h your cloak," she said to Barrie, dimly hoping
that the man would contrast her exquisitely corseted figure in its dress
by Lucille with the crude, untrained outlines clothed in blue serge. She
was not so tall as Barrie as they stood together, she discovered, and
she wanted the girl to sit down. "You must both have something to eat,"
she went on, pulling the old-fashioned bead embroidered bell rope; and
tears were close and hot behind her eyes, remembering how she had
planned the little supper for herself and Somerled--and Basil, who
hardly counted. "Or would you like to see your rooms first? One shall be
made ready directly for Miss MacDonald. I suppose her luggage has come
in with yours?"

"I have only a--a parcel," Barrie meekly confessed, feeling three times
a worm, even a Laidly Worm. It was odd how this sweet-faced blond woman,
with blue eyes and a halo of fair hair and a gentle smile, contrived--of
course without meaning it--to make one feel the meanest, shabbiest thing
cumbering a beautiful world! "I wonder if I'm going to like men better
than women?" she thought.

"Ah, a parcel," repeated Aline daintily, as an incredibly neat maid
answered the call of the beaded bell. "Moore," Mrs. West went on, "this
young lady, Miss MacDonald, will spend the night. I think she might have
the room of the red Chinese chintz at the end of my corridor. Please
have it made ready as soon as possible, and----"

"Oh, is your name Muir?" exclaimed Barrie delightedly. "That's the name
of our housekeeper at Hillard House. Perhaps you're related, though I
never _heard_ of Mrs. Muir having any daughters or nieces."

The maid, deftly taking the cue from her mistress _pro tem._, put into
her impersonal gaze the coldness of a whole glacier as her eyes moved
from defect to defect of Barrie's costume. The tone of that "Ah, a
_parcel_," was unmistakable, and she knew exactly what Mrs. West thought
of Miss MacDonald. "I am sorry, miss, but I do not think, I am related
to your housekeeper," she replied; and Aline determined to give her a
blouse or half a dozen handkerchiefs. She really was a most intelligent
person. So intelligent was she that she knew by the feeling in her bones
exactly how much Mrs. West wanted to get Miss MacDonald out of the
drawing-room and into the Chinese room, which would be the most
unbecoming in the house to a red-haired person. "I can take the young
lady up now, if you wish, madam," she continued, "for the room is i