, doesn't
it?"

"I don't know," replied Nora. "I'm afraid I can't fancy that."

Tears filled her eyes as she spoke.

"How cool you look," she said presently, "and--and active and happy."

"It wouldn't do for me to look unhappy when I am with you, would it?"
asked Annie. "Now tell me, do you like this dress?"

"Yes, it's very pretty. What stuff is it?"

"Only pink cambric, trimmed with pink embroidery. Would you like me to
make you one?"

"What do you mean?"

Nora's eyes brightened perceptibly.

"What I say," replied Annie. "I made this dress for myself. I make all
my dresses, for I am not at all well off; in short, I am poor, and Mrs.
Willis is so sweet and dear that she gives me a couple of hours every
day to devote to needlework. In consequence I have got some pretty
things, although they cost next to nothing. Now, I think you and I are
something alike. We are both dark, and we have both got bright colour.
Oh, I don't mean that you have a bright colour just now, you poor little
darling; but when you are well, you are sweet, like a wild rose. Suppose
I make you a pink cambric frock, and a white one and a blue one? I have
got a white and a blue. When you're well again you'll look quite lovely
in them, Nora. What do you say?"

"I'd like it awfully," said Nora. "You are very good, very good; but I
haven't got any money. I--I am even poorer than you."

"Are you? How delightful. I adore _poor lady_ girls, because they are
always contriving, and that's so interesting. We'll make the dresses out
of odds and ends, and they shan't cost you a penny."

"It's very good of you," said Nora. She was too weak to argue and
protest, and the vision of her pretty little self in alternate dresses
of pink and white and blue cambric was decidedly refreshing.

She lay and looked at Annie and acknowledged to herself that she made a
pretty, a beautiful, picture, and the discontented lines round her mouth
vanished, and the time did not seem long.

That evening Molly, excited and in high spirits, arrived on the scene.

Molly was absolutely trembling as she came into the room where Nora was
lying; but although her love was ten times deeper, she had not Annie's
marvellous tact, and soon contrived to tire poor Nora dreadfully. The
nurse seeing this sent her away, and Molly came back to Hester with a
very crestfallen expression of face.

"I can't make out how it is," she said; "but Nora does not seem a bit
glad to see me."

"Oh,