then and there," finished the good woman, solemnly,
"that I would help them to the best of my powers. I have got their
bits of advertisements to put about the shop; and there's my new black
silk dress, that has laid by since Christmas, because I knew Miss
Slasher would spoil it; not but what they may ruin it finely for me;
but I mean to shut my eyes and take the risk," with a little smile of
satisfaction over her own magnanimity.

Elizabeth stretched out her hand across the counter.

"Miss Milner, you are a good creature," she said, softly. "I honor you
for this. If people always helped each other and thought so little of
a sacrifice, the world would be a happier place." And then, without
waiting for a reply from the gratified shopwoman, she went out of the
library with a thoughtful brow.

"Miss Milner has read me a lesson," she said, by and by, when Mattie
had marvelled at her silence a little. "Conventionality makes cowards
of the best of us. I am not particularly worldly-minded," she went on,
with a faint smile, "but all the same I must plead guilty to feeling a
little shocked myself at your news; but when I have thought a little
more about it, I dare say I shall see things by a truer light, and be
as ready to admire these girls as I am now to wonder at them." And
after this she bade Mattie a kindly good-bye.

Meanwhile, Phillis was bracing herself to undergo another ordeal. Mr.
Drummond and his sister had only just left the cottage when a footman
from the White House brought a note for her. It was from Mrs. Cheyne,
and was worded in a most friendly manner.

She thanked the sisters gracefully for their timely help on the
previous evening, and, though making light of her accident, owned that
it would keep her a prisoner to her sofa for a few days; and then she
begged them to waive ceremony and come to her for an hour or two that
evening.

"I will not ask you to dinner, because that will perhaps inconvenience
you, as you must be tired or busy," she wrote; "but if one or both of
you would just put on your hats and walk up in the cool of the evening
to keep Miss Mewlstone and myself company, it would be a real boon to
us both." And then she signed herself "Magdalene Cheyne."

Phillis wore a perplexed look on her face as she took the note to Nan,
who was still in the linen-closet.

"Very kind; very friendly," commented Nan, when she had finished
reading it; "but I could not possibly go, Phil. As soon as I have do