ful figure of the girl and the bent figure of the old woman were
lost to sight in the crowded station.

"Do you think we shall ever see her again?" said little Frances.

"Perhaps," said Kate, "we shall have to wait till we reach the Golden
City."

CHAPTER V.

BY THE SEA.

Two little girls were lying out, in two long chairs, by the sea-shore.
The younger one was knitting, and, as she knitted, talking and
laughing, and often looking up to rest her eyes lovingly on the sea.
Her lap was covered with shells and sea-weed, brought to her by some
pale-faced fellow-patients who were wandering about the shore.

Mother Agnes had sent both Kate and Frances to a Convalescent Home by
the sea, and their delight over this their first sea-side visit was
untold. From early morning, when they woke to find themselves in a
pink room, in beds with white dimity curtains printed with pink
rose-buds, and the smell of the sea coming in at the open window, till
the last light had faded away in the long summer evenings, their days
were one continued dream of delight.

Kate's face was growing sunburnt and warm in colouring. Her eyes had a
soft, surprised look in them, as if she were suddenly waking up to a
whole world of unsuspected wonders in heaven and on earth. There was a
gladness about her, like the gladness of a little child who has been
turned out of a dull, close room into a field of cowslips. She and
Frances never tired of each other's company; and Kate, for the first
time in her life, was guilty of laughing and talking nonsense from
sheer lightheartedness.

And so the days sped by, till Kate began to have a sort of wish to see
the Orphanage again, and a feeling that after all the pain might be
conquered, and life there be brightest and best.

And, oddly enough, as she and Frances were talking about it one
morning, who should make her appearance but Mother Agnes herself, who
spoke about Kate's return as if it had been all settled long ago; and
then told Frances to her great surprise that she too was to become an
inmate of the Orphanage. The poor aunt had had losses, the little shop
was given up, and she could no longer provide for Frances, and had
entreated Mother Agnes to get the child admitted. And Frances' great
love for Kate helped her over the trouble of changing her old home for
a new one.

When the two invalids arrived at the Orphanage, they found a great
"Welcome" arranged in daisies over the door. Kate wa