pt that certainty to herself.

The two girls made their way back to Sophie's lodgings, and discussed
the situation over the ever-comforting tea.

"I shall have to give my landlady notice," Sophie said, looking
wistfully round the little room which had been so truly a home. "If I'm
to be in hospital for many weeks, it's folly to go on paying the rent;
and in any case I can't afford so much now. One can't have doctor's
bills, and other luxuries as well. What shall I have to take into
hospital? Will they allow me to wear my own things? I don't think I
_could_ get better in a calico night-dress! Pretty frills and a blue
ribbon bow are as good as a tonic, but will the authorities permit?
Have you ever seen ribbon bows in a hospital bed?"

"I haven't had much experience, but I should think they would be
encouraged, as a ward decoration! I hope so, I'm sure, for I mean to
present you with a duck of a dressing-jacket!"

"Oh, nothing more, Claire; don't give me anything more. I shall never
be able to pay you back," cried Sophie; then, in a voice of poignant
suffering, she cried sharply, "Oh, Claire, my little sister! _What_ is
to become of my little sister? If I am not able to help, if I need to
be helped myself, her education will be interrupted, for it will be
impossible to go on paying. Oh, it's too hard--too dreadful!
Everything seems so hopeless and black!"

"Yes, it does. The way seems blocked. One can't see a step ahead.
_Man's extremity_, Sophie!" cried Claire deeply--"_Man's extremity_;"
and at that a gleam of light came into Sophie's eyes.

"Yes, yes! That's just what it is. Thanks for reminding me. _God's
opportunity_!" Sophie leant back in her chair, staring dreamily into
space, till presently something of the old bright look came back to her
face. "And that," she said softly, "that's the kind of help it is sweet
to accept!"

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

AN INVITATION.

With Sophie in hospital, pathetically anxious for visits, with the rent
of the Laburnum Road lodgings to pay whether one lived in them or not,
Claire nerved herself to spend August in town, with the prospect of a
September holiday to cheer her spirits. Through one of the other
mistresses she had heard of an ideal farmhouse near the sea where the
kindly housewife "mothered" her guests with affectionate care, where
food was abundant, and cream appeared upon the table at every meal--
thick, yellow, country cream in which a spoon w