ught.

Maria was coughing, although she strove hard to smother the coughs.
Granville Joy, who was plodding ahead, turned and waited until they
came up.

"You had better let me carry you, Maria," he said, jocularly, but
his honest eyes were full of concern.

"He is enough sight kinder than Robert Lloyd," thought Ellen; "he
has a better heart." And then the splendid Lloyd sleigh came up
behind them and stopped, tilting to a drift. Robert, in his
fur-lined coat, sprang out and went up to Maria.

"Please let me take you home," he said, kindly. "You have a cold,
and this storm is too severe for you to be out. Please let me take
you home."

Maria looked at him, fairly gasping with astonishment. She tried to
speak, but a cough choked her.

"You had better go if Mr. Lloyd will take you," Abby said,
decisively. "Thank you, Mr. Lloyd; she isn't fit to be out." She
urged her sister towards the sleigh, and Robert assisted her into
the fur-lined nest.

"I can sit with the driver," said Robert to Abby, "if you will come
with your sister."

"No, thank you," replied Abby. "I am able to walk, but I will be
much obliged if you will take Maria home."

Robert sprang in beside Maria, and the sleigh slid out of sight.

"I never!" said Abby. Ellen said nothing, but plodded on, her eyes
fixed on the snowy track.

"I am glad she had a chance to ride," said Granville Joy, in a
tentative voice. He looked uneasily at Ellen.

"It beats the Dutch," said Abby. She also regarded Ellen with
sympathy and perplexity. When they reached the street where she
lived, up which the sleigh had disappeared, she let Granville go on
ahead, and she spoke to Ellen in a low tone. "Why didn't he ask
you?" she said.

"He did," replied Ellen.

"In the office?"

"Yes."

"And you wouldn't?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't care to accept favors from a man who oppresses all my
friends!"

"He was good to take in Maria," said Abby, in a perplexed voice.
"His uncle would never have thought of it."

Ellen made no reply. She stood still in the drifting snow, with her
mouth shut hard.

"You feel as if this cutting wages was a pretty hard thing?" said
Abby.

"Yes, I do."

"Well, so do I. I wonder what they will do about it. I don't know
how the men feel. Somehow, folks can't seem to think or plan much in
a storm like this. There's the sleigh coming back."

"Good-night," Ellen said, hurriedly, and trudged on as fast as she
was able in order not