st guilty as she locked the door and went down the path.
But the beauty of the day intoxicated her at once, and she forgot
immediately everything but the joy of riding out into the world.

Leslie was a bit quiet as they glided down the road out of town, and
kept eyeing her aunt silently. At last, as Julia Cloud was calling
attention to a wonderful red woodbine that had twined itself about an
old dead tree and was setting the roadside ablaze with splendor,
Leslie caught her eye.

"What is it, dear? Does something trouble you? Is anything wrong with
me?" asked Julia Cloud, putting up a prospecting hand to her hair and
hat.

Leslie's cheeks went rosy red.

"O Cloudy, dear," said Leslie, "I was just wondering. But I'm afraid
to say it. Maybe it will make you feel bad."

"Not a bit, deary; what is it?"

"Well, then, Cloudy, do you think Grandmother would care very much if
you didn't wear black? Do you like it yourself, or feel it wouldn't be
right not to wear it? I don't mean any disrespect to Grandmother; but
oh, you would look so sweet in gray, gray and lavender and soft pink,
or just gray now for a while. Are you very mad at me for saying it?"

Julia Cloud reached over and patted the young hand that lay near her
on the seat.

"Why, no, dear! I'm not mad, and I don't care for black myself. I
don't believe in wearing black for the people who have left us and
gone to heaven. It seems to me white would be a great deal better. But
I put on these things to please Ellen. She thought it would be showing
great disrespect to mother if I didn't, and rather than argue about it
I did as she wanted me to. But I don't intend to darken the place
around me by dressing in mourning, child; and I'm glad you don't want
me to. I like bright, happy things. And, besides, Leslie, dear, your
grandmother was a bright, happy woman herself once when she was young,
before she was sick and had trouble; and I like to remember her that
way, because I'm sure that is the way she looks now in heaven."

"Oh, I'm so glad!" sighed Leslie. "That makes the day just perfect."

"I think I'll wait until I get away to change, however," said Julia
Cloud thoughtfully. "It would just annoy Ellen to do it now, and
might make such people as Mrs. Perkins say disagreeable things that
would make it unpleasant for your aunt."

"Of course!" said Leslie, nestling closer, her eyes dancing with some
secret plans of her own. "That's all right, Cloudy. How dear and so