be looked upon with
awe, and admired breathlessly at a distance. Indeed, she had sometimes,
when passing near the house, walked on tiptoe, as if on sacred ground,
and held back her humble dress lest it should harm a shrub or vine by
contact. But matters now were changed. She had been there, and was
going there again by special invitation from the master, and she tripped
along airily with a sense of dignity and importance unusual in one so
young.

Mrs. Tracy, who seldom troubled herself with her brother-in-law's
affairs, knew nothing of his having sent for Jerry, and was surprised
when she saw her coming up the walk with Charles, whose manner indicated
that he knew perfectly what he was about. She had heard of Jerry's visit
on the previous day, and had wondered what Arthur could find in that
child to interest him, when he would never allow Maude in his room. She
knew nothing of the shadow which night and day was nearer to her husband
than she was herself, but she did not fancy Jerry, because of the three
dollars a week, which she felt was so much taken from herself. Why they
should be burdened with the support of the child, just because her
mother happened to be found dead upon their premises, she could not
understand.

Had Jerry been older, she might, she said, have taken her into the
kitchen as maid of all work, for Dolly had reached a point where she
liked a great many servants in the household, and prided herself upon
employing more help than either Grace Atherton or Edith St. Claire. Only
that morning she had spoken to her husband of Jerry, and asked him how
long he proposed to support her.

'Just as long as I have a dollar of my own, and she needs it,' was his
reply, as he left the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving her
to think him almost as crazy as his brother.

Thus it was not in a very quiet frame of mind that she went out upon the
cool, broad piazza, and, taking one of the large willow chairs standing
there, began to rock back and forth and wonder what had so changed her
husband, making him silent and absent-minded, and even irritable at
times, as he had been that morning. Was there insanity in his veins as
well as in his brother's, and would her children inherit--her darling
Maude, of whom she was so proud, and who, she hoped, would some day be
the richest heiress in the county and marry Dick St. Claire, if, indeed,
she did not look even higher?

It was at this point in her soliloquy that s