she said. "I was a little worried about Daphne's coming so far away from home, but now I know Mrs. Ladd was right. I can see by your faces that Hilltop is a vast improvement over Miss Harding's."

The girls nodded an eager agreement.

"Here we are!" Sally exclaimed excitedly as they drew up before the steps.

"What a beautiful place!" Mrs. Hillis said warmly.

"Don't you feel like the President in the White House when you walk up and down these steps?" Daphne drawled.

"Well, you do feel awfully important," Janet agreed.

A maid met them at the door and took Daphne's bag.

"If you all-ll come dis way, I'll show you just where to go," she said.

Mrs. Hillis and Daphne followed her, and the girls waited in the square hall.

"Who under the sun is in that next carriage?" Janet demanded.

"Wait and see," Sally replied provokingly.

"Oh, I know," Phyllis exclaimed. "It's another new girl. She's going to be in the new wing. I heard Kitty and Alice talking about it in history cla.s.s today.