. Then, too, she was clever, and that counted; you did not make a
friend of a fool. But her chief characteristics were a certain sound
common sense, and an inexhaustible fund of good-nature--a careless,
happy, laughing sunniness, that was as grateful to those who came into
touch with it as a rare ointment is grateful to the skin. This
kindliness arose, it might be, in the first place from indolence: it
was less trouble to be merry and amiable than to put oneself out to be
selfish, which also meant standing a fire of disagreeable words and
looks; and then, too, it was really hard for one who had never had a
whim crossed to be out of humour. But, whatever its origin, the
good-nature was there, everlastingly; and Laura soon learnt that she
could cuddle in under it, and be screened by it, as a lamb is screened
by its mother's woolly coat.

Evelyn was the only person who did not either hector her, or feel it a
duty to clip and prune at her: she accepted Laura for what she was--for
herself. Indeed, she even seemed to lay weight on Laura's bits of
opinions, which the girl had grown so chary of offering; and, under the
sunshine of this treatment, Laura shot up and flowered like a spring
bulb. She began to speak out her thoughts again; she unbosomed herself
of dark little secrets; and finally did what she would never have
believed possible: sitting one night in her nightgown, on the edge of
Evelyn's bed, she made a full confession of the pickle she had got
herself into, over her visit to the Shepherds.

To her astonishment, Evelyn, who was already in bed, laughed till the
tears ran down her cheeks. At Laura's solemn-faced incredulity she said:

"I say, Kiddy, but that WAS rich. To think a chicken of your size sold
them like that. It's the best joke I've heard for an age. Tell us
again--from the beginning."

Nothing loath Laura started in afresh, and in this, the second telling,
embroidered the edge of her tale with a few fancy stitches, in a way
she had not ventured on for months past; so that Evelyn was more
tickled than before.

"No wonder they were mad about being had like that. You little rascal!"

She was equally amused by Laura's description of the miserable week she
had spent, trying to make up her mind to confess.

"You ridiculous sprat! Why didn't you come to me? We'd have let them
down with a good old bump."

But Laura could not so easily forget the humiliations she had been
forced to suffer, and delicately hi