ut us, but I don't force you to
admit that. They break every other commandment of God, yes, and that
one, too, and they commit every one of the deadly sins! It seems to me
sometimes as if 'gluttony, envy, and sloth' were the very foundation on
which the lives of some of these people rest, and as for pride and anger
and lust, why, we take them for granted! Yet, whoever thinks seriously
of saying so?"

"You make me ashamed, Julie," Jim said, after a pause, during which his
eyes had not moved from her face. "I can only say I'm sorry. I'm very
sorry! Sometimes I think you're a good deal bigger man than I am; but I
can't help it. However, I'm going to try. From to-night on I'm going to
try."

"We'll both try," Julia said, and they kissed each other.

CHAPTER V

Miss Toland, who had accepted Julia's invitation for Thanksgiving,
arrived unexpectedly on the afternoon before the holiday, to spend the
night with the Studdifords. It was a wild, wet day, settling down to
heavy rain as the early darkness closed in, and the Pacific Avenue house
presented a gloomy if magnificent aspect to the guest as she came in.
But Ellie beamingly directed her to the nursery, and here she found
enough brightness to flood the house.

Caroline, it appeared, had gone to her own family for the afternoon, and
Julia, looking like a child in her short white dress and buckled
slippers, was sitting in a low chair with little Anna in her arms. The
room was bright with firelight and the soft light from the subdued
nursery lamps, and warm russet curtains shut out the dull and dying
afternoon. Dolls and blocks were scattered on the hearth rug, and Julia
sat her daughter down among them, and jumped up with a radiant face to
greet the newcomer.

"Aunt Sanna--you darling! And you're going to spend the night?" Julia
cried out joyfully, with her first kisses. "What a dear thing for you to
do! But you're wet?"

"No, I dropped everything in my room," Miss Toland said. "Things were
very quiet at The Alexander--that new woman isn't going to do at all, by
the way, too fussy--so I suddenly thought of coming into town!"

"Oh, I'm _so_ glad you did!" Julia exulted. Miss Toland rested firm hands
on her shoulders, and looked at her keenly.

"How goes it?"

"Oh, splendidly!" The younger woman's bright eyes shone.

"No more blues, eh?"

"Oh, _no_!"

"Ah, well, that's a good thing!" Miss Toland sat down by the fire, and
stretched sturdy shoes to the blaze