that had lost its worst sting in the healing passage of time.

She was young enough to take a keen pleasure in the novelty of the
situation, and ran up-stairs and down with hammer and broom, laughing
and joking over the settlement of every picture and piece of
furniture with contagious good humour. Alec could not understand it.
Even his Aunt Eunice was not as downcast as he had pictured her in
the night, over the loss of her old home. With patient, steady
effort, she moved along, bringing order out of confusion, and when
Philippa's fresh young voice up-stairs broke out in the song that had
come to be regarded as the family hymn, she joined in, at her work
below, with a full, strong alto:

"Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
Though tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings:
I know that God is good."

"Jine in, Br'er Stoker," called Philippa, laughingly waving her
duster in the doorway. "Why don't you sing?"

Alec, who was prone on the floor, tacking down a bedroom carpet,
hammered away without an answer. After waiting a minute, she dropped
down on the floor beside him, upsetting a saucer full of tacks as she
did so. "Say, Alec," she began, in a confidential tone, "what did the
man at the hotel say last night? Is he going to take you?"

"Of course not," was the sulky reply. "You didn't suppose I'd be
lucky enough for that, did you? I didn't even see him. Another fellow
was there ahead of me, and the fire-alarm sounded while I waited, and
then it was all up. I couldn't dally round waiting for an interview
when our home was burning, could I?"

"Maybe he left some word for you," she suggested.

"No; I ran down to the hotel to inquire, just as soon as I got the
kitchen stove set up this morning. He left on the nine o'clock train
last night, as he warned me he would, and as I didn't come according
to my agreement, that's the last he'll ever think of me. Such luck as
mine is, anyhow! It was my anxiety to get the place that made me go
off and leave the lamp burning, and now I've not only missed the last
chance I'll ever have, but I've been the means of burning the roof
off from over our heads. You haven't any idea of the way I feel,
Flip. I'm desperate! It fairly sets my teeth on edge to hear you go
round singing of 'The Eternal Goodness' when I'm knocked out every
way I turn, no matter how hard I try."

"But, Alec," she answere