own for her. And you see--as you have figured it--they'd
have over $500 leeway to buy the furniture if they were allowed to."

"Yes," Mrs. Bell admitted, "_if_ the rent was what you allow, and _if_
they all work all the time!"

"That's the hitch, of course. But mother; the girls who don't have
steady jobs do work by the hour, and that brings in more, on the whole.
If they are the right kind they can make good. If they find anyone who
don't keep her job--for good reasons--they can drop her."

"M'm!" said Mrs. Bell. "Well, it's an interesting experiment. But how
about you? So far you are $410 behind."

"Yes, because my rent's so big. But I cover that by letting the rooms,
you see."

Mrs. Bell considered the orders of this sort. "So far it averages about
$25.00 a week; that's doing well."

"It will be less in summer--much less," Diantha suggested. "Suppose you
call it an average of $15.00."

"Call it $10.00," said her mother ruthlessly. "At that it covers your
deficit and $110 over."

"Which isn't much to live on," Diantha agreed, "but then comes my
special catering, and the lunches."

Here they were quite at sea for a while. But as the months passed, and
the work steadily grew on their hands, Mrs. Bell became more and more
cheerful. She was up with the earliest, took entire charge of the
financial part of the concern, and at last Diantha was able to rest
fully in her afternoon hours. What delighted her most was to see her
mother thrive in the work. Her thin shoulders lifted a little as small
dragging tasks were forgotten and a large growing business substituted.
Her eyes grew bright again, she held her head as she did in her keen
girlhood, and her daughter felt fresh hope and power as she saw already
the benefit of the new method as affecting her nearest and dearest.

All Diantha's friends watched the spread of the work with keenly
sympathetic intent; but to Mrs. Weatherstone it became almost as
fascinating as to the girl herself.

"It's going to be one of the finest businesses in the world!" she said,
"And one of the largest and best paying. Now I'll have a surprise
ready for that girl in the spring, and another next year, if I'm not
mistaken!"

There were long and vivid discussions of the matter between her and
her friends the Pornes, and Mrs. Porne spent more hours in her "drawing
room" than she had for years.

But while these unmentioned surprises were pending, Mrs. Weatherstone
departed to New York--