clare to you, you'd have been as proud of those two kids as I was when
that boy led his little sister through the hostile camp. Funny, he felt
the hostility instantly, though of course, he didn't understand it. But
she--well, you know what a confiding little thing she is, and having
been asleep made her eyes look even more babyish than they always
do--walked beside him, smiling her soft little smile and looking about
three inches high in her little black dress."

"If I had been there," interrupted Mrs. Hawtry warmly, "I should have
murdered your sister Elizabeth before I allowed her to put that baby
into mourning. The black bow I packed for her hair would have been quite
enough."

"Well, she had it on. I saw it bobbing up the room while tenth and
fifteenth cousins seven or eight times removed, stared at it and at her.
But the person most surprised was old Debrett when Jimmie introduced them."

"'This is her,' remarked your son with more truth than polish, and I'm,
well, antecedently condemned, if that dry-as-dust old lawyer didn't
stoop and kiss her as he wished her joy."

"Ah, I'm glad he's as nice as that," said Mrs. Hawtry, "since he is to
be your co-trustee. However," she added a little wistfully, "I don't
like the idea of anybody dictating to us about the baby. It makes her
seem somehow not quite so much our very own. And we could have taken
care of her quite well without your mother's money and advice."

"Why, my dear," laughed her husband, "that's a novel attitude to adopt
toward a legacy. The baby is ours as much as she ever was. The advice is
as good as any I ever read. And the money will leave us all the more to
devote to Jimmie. There's the making of a good business man in Jimmie."

* * * * *

It was part of what Mrs. Hawtry for a long time considered the
interference of Cecelia Anne's grandmother that the child should have a
monthly allowance, small while she was small and growing with her
growth. She was to be allowed to spend it without supervision and to
keep an account of it. At the end of each year the trustees were to
examine these accounts and to judge from them the trend of their ward's
inclinations. They would be then in a position to curb or foster her
leanings as their judgment should dictate.

Now, Cecelia Anne, restored to her friends from a wonderland sort of
dream, called going--West--with--papa--on--the--train--and--living--
with--Aunt--Elizabeth, was to