with his head up
and a firm step. To one who watched him go, he had almost a triumphant
air, but it was not triumph, only the brave beginning of a hard fight
and a long one.

Then came Mrs. Bell, returned from a shopping trip, and sank down in a
wicker rocker, glad of the shade and a cup of tea. No, she didn't want
it iced. "Hot tea makes you cooler," was her theory.

"You don't look very tired," said the girl. "Seems to me you get
stronger all the time."

"I do," said her mother. "You don't realize, you can't realize, Diantha,
what this means to me. Of course to you I am an old woman, a back
number--one has to feel so about one's mother. I did when I married, and
my mother then was five years younger than I am now."

"I don't think you old, mother, not a bit of it. You ought to have
twenty or thirty years of life before you, real life."

"That's just what I'm feeling," said Mrs. Bell, "as if I'd just begun to
live! This is so _different!_ There is a big, moving thing to work for.
There is--why Diantha, you wouldn't believe what a comfort it is to me
to feel that my work here is--really--adding to the profits!"

Diantha laughed aloud.

"You dear old darling," she said, "I should think it was! It is _making_
the profits."

"And it grows so," her mother went on. "Here's this part so well assured
that you're setting up the new Union House! Are you _sure_ about Mrs.
Jessup, dear?"

"As sure as I can be of any one till I've tried a long time. She has
done all I've asked her to here, and done it well. Besides, I mean to
keep a hand on it for a year or two yet--I can't afford to have that
fail."

Mrs. Jessup was an imported aunt, belonging to one of the cleverest
girls, and Diantha had had her in training for some weeks.

"Well, I guess she's as good as any you'd be likely to get," Mrs. Bell
admitted, "and we mustn't expect paragons. If this can't be done by an
average bunch of working women the world over, it can't be done--that's
all!"

"It can be done," said the girl, calmly. "It will be done. You see."

"Mr. Thaddler says you could run any kind of a business you set your
hand to," her mother went on. "He has a profound respect for your
abilities, Dina."

"Seems to me you and Mr. Thaddler have a good deal to say to each
other, motherkins. I believe you enjoy that caffeteria desk, and all the
compliments you get."

"I do," said Mrs. Bell stoutly. "I do indeed! Why, I haven't seen so
many men, to speak to