n't even let Elizabeth call her mother--not that I should think
she'd want to--but when I asked Elizabeth why she called her Mrs. Page
she said her stepmother told her when she first came there that she
didn't want a great girl that didn't belong to her calling her mother."

"Elizabeth is seventeen?" Laura questioned.

Olga nodded. "She won't be eighteen till next April. _I_ wouldn't stay
there till I was eighteen. I'd clear out. She could earn her own living
and not work half as hard somewhere else, and go out when she liked,
too." She was silent for a moment, then half aloud she added, "I'll find
a way to fix that woman yet!"

"Olga," Laura looked straight into the sombre angry eyes, "you must not
interfere in this matter. Two wrongs will never make a right. If there
is anything that can be done for Elizabeth, be sure that I will do it.
And if not--it is only seven months to April."

"Seven months!" echoed Olga passionately. "Miss Laura, how would you
live through seven months without ever getting out _any_where?"

Laura shook her head. "We will hope that Elizabeth will not have to do
that," she said gently. "But I hear some of the girls. Come."

In the wide hall were half a dozen girls who had just arrived, and Laura
led the way to a large room on the third floor. At the door of this
room, the girls broke into cries and exclamations of pleasure.

"It's like a bit of the camp," Mary Hastings cried, and Rose Anderson
exclaimed,

"It's just the sweetest room I ever saw!" and she sniffed delightedly
the spicy fragrance of the pines and balsam firs that stood in great
green tubs about the walls. On the floor was a grass rug of green and
wood-colour, and against the walls stood several long low settees of
brown rattan, backs and seats cushioned in cretonne of soft greens and
cream-colour, and a few chairs of like pattern were scattered about.
Curtains of cream-coloured cheesecloth, with a stencilled design of pine
cones in shaded browns, draped the windows, and in the wide fireplace a
fire was laid ready for lighting. The low mantelpiece above it held only
three brass candlesticks with bayberry candles, and above it,
beautifully lettered in sepia, were the words,

"'Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,
Flame-fanned,
Shall never, never stand alone:
Whose house is dark and bare and cold,
Whose house is cold,
This is his own.'"

And below this

"'Love is the joy of service so deep