gasps.

"I'd be glad to have you," came steadily from Jane.

"And I'd like you to come over and see me some day, too--all of you," went
on the girl.

"We don't have much time for goin' out," returned Jane. "There's such a
lot to do that----" she stopped, appearing for the first time to be
confused.

"I know there is," Lucy assented serenely. "I am afraid I have kept you
too long from your work as it is. You must forgive me. Thank you very much
for the eggs."

She extended a slender hand, which Jane grasped warmly. A smile passed
between the two.

But as Lucy turned down the driveway and the door of the Howe homestead
closed, a tragic babel of voices reached her ear, piping in shrill
staccato the single word:

"Jane!"

CHAPTER V

A CLASH OF WILLS

When Lucy reached home she found her aunt in the sitting room bending
disapprovingly over the basket of undarned stockings.

"I see you haven't touched these," she observed, in a chiding tone.
"Where've you been?"

"I went to get some eggs."

"Eggs! What for?"

"For my breakfast to-morrow. You said you couldn't spare any, so I've
bought some."

"Where?"

The word expressed mingled wrath and wonder.

"Next door."

The woman looked puzzled. She thought a moment.

"Where'd you say?" she asked after a pause.

"Next door--at the Howes'."

"The Howes'!" Ellen fairly hissed the name. "You went to the _Howes'_ for
eggs?"

"Why not?"

With a swift motion her aunt strode forward and snatched the box from
Lucy's light grasp.

"You went to the Howes--to the Howes--an' told 'em I didn't give you
enough to eat?"

Livid, the woman crowded nearer, clutching the girl's arm in a fierce,
merciless grip; her blue eyes flashed, and her lips trembled with anger.

"I didn't say you didn't give me enough to eat," explained Lucy, trying
unsuccessfully to draw away from the cruel fingers that held her.

"What did you tell 'em?"

"I just said you couldn't spare any eggs for us to use."

"Spare eggs! I can spare all the eggs I like," Ellen retorted. "I ain't a
pauper. If I chose I could eat every egg there is in that pantry." She
shook her niece viciously. "I only sell my eggs 'cause I'd rather," she
went on.

"I thought you said we couldn't afford to have eggs when they where so
high," explained Lucy. "You said they were sixty-six cents a dozen."

"I could afford to eat 'em if they was a dollar," interrupted Ellen, her
voice rising. "If they were two