her place before school opened.
She wanted a middle aged person with some experience who was neat and
careful. She would have a pleasant room and the duties would not be
arduous. There was a housekeeper and several maids beside the cook.

"So," wrote Mrs. Searing, "I told her about Lilian, remembering you had
said you were afraid you could not keep her in school to finish, and her
ambition to be a teacher. She was wonderfully interested and I told her
somewhat of your misfortunes and struggles. So she proposes that you
shall accept this position and that Lilian shall take a sort of
supervision of some of the younger pupils and go on with her own
education. Mrs. Barrington has been very kind and helpful to several
young girls and I know Lilian will admire her extremely."

The girl sprang up with a glad cry and flung her arms around her
mother's neck.

"Oh, let us go, let us go! Why it seems like a miracle," and then she
was crying, too, from an overwrought heart.

Presently she resumed the letter. They would have a pleasant room
together, considerable leisure, and there would be music, a fine library
beside that in the town and the society was charming. The mother's
salary was a very fair one and in another year the daughter might be
able to earn something for herself. Mrs. Searing really urged the
matter. Would Mrs. Boyd write at once to Mrs. Barrington?

"Oh, mother, to think! No rent to pay, no bills to meet, no bother of
cooking and house keeping. It seems too good to be true. Let me read it
over again lest I must have skipped something."

It seemed more attractive at the second perusal. Lilian's heart beat
with unwonted emotion. Mrs. Boyd leaned back in her chair, paler than
ever but not quite so depressed.

"You must answer it, Lilian; I couldn't make it sound right, and you can
tell her about yourself; I don't understand all these things. I never
had any high up education. People were not thinking of it then."

Lilian was glad to do it. She knew a person of refinement and education
would see what her mother missed and perhaps doubt her ability. She made
a draft and read it aloud to Mrs. Boyd.

"It sounds beautiful; I couldn't have done it."

Was it education that gave one the power, the sense of what was
appropriate, or some underlying fact that she dared not face? What if it
had been a great mistake in that far back time? Could it ever be
remedied?

"Oh, mother, I thought last night that I shouldn't