t,--

"It is a stump; a proper hard one! But there's nobody else; and I
have got to tell her!"

* * * * *

That evening, under some pretense of clean towels, Luclarion came up
into Desire's room.

She was sitting alone, by the window, in the dark.

Luclarion fussed round a little; wiped the marble slab and the
basin; set things straight; came over and asked Desire if she should
not put up the window-bars, and light the gas.

"No," said Desire. "I like this best."

So did Luclarion. She had only said it to make time.

"Desire," she said,--she never put the "Miss" on, she had been too
familiar all her life with those she was familiar with at all,--"the
fact is I've got something to say, and I came up to say it."

She drew near--came close,--and laid her great, honest, faithful
hand on the back of Desire Ledwith's chair, put the other behind her
own waist, and leaned over her.

"You see, I'm a woman, Desire, and I know. You needn't mind me, I'm
an old maid; that's the way I do know. Married folks, even mothers,
half the time forget. But old maids never forget. I've had my
stumps, and I can see that you've got yourn. But you'd ought to
understand; and there's nobody, from one mistake and another, that's
going to tell you. It's awful hard; it will be a trouble to you at
first,"--and Luclarion's strong voice trembled tenderly with the
sympathy that her old maid heart had in it, after, and because of,
all those years,--"but Kenneth Kincaid"--

"_What_!" cried Desire, starting to her feet, with a sudden
indignation.

"Is going to be married to Rosamond Holabird," said Luclarion, very
gently. "There! you ought to know, and I have told you."

"What makes you suppose that that would be a trouble to me?" blazed
Desire. "How do you dare"--

"I didn't dare; but I had to!" sobbed Luclarion, putting her arms
right round her.

And then Desire--as she would have done at any rate, for that blaze
was the mere flash of her own shame and pain--broke down with a
moan.

"All at once! All at once!" she said piteously, and hid her face in
Luclarion's bosom.

And Luclarion folded her close; hugged her, the good woman, in her
love that was sisterly and motherly and all, because it was the love
of an old maid, who had endured, for a young maid upon whom the
endurance was just laid,--and said, with the pity of heaven in the
words,--

"Yes. All at once. But the dear Lord stands by. Take hold of