hy, Aunt Madeline! And
you so pretty! What was the reason?"

"I've often wondered," said Miss Madeline faintly. "I _was_ pretty, as
you say--it's so long ago I can say that now. And I had many gentlemen
friends. But nobody ever wanted to marry me. I sometimes wish
that--that I could have had just one proposal. Not that I wanted to
marry, you know, I do not mean that, but just so that it wouldn't have
seemed that I was different from anybody else. It is very foolish of
me to wish it, I know, and even wicked--for if I had not cared for the
person it would have made him very unhappy. But then, he would have
forgotten and I would have remembered. It would always have been
something to be a little proud of."

"Yes," said Lina absently; her thoughts had gone back to Ralph.

That evening a letter was left at the front door of the old Churchill
place. It was addressed in a scholarly hand to Miss Madeline
Churchill, and Amelia Kent took it in. Amelia had been Miss Madeline's
"help" for years and had grown grey in her service. In Amelia's loyal
eyes Miss Madeline was still young and beautiful; she never doubted
that the letter was for her mistress. Nobody else there was ever
addressed as "Miss Madeline."

Miss Madeline was sitting by the window of her own room watching the
sunset through the elms and reading her evening portion of Thomas a
Kempis. She never liked to be disturbed when so employed but she read
her letter after Amelia had gone out.

When she came to a certain paragraph, she turned very pale and Thomas
a Kempis fell to the floor unheeded. When she had finished the letter
she laid it on her lap, clasped her hands, and said, "Oh, oh, oh," in
a faint, tremulous voice. Her cheeks were very pink and her eyes very
bright. She did not even pick up Thomas a Kempis but went to the door
and called Lina.

"What is it, Auntie?" asked Lina curiously, noticing the signs of
unusual excitement about Miss Madeline.

Miss Madeline held out her letter with a trembling hand.

"Lina, dear, this is a letter from the Rev. Cecil Thorne. It--it is--a
proposal of marriage. I feel terribly upset. How very strange that it
should come so soon after our talk this morning! I want you to read
it! Perhaps I ought not to show it to anyone--but I would like you to
see it."

Lina took the letter and read it through. It was unmistakably a
proposal of marriage and was, moreover, a very charming epistle of its
kind, albeit a little stiff and o