a broken spring, and not the most careful placing of
furniture that Nancy could devise entirely concealed the holes in the
faded carpet.

"We ought to put a glass cover over Mother, the way some people cover
French clocks," Nancy said laughingly. "You're much too valuable to
get any of the dust of every-day life on you, Mamma."

"I'm getting old, my dear. I only think of my daughters now," said
Mrs. Prescott, with a little sigh and pushing a curly wisp of hair back
from her face. "I shall be putting on spectacles soon."

"Catch you! You'd go blind as a bat before you'd do any such violence
to your beauty. You're like Alma. I had to argue for half an hour
to-day to make Alma wear her raincoat. It wasn't becoming, and she'd
far rather die of pneumonia than look like a----"

"A hippopotamus," said Alma. "That's what I look like in the old
thing. The sleeves dangle over my hands like a fire hose."

"Nancy, I've come to a definite conclusion in regard to you and Alma,
for this winter," said Mrs. Prescott, laying down her embroidery and
trying to look practical and decided.

"How much will it cost?" Nancy's eyes twinkled.

"It's not a question of money."

"Nothing ever is--with Mamma and Alma," Nancy thought, but she was
silent, and continued to lick the chocolate off her spoon composedly.

"I have thought the whole thing over very carefully, and I am quite
sure that the matter of money must not be weighed against the value
which it would have for you girls."

"It's not a trip to Europe, is it, Mamma?" asked Alma, quite as if she
expected that this might be the case. Indeed, a trip to Europe would
have been no more incredible to Nancy than her mother's plan, which
Mrs. Prescott proceeded to unfold.

"You see, my dears, living as we do, you girls are absolutely cut off
from the opportunities which are so essential to every girl's success
in life. This has been a great worry to me. You are growing older,
and you are forming no acquaintances that will be of value to you. For
this reason I have decided that the expense of sending you both--for a
last year, you understand--to a good school, a smart school, a school
where Alma can meet girls who will count for something in social
life--is an expense that must be met."

"But--heavens, we've had all the ordinary schooling we need," exclaimed
Nancy in amazement. "If--if I could just have a few months' tutoring
so that I could take my college exams in the sp