brother was meaning to marry again.

So she came back to Laconia which was a manufacturing town with iron
mines at its elbow. There were varying fortunes as there often is with
the poor. Mill work when she had to leave the child alone, then a
boarding house which really prospered, but was sold with some other
property for a big factory. Then housekeeping for a nervous invalid
wife, and here she had met Mrs. Searing who had proved a true friend.
After that sewing, making skirts for a dressmaker and working at
childrens' clothes. When it was dull times they drew on the little fund.
The girl was ambitious and had mapped out her own life, different from
what her mother had planned. They loved each other but it was as if two
foreign natures were trying to assimilate and there was no conformable
ground for perfect harmony. Yes, she would take this last step for the
girl's sake; she owed it to her.

CHAPTER II

A NEW OUTLOOK

Lilian Boyd glanced around the station at Mount Morris with a kind of
joyous surprise and wonder. The beautiful town with its straight
streets, some of them with a narrow park in the centre, houses that were
palatial to her inexperienced eyes, with terraced lawns, wide porches,
graceful shrubbery and a profusion of flowers. True, the station was
quite at one side and a little farther down the road crossed the river
that went meandering along, too winding and shallow for business
purposes. Opposite there was a succession of wooded hills with here and
there a stately residence.

"How beautiful, mother!" Lilian cried, moved in every pulse of her
being, her eyes lustrous with tears, her lips quivering.

The beauty did not so move the mother. She was embarrassed and shrank
when the coachman with an authoritative air approached them.

"Mrs. Boyd?" tentatively. There had been but few passengers and they had
gone their way.

She glanced timidly at Lilian who answered for her.

"Give me your checks, please, and I will order the trunks sent up."

"There is only one," in a deprecating tone.

Lilian was glad she had insisted on a nice new trunk.

"This way please," and he took the girl's satchel. Mrs. Boyd followed
rather than led, but her daughter stood aside so that she should be
assisted in first.

"What a beautiful town!" she exclaimed involuntarily. She had a feeling
that they were recovering from a reverse of fortune and this was their
rightful place. Then she smiled at the absurdity.