re very shrewd, in
spite of their being mixed up with a great deal of nonsense.

Mrs. Morrison had made the Misses Whartons' large bedroom habitable, and
in a very short time it was pronounced quite comfortable for the
present; so there really were only the hall and staircase to arrange,
about which Eva had numerous theories, which she propounded sitting on
the top stair in an apron made of newspapers.

'Leave half a yard at each end for moving the stair-carpet up and down
every week,' she observed.

'That is a very good idea, if we have enough,' replied Amy.

'If not, you must put mats at the turnings of the stair; it's most
important; also, you must put a pad on each step, then you feel as if
you were sinking into velvet,' came from Eva, still sitting at her ease
and surveying the workers.

'What kind of pad?' asked Stella, who with Amy was laying the
stair-carpet.

'Velvet,' said Eva, absent-mindedly.

'What nonsense, Eva! What do you mean?' demanded Amy.

Eva, who had been looking out of the staircase window, turned her head.
'I wasn't thinking of what I was saying--felt, I mean--or, failing that,
folds of newspapers, and by so doing you double the life of your
carpet,' she explained.

'Then, suppose you go and get that pile of newspapers that came from
Scotland, and fold them into pads, instead of sitting there coolly and
watching us work?' suggested her friend.

'I might, for a consideration,' agreed Eva, and help she did with such
good-will that the house was quite comfortable by night.

Mrs. Morrison kept to her kitchen, and sent in a nice dinner, for which
Vava laid the table, having spent her morning flitting in and out of the
kitchen, helping 'nursie,' as she imagined, and it is doubtful which of
them was the happier--the old Scotchwoman, who had her bairns with her
again, or the child, who obeyed her old nurse more willingly than her
elder sister.

'Vava, the post has just brought this. I wish you would sit down and
answer it politely, and say that I am obliged by his kind offer, but
that I shall be at the office on Monday morning at the usual time,' said
Stella, coming into the kitchen with an open letter in her hand, which
she handed to her younger sister.

Vava took it, and found that it was a very polite letter from the junior
partner, saying, that as he understood they were moving and would be
busy for a few days, he would be glad for her to take a holiday, and
thought they would manage