Dainty's Cruel Rivals; Or, The Fatal Birthday

How it begins

"It's a perfect godsend, this invitation!" cried Olive Peyton, with unwonted rapture in her cold voice. "Yes, indeed!" assented her chum and cousin, Ela Craye, joyfully. "I have wondered over and over how we were going to buy our summer clothes and spare enough money for a trip, and here comes Aunt Judith's invitation to her country home just in the nick of time." "And how lucky, to think of her step-son, Lovelace Ellsworth, getting home at last from Europe! Either you or I must capture him, Ela!" added Olive, eagerly, her black eyes sparkling with the hope of getting a rich husband. "Pshaw! aunt might just as well have saved her manners. Dainty can not possibly go.