eyes and
a tender, merry mouth. And Beryl (whom Budge had called "that young
person") did not seem at all coarse or unwholesome. He did not notice
that the clothes both wore were simple and inexpensive--he only
registered the impression that the mother seemed quiet and refined and
the girl had a frank honesty in her face that was most pleasing.

Robin, indeed, had so much to tell him that he made no effort to get
"head or tail" to it; rather he lost himself in wonder at the change in
his little ward. This spirited, assured young person could not be the
same little thing he had left months ago. She'd actually grown, too.

He laughed at Robin's description of the desertion of Percival Tubbs.

"Poor man, I guess I'd driven him crazy, anyway. I simply couldn't learn
the lessons he gave me. But, oh, I haven't wasted my time, truly, for
I've gotten more out of these precious books here than I ever got out
of school. Guardian dear, _they've_ made me grow. I don't think my
pretend stories any more, either. I can't seem to, for everything about
me is so real and so big and so--so important." Robin imparted this
information with a serious note in her voice--as though she feared her
guardian might be sorry that she had put her childish "pretends" behind
her.

"Dear me," he said, "then we won't know whether you meet the Prince in
the last chapter and live happily ever after? You _have_ grown up; I
can't get used to it."

Robin blushed furiously at this and changed the subject lest her
guardian could glimpse under her flaming hair and guess the one pretty
"pretend" she still cherished.

While the girls were upstairs Mrs. Lynch told Cornelius Allendyce the
story of Susy, and Robin's visit to the old house. She told it simply
but in its every detail so that Robin's guardian could follow it very
closely. He listened, with his eyes dropped to the rug at his feet, and
for a few moments he kept them there, so that Mrs. Lynch wondered if he
were angry. Then suddenly he looked at her and a smile broke over his
face.

"Our little girl's letting down a few barriers, isn't she?" he asked,
and Mrs. Lynch, understanding him with her quick instinct, nodded with
bright eyes.

"Ah, 'tis true as true what my old Father Murphy once said to me--that
wealth is what you give, not what you get!"

The most amazing thing to the lawyer in the new order was the cheerful
importance, and the new geniality of Hannah Budge. Accustomed as he was,
fro