se caterpillars I saw you handling
yesterday."

"Why would she?" marvelled Elnora. "Haven't you told her that they are
perfectly clean, helpless, and harmless as so much animate velvet?"

"No, I have not told her. She wouldn't care enough about caterpillars to
listen."

"In what is she interested?"

"What interests Edith Carr? Let me think! First, I believe she takes
pride in being a little handsomer and better dressed than any girl
of her set. She is interested in having a beautiful home, fine
appointments, in being petted, praised, and the acknowledged leader of
society.

"She likes to find new things which amuse her, and to always and in all
circumstances have her own way about everything."

"Good gracious!" cried Elnora, staring at him. "But what does she do?
How does she spend her time?"

"Spend her time!" repeated Philip. "Well, she would call that a joke.
Her days are never long enough. There is endless shopping, to find
the pretty things; regular visits to the dressmakers, calls, parties,
theatres, entertainments. She is always rushed. I never am able to be
with her half as much as I would like."

"But I mean work," persisted Elnora. "In what is she interested that is
useful to the world?"

"Me!" cried Philip promptly.

"I can understand that," laughed Elnora. "What I can't understand is
how you can be in----" She stopped in confusion, but she saw that he
had finished the sentence as she had intended. "I beg your pardon!"
she cried. "I didn't intend to say that. But I cannot understand these
people I hear about who live only for their own amusement. Perhaps it is
very great; I'll never have a chance to know. To me, it seems the only
pleasure in this world worth having is the joy we derive from living for
those we love, and those we can help. I hope you are not angry with me."

Philip sat silently looking far away, with deep thought in his eyes.

"You are angry," faltered Elnora.

His look came back to her as she knelt before him among the flowers and
he gazed at her steadily.

"No doubt I should be," he said, "but the fact is I am not. I cannot
understand a life purely for personal pleasure myself. But she is only
a girl, and this is her playtime. When she is a woman in her own home,
then she will be different, will she not?"

Elnora never resembled her mother so closely as when she answered that
question.

"I would have to be well acquainted with her to know, but I should hope
so. To make