ning it to its
envelope, looking very grave all the time.

"Will you lend me this?" she said at last, holding the epistle up.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked Dolly, disconsolately.

"I am going to ask Griffith to read it again. I shall be sure to see him
to-morrow night."

"Very well," answered Dolly; "but don't be too hard upon him, Aimee. He
has a great deal to bear."

"I know that," said Aimee. "And sometimes he bears it very well; but
just now he needs a little advice."

Troubled as she was, Dolly laughed at the staid expression on her small,
discreet face; but even as she laughed she caught the child in her arms
and kissed her.

"What should we do without you!" she exclaimed. "We need some one to
keep us all straight, we Vagabonds; but it seems queer that such a small
wiseacre as you should be our controlling power."

The mere sight of the small wiseacre had a comforting effect upon her.
Her spirits began to rise, and she so far recovered herself as to be
able to look matters in the face more cheerfully. There was so much
to talk about, and so many questions to ask, that it would have been
impossible to remain dejected and uninterested. It was not until after
tea, however, that Aimee brought her "business" upon the carpet. She had
thought it best not to introduce the subject during the earlier part
of the evening; but when the tea-tray was removed, and they found
themselves alone again, she settled down, and applied herself at once to
the work before her.

"I have not told you yet what I came here for this afternoon," she said.

"You don't mean to intimate that you did not come to see me!" said
Dolly.

"I came to see you, of course," decidedly; "but I came to see you for a
purpose. I came to talk to you about Mollie."

Dolly almost turned pale.

"Mollie!" she exclaimed. "What is the trouble about Mollie?"

"Something that puzzles me," was the answer. "Dolly, do you know
anything about Gerald Chandos?"

"What!" said Dolly. "It is Gerald Chandos, is it? He is not a fit
companion for her, I know that much."

And then she repeated, word for word, the conversation she had had with
Ralph Gowan.

Having listened to the end, Aimee shook her head.

"I like Mr. Gowan well enough," she said, "but he has been the cause of
a great deal of trouble among us, without meaning to be, and I am afraid
it is not at an end yet."

They were both silent for a few moments after this, and then Dolly,
loo