ttle angular. There was a suggestion that unless life dealt
generously with her, granting her the gifts which make for tenderness
and softness in a woman's nature, she might in time have the appearance
one is supposed to associate with an old maid. However, old maids are as
unlike as the rest of the human species.

Certainly at the present moment her expression was austere, although
uneasy and distressed as well.

"What are you doing, Sally?" she inquired, her voice gentle and
solicitous, yet observing that a wave of color had swept over Sally's
face even before she had spoken.

The next moment Sally flung her bag down on the floor again, answering
petulantly:

"What am I doing? Well, really, Alice, I do not see what difference it
makes to you, or why you should slip into our room so quietly that you
frightened me. As a matter of fact, I got down my traveling bag
to--to----" Sally's voice trailed off helplessly for an instant. The
next instant, gathering force, she repeated: "I pulled down my bag
because I wished to store away some odds and ends which I wish to keep
safely."

Then losing her temper in a most suspicious fashion, suddenly Sally
stamped her foot as if she were an angry child and at the same time her
eyes grew unexpectedly dark and lovely.

"That is not what you came into this room to announce to me, Alice. So
please say whatever it is you wish and be through. I am going out for a
little walk before lunch." In any event Sally was no coward!

"Then sit down. You do not look very well and I am afraid you won't like
what I must say," Alice returned. "Understand, it gives me no pleasure;
instead, I am tremendously worried and unhappy. I suppose I should have
talked the situation over with Tante before she went away, but I knew it
would interfere with her trip and so avoided troubling her."

In answer to her sister's suggestion Sally seated herself upon a tall,
old-fashioned wooden chair, so that only her toes were able to reach the
ground. All at once she had felt as if she would be more comfortable
seated. It was not because of Alice's suggestion that she had agreed,
but because of a sudden sensation of weariness, almost of physical
weakness, although this last idea seemed absurd.

Yet somehow Sally appeared so like a tired and rebellious child that her
sister found it difficult to continue their conversation. However, she
must introduce the accusation she had been schooling herself to make
before e