The house had been closed for a long time. She took
you away with her, and when she came back she was alone. Then she wrote
to me, asking me to share her loneliness for a time, and I consented."

The way was open for confidences, but Margaret made none, and Aunt Peace
respected her for it.

"We never knew each other very well, did we?" asked the old lady, in a
tone that indicated no need of an answer. "I remember that when I was
here I yearned over you just as I did over Iris several years later. I
wanted to give to you out of my abundance; to make you happy and
comfortable."

"Dear Aunt Peace," said Margaret, softly, "you are doing it now, when
perhaps I need it even more than I did then. All your life you have
been making people happy and comfortable."

"I hope so--it is what I have tried to do. By the way, when I am through
with it, this house goes to you, then to Lynn and his children after
him."

"Thank you." For an instant Margaret's pulses throbbed with the joy of
possession, then the blood retreated from her heart in shame.

"I have made ample provision for Iris," Miss Field went on. "She is my
own dear daughter, but she is not of our line."

At this moment, Iris came around the house, laughing and screaming, with
Lynn in full pursuit. Mrs. Irving went to the window and came back with
an amused light in her eyes.

"What is the matter?" asked Aunt Peace.

"Lynn is chasing her. He had something in his fingers that looked like
an angle-worm."

"No doubt. Iris is afraid of worms."

"I'll go out and speak to him."

"No--let them fight it out. We are never young but once, and Youth asks
no greater privilege than to fight its own battles. It is mistaken
kindness to shield--it weakens one in the years to come."

"Youth," repeated Margaret. "The most beautiful gift of the gods, which
we never appreciate until it is gone forever."

"I have kept mine," said Aunt Peace. "I have deliberately forgotten all
the unpleasant things and remembered the others. When a little pleasure
has flashed for a moment against the dark, I have made that jewel mine.
I have hundreds of them, from the time my baby fingers clasped my first
rose, to the night you and Lynn came to bring more sunshine into my old
life. I call it my Necklace of Perfect Joy. When the world goes wrong, I
have only to close my eyes and remember all the links in my chain, set
with gems, some large and some small, but all beautiful with the beauty
which