a curb on her unconventional
tendencies.

"When she wrote me of Eleanor, I wrote her about my girls, and offered
her 'Heartsease.' She was delighted with the whole thing and lost no
time in getting here. So now you understand why I have told you all
this. I want you to promise me that you will do what you can for this
motherless girl."

"But we felt sure we should like her when we saw her the other day,"
said Nora. "She seemed so sweet and winning."

"So she is. She has her father's winning personality, and a good deal of
his selfishness, too," replied Mrs. Gray. "You won't find her at all
disagreeable. But she is reckless, self-willed, defiant of public
opinion and exceedingly impulsive. I look to you girls to keep her out
of mischief."

"Well, we'll try, but I never did pride myself on being a first-class
reformer," said Grace, laughing.

"Where is her father now?" asked Anne. "Is it possible that he is the
great Savelli who toured America two years ago?"

"He is the man," said Mrs. Gray. "He is a wonderful musician. I heard
him in New York City. I shall never forget the way he played one of
Liszt's 'Hungarian Rhapsodies.' I must caution you, girls, never to
mention Eleanor's father to her. She has been kept in absolute ignorance
of him. When she is twenty-one her aunt will tell her about him. If she
knew he was the great Savelli, she would rush off and join him
to-morrow, she is so impulsive. She has the music madness of both father
and mother. Her aunt tells me she is a remarkable performer on both
violin and piano."

"But why shouldn't she go to her father if he is a great musician?" said
Jessica. "And why is she called Savell, if her name is Savelli?"

"Because, my dear, her father has never evinced the slightest desire to
look up his own child. Even if he had, he is too irresponsible and too
temperamental to assume the care of a girl like Eleanor," Mrs. Gray
answered. "No, Eleanor is better off with her aunt. As to her name, her
aunt hates everything Italian, so she dropped the 'I' and made the name
Savell."

"My," said Nora with a sigh. "She is almost as remarkable as a fairy
princess, after all."

"Oh, I don't know," replied Grace quickly. "Her life, of course, has
been eventful, but I believe if we are to do her any good we shall just
have to act as though she were an everyday girl like the rest of us. If
we begin to bow down to her, we shall be obliged to keep it up. Besides,
I have an idea tha