ther
from the other servants, and from cook who has been here for forty
years or so, and I told her all the funny things her father did when he
was a little boy, and she said it made her feel real acquainted with
'em.

"And she heard or read about putting candles and flowers in front of the
statues and paintings of the saints, and she wanted to do it with her
mother and father, but she knew she would be told not, so she used to
put little bunches of flowers back of the pictures between them and the
wall, and mercy knows if they have stained the wall paper. And when they
was faded I used to take them out, and oh dear, she was so sweet!"

Minnie choked, Mrs. Hargrave cried quite openly, and Mrs. Horton, deadly
pale and dry-eyed, sat shaking like a leaf, her eyes fixed on the
painting of her son on the opposite wall.

"And I think it was a _shame_ and a SIN and a CRIME," said Minnie hotly,
"that nobody but me did these things for her, Mrs. Hargrave, ma'am!

"And now she's gone, and I'll say she's somewhere dead of a broken heart
just because she wasn't let to have a single friend and that Helen, the
nicest child I ever did see except Miss Rosanna, and what if she _was_
poor? And I don't know what good blood is if it don't show in nice
manners and pretty speech and pleasant thoughts and Helen Culver had
nothing else.

"Oh, I just feel we will never see Miss Rosanna again, and what did she
wear off?"

"I don't know," said Mrs. Horton, speaking for the first time.

"You better find out!" said Minnie tartly.

"The detectives know," said Mrs. Horton.

"Oh, Mrs. Horton I sound hard on you, but it's all true, and I can't
take it back, and I'm not working here or I wouldn't have said it: but I
wish there was something I could do. What _can_ I do? I'd like to pick
up her room if I might, please."

"The detectives do not want it touched," said Mrs. Horton. "There is
nothing you can do."

Minnie, wiping her eyes, vanished in the direction of the kitchen to see
the cook, and Mrs. Horton turned to Mrs. Hargrave.

"Does it seem to you that these people have any right to attack me like
this?" she asked with dry lips. "I was not hard with Rosanna. I loaded
her with toys and pleasures, and I think they are all very hard on me."

"What do you think about yourself?" asked Mrs. Hargrave gently. "Did you
ever hold her and laugh with her, and tell her stories?"

"No; it was not my way," said Mrs. Horton.

"But it was the way