hich of course he won't do as long
as I am here to look after him.... And, grandma, I mean to be the head
of this house."

The old lady drooped.

"Very well, my dear, I see only too plainly the results of your poor
mother's--"

"Grandma!" the girl flashed warningly.

"If I'm not wanted here--"

"You're not--now! The best thing for you to do is to go straight back to
the boarding-house and read your _Christian Vindicator_ until I'm ready
for you to move in."

"At the rate you are going it will be some days before your father can
have the use of his home."

"A week at least I should say."

"And he must pay board another week for all of us!"

"I suppose so--we must live somewhere, mustn't we?" Milly remarked
sweetly.

So with a final shrug of her tiny shoulders the little old lady let
herself out of the front door, stealthily betook herself down the long
flight of steps and, without a backward glance, headed for the
boarding-house. Milly watched her out of sight from the front window.

"Thank heaven, she's really gone!" she muttered. "Always snooping about
like a cat,--prying and fussing. She's such a nuisance, poor grandma."

It was neither said nor felt ill-naturedly. Milly was generous with all
the world, liked everybody, including her grandmother, who was a
perpetual thorn,--liked her least of anybody in the world because of her
stealthy ways and her petty bullying, also because of the close watch
she kept over the family purse when Milly wished to thrust her prodigal
hand therein. She made the excuse to herself when she was harsh with the
old lady,--"And she was so mean to poor mama,--" that gentle, soft, weak
southern mother, whom Milly had abused while living and now adored--as
is the habit of imperfect mortals....

So with a lighter heart, having routed the old lady, at least for this
afternoon, Milly continued to set up the broken and shabby household
goods to suit herself. She coaxed the colored boys into considerable
activity with her persuasive ways, having an inherited capacity for
getting work out of lazy and emotional help, who respond to the
personal touch. By dusk, when her father came, she had the two
front rooms arranged to her liking. Sam was hanging a bulky steel
engraving--"Windsor Castle with a View of Eton"--raising and lowering it
patiently at Milly's orders. It was the most ambitious work of art that
the family possessed, yet she felt it was not really suited, and
accepted it pro