classes from eleven
o'clock until three and there was time to take the noon hour in a
leisurely way. Not even cool weather coming on could daunt them.
Steamer-rugs and warm sweaters and gloves were requisitioned, and the
open-air lunches went on just the same. One day they took a pot of hot
soup and three small bowls and spoons. They landed at the great rocks,
and, climbing up, built a fire and gave their soup another little
touch of heat before they ate it. Such experiences welded their hearts
more and more together, and Julia Cloud came to be more and more a
part of the lives of these two young people who had taken her for
their mother-in-love.

It was on these outings that they talked over serious problems:
whether Leslie should join one of the girls' sororities, what they
should do about the next Christian Endeavor meeting, why it was that
Howard Letchworth and Jane Bristol were so much more interesting than
any of their other friends, why Cloudy did not like to have Myrtle
Villers come to the house, and what Allison was going to do in life
when he got through with college. They were absolutely one in all
their thoughts and wishes just at this time, and there was not
anything that any one of them would not willingly talk over with the
others. It was a beautiful relation, and one that Julia Cloud daily,
tremblingly prayed might last, might find nothing to break it up.

By this time the young people had begun to bring their college mates
to the house, and everybody up there was crazy for an invitation to
the little lunches and dinners and pleasant evening gatherings that
had begun to be so popular. There were not wanting the usual
"boy-crazy" girls, who went eagerly trailing Allison, literally
begging him for rides and attention, and making up to Julia Cloud and
Leslie in the most sickening of silly girl fashions.

And of these Myrtle Villers was at once the most subtle and least
attractive. Julia Cloud had an intuitive shrinking from her at the
start, although she tried in her sweet, Christian way to overcome it
and do as much for this girl as she was trying to do for all the
others who came into their home. But Myrtle Villers was quick to
understand, and played her part so well that it was impossible to
shake her off as some might have been shaken. She studied Leslie like
an artist, and learned how to play upon her frank, emotional,
impulsive nature. She confided in her, telling the sorrows of an
unloved life, a