r some severely good advice, which was quite
superfluous, seeing that she would not recognize the change in the
girl's life.

Uncle Jason put both arms around her and kissed her tenderly.

"Be a good, honest, truthful girl," he said in a rather broken voice,
"and then all the learning in the world won't hurt you."

The next morning there were some more good-bys. Joanna's was really
touching.

"There's a good deal of knowledge it's nice to have," she said, "but I
think your pretty ways must have come natural. And you do beat all at
drying dishes."

Mrs. Dayton felt almost as if she was giving up a child. Would it have
been better for her to have remained at Hope?

She was really astonished at the commotion the event created. Wasn't it
a great risk to have Helen Grant go off with a strange woman? Just as if
schools in Hope were not good enough!

"I never saw anything wonderful in Helen Grant," said Mrs. Graham. "Mr.
Warfield pushed her ahead when he should have been taking pains with
others, and I'll venture to say he helped her out with that examination.
She couldn't have gone to the High School anyhow. And Jason Mulford is
as stuck up as a telegraph post over her luck. We'd all laugh if it fell
through in a year!"

As for Helen there were several days of living in absolute fairyland.
The Hotel was a veritable palace to her, the ladies, queens and
princesses. As for the stores they were beyond any description, only she
thought they had been rehearsed in "Walks about Paris," but she was
sometime to see the difference.

Mrs. Van Dorn displayed excellent taste in selecting Helen's wardrobe.
It was simply pretty, fit for a girl in the ordinary walks of life. Her
measurements were left with madame, who, from time to time would send
her what was suitable and necessary.

She had been such a charming companion that Mrs. Van Dorn really hated
to give her up. If she were only two or three years older! Her
enthusiasms were so fresh and infectious, her health was so perfect, her
readiness, her pleasant temper, the pretty manner in which she took any
check or counsel, appealed curiously to the worn old heart still
hankering after something all its own, that should exhilarate and bring
her back to some of the freshness of youth. Two years. Well, there were
women who lived to ninety-six, or even a hundred. She would take good
care of herself and have this enjoyment in her later years.

Miss Gage took Helen to Westchester.