hat clear-seeing, childlike
gaze, and trembled at the thought of what was to come.

"Has anyone been unkind to ye, Bridgie?" asked Pixie in deep, full-
throated tones. She put up her hand and stroked the soft cheek with a
tenderness of pitying love which was more eloquent than words. "There
are dips in your cheeks, like Miss Minnitt's when she was getting over
the fever, and your eyes look tired. What has happened to worry ye, me
dear, and take the colour out of your face?"

"She has enough colour to satisfy you at the moment, hasn't she?" Jack
said, laughing, and Pixie nodded with ruthless candour.

"Because she is blushing. What are you blushing for, you silly girl?
It isn't as if I had asked about a heart affair. The girls in France
were always talking of heart affairs, and asking if you were _fiancee_.
They thought you were very old, and must be going to _coif_ Saint
Catherine. That means that you are going to be an old maid. I said
yes, of course you were, because you were needed at home. Esmeralda was
no use, but we could not get on without Bridgie!"

"You miserable, ungrateful child! This is my reward for all I have done
for you!" declaimed Esmeralda with dramatic emphasis, but Bridgie's face
lit up with a smile of whole-hearted satisfaction.

Thank God! Whatever her personal disappointment might be, she could
never feel that she was alone in the world--that among all its teeming
millions there was no human being whose happiness depended upon her
presence; she had been spared that worst trial to a woman's heart, and
Pixie's calm taking-for-granted that she was indispensable to the family
circle was the greatest comfort which she could have given.

"No, I shan't leave you, darling. I have too much to do looking after
you and those three big boys, and when you fly away to nests of your
own, Sylvia and I have all sorts of plans for enjoying ourselves
together. I have promised faithfully to wheel her about in her Bath-
chair."

"And I will make your caps. I'm clever at millinery," said Sylvia,
pretending not to hear Jack's murmurs of protest, and looking very
pretty and animated as she sat erect in her chair and gesticulated with
her thin little hands. "You shall have one with pearl dangles for high
days and holidays, and nice, stiff little black bows for ordinary wear.
We will knit socks and mittens, and play cribbage in the evening, and
talk over the days of our youth. It's almost a pity we k