eemaun High School, his books slung over his back, and Mr. Gordon was
shut in his study. Eppie lay upstairs in the big airy room that had
once been the boys'. Even where she sat Elizabeth could catch the echo
of her racking cough.

Miss Gordon seated herself comfortably before the fire, bidding
Elizabeth do the same.

They had not yet had a moment to talk about the future, she said
pleasantly. There had been so much to say about poor little Eppie.
But they must discuss Elizabeth's own affairs now. First, how long
could she remain at home? She hoped Mrs. Jarvis did not want her to
return immediately?

Elizabeth felt, rather than saw, the look of sharp inquiry her aunt
bent upon her. There was no hope of putting off the explanation any
longer. She turned towards her with a sinking heart. It had always
been impossible to explain her actions to Aunt Margaret. And now,
though she was a woman, Elizabeth felt a return of her old childish
dread of being misunderstood.

She began carefully--away back at the resolution her young heart had
made to use her influence with Mrs. Jarvis to help Eppie. Of her
higher aims and aspirations she could not speak; and because she was
forced to do so, to be silent concerning her yearnings for a higher
life, and the revelation that had come to her that wonderful afternoon
in St. Stephen's; because of this, even to her own ears, her story did
not sound convincing. Her course of conduct did not appear so
inevitable as it had before she faced her aunt.

When she had bidden Mrs. Jarvis farewell, declaring she could no longer
endure the life of fashion and idleness which they lived, and had
buried poor old Sandy and taken Eppie and fled home with her, she had
been as thoroughly convinced as Charles Stuart, her aider and abettor,
that this was the only line of conduct to pursue. To Elizabeth's mind
it had appeared beyond doubt that, from the day her benefactress,
acting through Mr. Huntley, had allowed Eppie to be driven from her
home, that those two had been directly responsible for all the girl's
misery. And this one case had revealed to her the awful train of
innocent victims that must surely follow in the path of selfish
idleness which Mrs. Jarvis pursued, or that of money-making followed by
Mr. Huntley. And Elizabeth, too, was of their world, eating of their
bread, accepting all the luxury that came from this wrong-doing. This
was the thought that had stung her into such head