“Oh, do you suppose you can hit it?” asked Lloyd, as she and Virginia slipped their arms around each other, and went skipping up the stairs.

“Yes, indeed!” answered Virginia.  “I used to practise so much with my Indian bow and arrow out at the fort, that I could hit centre nearly every time.  I am not going to shoot to-night.  Aunt Allison thinks it wouldn’t be fair.”

When they reached the top of the stairs, Virginia went into her room to light a wax taper in one of the tall silver candlesticks on her dressing-table.  “I think that Aunt Allison must have left those arrows in the blue room,” she said, leading the way down the cross hall which went to the north wing.  “She made the pie in there this morning, and all the other things were there.  Nobody comes over in this part of the house much in winter, unless there happens to be a great deal of company.”

The taper that Virginia carried was the only light in that part of the house.  When she reached the door of the blue room she turned to Lloyd.  “Hold the candle for me, please,” she said, “while I look in the closet.”

It was a pretty picture that the little “Queen of Hearts” made, as she stood in the doorway, with the tall silver candlestick held high in both hands.  Her hair shone like gold in the candlelight, and her glittering crown flashed as if a circle of fairy fireflies had been caught in its soft meshes.  Her dark eyes peered anxiously around the big shadowy room, lighted only by her flickering taper.

Down-stairs, Malcolm and Keith were almost quarrelling about her.  It began by Malcolm taking his brother aside and offering to trade valentines with him.

“Why?” asked Keith, suspiciously.

“’Cause yours matches the Little Colonel’s, and I want to take her out to dinner,” admitted Malcolm.  “She is the prettiest girl here.”

“But I don’t want to trade,” answered Keith.  “I want to take her myself.”

“I’ll give you the pick of any six stamps in my album if you will.”

“Don’t want your old stamps,” declared Keith, stoutly.  “I’d rather have the Little Colonel for my partner.”

“I think you might trade,” coaxed Malcolm.  “It’s mean not to when I’m the oldest.  I’ll give you that Chinese puzzle you’ve been wanting so long if you will.”  Keith shook his head.

Just then a terrific scream sounded in the upper hall, followed by another that made every one down-stairs turn pale with fright.  Two voices were uttering piercing shrieks, one after another, so loud and frantic that even the servants in the back part of the house came running.  Miss Allison, thinking of the candle she had told Virginia to light, and remembering the thin, white dress the child wore, instantly thought she must have set herself afire.  She ran into the hall, so frightened that she was trembling from head to foot.  Before she could reach the staircase, Virginia came flying down the steps, white as a little ghost, and her eyes wide with terror.  Throwing herself into her aunt’s outstretched arms, she began to sob out her story between great, trembling gasps.