"

Lilian colored. "You see I spend a good deal of my time with my mother.
Then I have lessons to learn--"

"And I don't study, I read delightful books. For you must know I can
never get about or do things like other children. I draw and I paint
over pictures, and I have an autoharp, and a beautiful big doll that I
make believe is alive and we go traveling. Edith reads about journeys."

Mrs. Trenham had been adding a few last touches to the table which had
been mostly prepared in the morning, the real cooking having been done
the day before. Claire was lifted out in a cushioned chair and insisted
that Lilian should sit next. Miss Benson was on the other side and took
a turn with Lilian.

"Yes, she had worked her way through college. She had studied
type-writing and done work for the professors and copied essays for the
girls and coached backward girls, and trimmed hats, as she had a genius
for millinery. Then, in vacation she had been a sort of summer governess
when parents wanted to take journeys. It had all been very interesting,
too, but it had taken longer, and now she was studying medicine in New
York and teaching some hours a day."

"I like to teach but I don't believe I want to be a doctor, I think I
should like to go to college."

"It is a fine discipline and broadens out one's mind. It makes excellent
teachers, as well, and you do have many happy times. Think of a
settlement of hundreds of girls!"

"Mrs. Barrington will only have twenty boarders and there are about
twenty day scholars."

"Not a very large family to be sure, but enough to give you some
variety. You look as if you might be a good student."

Lilian colored.

Mrs. Trenham was entertaining the mother.

She had been a widow twelve years, but was left with a small competency.
Claire had been thrown out of a carriage by a runaway horse when she was
barely five and very seriously injured so that for two years she was
entirely helpless and now held her life on a very frail tenure, but she
was a happy child and they made her life as entertaining as possible.

"You are blest in your daughter," said Mrs. Trenham. "She is so bright
and eager and vigorous, and has so much character. Well, I have Edith
who has always been a great comfort, and I suppose one gets used to a
burden when it is a pleasant one. Claire is very loving and we try to
keep all sad things from her."

Lilian thought it a delightful afternoon. These were the kind of people
y