sing aspect, but easy-tempered and rather lazy. She was past sixty,
and looked a majestic matron, with her white hair and lace cap.
Katherine's whims did not annoy her in the least, and she had taken
quite kindly to Jamie. In her inmost heart she did not want her
sister-in-law to marry again, and the boy, she thought, would fill up
the void in her life, and help to make her contented with her lot.

Mrs. Verdon had a good deal of pleasure in her large house. She found
her pictures, chairs, tables, plaques, and hangings quite absorbing
sometimes. Many a morning was spent in arranging and rearranging
cabinets and mantels, and trying the effect of new draperies; and Mrs.
Tell enjoyed anything that made the time pass tranquilly away.

The carriage stopped at the door in Portman Square. Sleepy Jamie went
toiling up the wide staircase in the dusk, and Mrs. Verdon slowly
followed. Everything looked rich and dim; the plants in the great Indian
jars filled the hall with sweet scents. Flowers were blooming in every
nook. Through a half-drawn _portiere_ there was a glimpse of Mrs. Tell
reading in the shaded lamplight.

A motherly woman met Jamie on the landing, and gave him a loving
greeting. She had been nurse to Mrs. Verdon's own child.

"Ready for bed?" she said in her cheery voice. "What pretty dreams
you'll have to-night!"

"Horses ran away," Jamie began, opening his blue eyes. "Went faster than
my rocking-horse! Dreadful! Don't want to go out in the carriage any
more."

"Never mind," said nurse, with a little hug, "we won't talk about
runaway horses at bedtime. We'll just shut our eyes and think of a field
of yellow corn, waving, waving, waving."

Elsie had often been troubled with sad visions of Jamie at night. She
had pictured him sleeping in rags under an arch, or in some corner of a
grimy garret. But fancy had never shown her anything like the dainty
little white bed in this spacious room.

Gaily-coloured prints decorated the walls, and on a bracket just above
the boy's pillow stood a lovely statuette of an angel, with folded wings
and down-bent gracious face. When any visitor came up to see the
night-nursery, Jamie would point at once to the figure and say proudly,
"My guardian angel."

An hour or two later, when Jamie, rosy and beautiful, was wrapped in the
deep sweet sleep of childhood, Mrs. Verdon and her sister-in-law were
sitting together after dinner.

"What an eventful day you have had!" said Mrs. Tell