e up within her and was ready to defy even that
awe-inspiring institution "the family" for her friend's sake.

But Phebe shook her head with a sad smile and answered, still with the
hard tone in her voice as if forcing back all emotion that she might see
her duty clearly: "You could do that, but I never can. Answer me this,
Rose, and answer truly as you love me. If you had been taken into a
house, a friendless, penniless, forlorn girl, and for years been heaped
with benefits, trusted, taught, loved, and made, oh, so happy! could
you think it right to steal away something that these good people valued
very much? To have them feel that you had been ungrateful, had deceived
them, and meant to thrust yourself into a high place not fit for you
when they had been generously helping you in other ways, far more than
you deserved. Could you then say as you do now, 'Be happy, and never
mind them'?"

Phebe held Rose by the shoulders now and searched her face so keenly
that the other shrank a little, for the black eyes were full of fire and
there was something almost grand about this girl who seemed suddenly to
have become a woman. There was no need for words to answer the question
so swiftly asked, for Rose put herself in Phebe's place in the drawing
of a breath, and her own pride made her truthfully reply: "No I could
not!"

"I knew you'd say that, and help me do my duty." And all the coldness
melted out of Phebe's manner as she hugged her little mistress close,
feeling the comfort of sympathy even through the blunt sincerity of
Rose's words.

"I will if I know how. Now, come and tell me all about it." And,
seating herself in the great chair which had often held them both, Rose
stretched out her hands as if glad and ready to give help of any sort.

But Phebe would not take her accustomed place, for, as if coming to
confession, she knelt down upon the rug and, leaning on the arm of the
chair, told her love story in the simplest words.

"I never thought he cared for me until a little while ago. I fancied it
was you, and even when I knew he liked to hear me sing I supposed it was
because you helped, and so I did my best and was glad you were to be
a happy girl. But his eyes told the truth. Then I saw what I had been
doing and was frightened. He did not speak, so I believed, what is quite
true, that he felt I was not a fit wife for him and would never ask me.
It was right I was glad of it, yet I was proud and, though I did not