l on deaf ears. Sometime you must come and spend a
month with me in my home and you shall meet Doctor Baker."

"I never would go and leave Aunt Debby for an entire month. It was bad
enough to go to school and not be with her," was Hester's reply.

"But Aunt Debby can come along. My father would like her, and she and
Aunt Harriet would be friends from the moment they met. Maybe we can
arrange it for this summer. Sometimes Doctor Baker comes to visit us,
too. He gets very lonely. I should think any one living alone would be
lonely."

"Isn't he married?" asked Hester. "I thought ministers were always
married. Why doesn't he get married?"

"You think a marriage certificate goes with the manse," said Robert.
"His case is a paradox. He is always marrying, and yet never is married.
Quite a riddle isn't it?"

Helen's face lighted up. She was like Hester in that both delighted to
hear romantic stories.

"He had a love affair, a long time ago," she said softly as though the
subject were one too sacred for full tones to play upon. "But he went to
college, and when he came back his sweetheart did not care for him. But
he has never forgotten her."

Hester gave a sigh of contentment. She would remember and tell her Aunt
Debby about this. While her Aunt Debby had chided her about repeating
these little romantic tales which came to her ears, Hester had a feeling
that the elder Miss Alden was not wholly unsympathetic.

Josephine, who was sitting in the front of the tally-ho, caught the last
of Helen's speech. She sighed, and leaning forward that all might catch
her words, said: "How lovely! Such persons appeal to me. There is
nothing in the world which is so beautiful to me as faithfulness. How
perfectly lovely! I always--"

"Hester, lend me a pin, please. I see you have one in the front of your
coat and I need one to fasten the ends of my tie," it was Renee who
broke in upon Josephine's flow of sentiment.

"We shall soon be there now," said Robert. "The house stands back of
those trees." He pointed to a small elevation which was about a mile
distant. The girls exclaimed with delight except Mame Cross who looked
down upon her short skirt and mud-stained shoes with a mortified
expression.

"Really, Mr. Vail, I simply cannot enter your home, looking like this.
Your mother would refuse to receive me."

"I do not understand why," he replied.

"Mame, do please forget about it," laughed Erma. "My shoes are muddy; my
skirt is