l glad
to have her back; I'm sure we've always hoped she would come back."

"I think the least you say about it the better, Amzi," said Mrs.
Waterman witheringly. "It's your fault that she's here. And if you had
honored us with your confidence and taken our advice--"

"Thunder! what would you have done about it! I didn't think it was any
of your business."

This from the potential benefactor of their children was not reassuring.
The financial considerations crystallized by the return of the wanderer
were not negligible. Every one in Montgomery knew that Jack Holton had
come back to wrest money from William, and it was inconceivable that
Lois had not flung herself upon Amzi for shelter and support. And as
they had long assumed that she was a pensioner upon her brother's
bounty, they were now convinced by the smartness of her gown and her
general "air" as of one given to self-indulgence in the world's bazaars,
that she had become a serious drain upon Amzi's resources.

"I think," declared Mrs. Waterman, "that it is a good deal our business.
We can't make the world over to suit ourselves, and we can't fly in the
face of decency without getting scratched. And when a woman brought up
as Lois was does what she did, and runs through with her money, and
comes home--"

She gulped in her effort to express the enormity of her sister's
transgressions; whereupon Mrs. Fosdick caught the ball and flung back:--

"Of course, if Lois is in need of help, we all stand ready to help her.
She must understand that we feel strongly the ties of blood, and I want
to say that I'm willing to do my share, in the very fullest sense."

Lois rose impatiently.

"Don't be a lot of geese, you girls! Of course, you're all cut up at
seeing me so unexpectedly, but I'm not going to let you be foolish about
it. It's all in a lifetime anyway: and I really wish you wouldn't say
things which to-morrow or the day after you'll be sorry for. I
understand as perfectly as though you ran on all night just how you
feel; you're horrified, ashamed, outraged--all those things. Bless me,
you wouldn't be respectable women if you were not! If you fell on my
neck and kissed me I should resent it. Really I should! You would be a
disgrace to civilization if my showing up here on Christmas morning
didn't give you nausea. I've been divorced twice, and anybody with any
sort of nice feeling about life would make a rumpus about it. I'm rather
annoyed about it myself; so tha