t is time I was
used to it; but I never can help shaking in this silly way when any one
is rude to us. Tom laughs at me, and says I am made on wire springs like
a twelfth-cake butterfly! But it is rather hard, isn't it, to be shut
out from everything, even from giving?"

"I think it is both hard and wrong," said Charles Osmond. "But we do not
all shut you out."

"No," said Erica. "You have always been kind, you are not a bit like
a Christian. Would you"--she hesitated a little--"would you take the
flowers instead?"

It was said with a shy grace inexpressibly winning. Charles Osmond was
touched and gratified.

"They will be a great treat to us," he said. "My mother is very fond of
flowers. Will you come upstairs and see her? We shall find afternoon tea
going on, I expect."

So the rejected flowers found a resting place in the clergyman's house;
and Brian, coming in from his rounds, was greeted by a sight which
made his heart beat at double time. In the drawing room beside his
grandmother sat Erica, her little fur hat pushed back, her gloves off,
busily arranging Christmas roses and red camellias. Her anger had died
away, she was talking quite merrily. It seemed to Brian more like a
beautiful dream than a bit of every-day life, to have her sitting there
so naturally in his home; but the note of pain was struck before long.

"I must go home," she said. "This is my last day, you know. I am going
to Paris tomorrow."

A sort of sadness seemed to fall on them at the words; only gentle Mrs.
Osmond said, cheerfully:

"You will come to see us again when you come back, will you not?"

And then, with the privilege of the aged, she drew down the young, fresh
face to hers and kissed it.

"You will let me see you home," said Brian. "It is getting dark."

Erica laughingly protested that she was well used to taking care of
herself, but it ended in Brian's triumphing. So together they crossed
the quiet square. Erica chattered away merrily enough, but as they
reached the narrow entrance to Guilford Terrace a shadow stole over her
face.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, "this is the last time I shall come home for two
whole years."

"You go for so long," said Brian, stifling a sigh. "You won't forget
your English friends?"

"Do you mean that you count yourself our friend?" asked Erica, smiling.

"If you will let me."

"That is a funny word to use," she replied, laughing. "You see we are
treated as outlaws generally. I don't think