le, and
stooping, straightened the child's body. She ran her fingers through the
bright curls, and lightly touched the aristocratic little nose.

"The supply of freckles holds out in my family, you see!" she said.
"Both of the girls will have them, and the second boy a few."

She stood an instant longer, then bending, ran her hand caressingly down
a rosy bare leg, while she kissed the babyish red mouth. There had been
some reason for touching all of them, the kiss fell on the lips which
were like Freckles's.

To Elnora she said a tender good-night, whispering brave words of
encouragement and making plans to fill the days to come. Then she went
away. An hour later there was a light tap on the girl's door.

"Come!" she called as she lay staring into the dark.

The Angel felt her way to the bedside, sat down and took Elnora's hands.

"I just had to come back to you," she said. "I have been telling
Freckles, and he is almost hurting himself with laughing. I didn't think
it was funny, but he does. He thinks it's the funniest thing that ever
happened. He says that to run away from Mr. Ammon, when you had made him
no promise at all, when he wasn't sure of you, won't send him home to
her; it will set him hunting you! He says if you had combined the
wisdom of Solomon, Socrates, and all the remainder of the wise men, you
couldn't have chosen any course that would have sealed him to you so
surely. He feels that now Mr. Ammon will perfectly hate her for coming
down there and driving you away. And you went to give her the chance she
wanted. Oh, Elnora! It is becoming funny! I see it, too!"

The Angel rocked on the bedside. Elnora faced the dark in silence.

"Forgive me," gulped the Angel. "I didn't mean to laugh. I didn't think
it was funny, until all at once it came to me. Oh, dear! Elnora, it
_is_ funny! I've got to laugh!"

"Maybe it is," admitted Elnora "to others; but it isn't very funny to
me. And it won't be to Philip, or to mother."

That was very true. Mrs. Comstock had been slightly prepared for
stringent action of some kind, by what Elnora had said. The mother
instantly had guessed where the girl would go, but nothing was said
to Philip. That would have been to invalidate Elnora's test in the
beginning, and Mrs. Comstock knew her child well enough to know that she
never would marry Philip unless she felt it right that she should. The
only way was to find out, and Elnora had gone to seek the information.
There w