feminine
things, Alex, in spite of your disdain for them."

In their leisure moments they had built many castles concerned with
the future of the shop, one of these being a millinery department of
which Alex was to have charge.

Indeed, the two weeks of Miss Sarah's illness saw the beginning of
many things. Between Miss Virginia and Norah Pennington a strong
friendship grew up.

"Miss Virginia is such a dear!" Norah said. "I adore her stilted
little expressions, such as 'busy with my needle or pen,' instead of
sewing or writing, and with it all she is at heart a child."

"That is the point of contact between you," Marion answered, smiling.

Miss Virginia was like one who had thrown off a yoke, yet she hardly
understood her own light-heartedness. It was quite true that she had
never outgrown her girlhood. It was only overlaid by grown-up manners,
and unconsciously she was beginning to let the burden of convention
slip from her shoulders and to enjoy herself as her nature prompted.

Charlotte was an hourly pleasure. Miss Virginia enjoyed looking after
her wardrobe as in the past she had enjoyed dressing her dolls. She
listened to the schoolgirl experiences poured into her ear, with
genuine interest. They were like two children together; but Miss
Virginia's sweetness and sincerity, her delicate refinement, could not
but have their influence on her impetuous little niece.

One broadening influence came from those Friday evenings in the shop,
with their basket making and pleasant talk. Miss Virginia had been
accustomed to accept things as they were. When in her very infrequent
visits to business offices she had encountered young women acting as
bookkeepers and stenographers, she had looked upon them as a class
apart. Not that she felt consciously superior, or anything but kindly,
but simply that her life and theirs did not touch. She was actually
surprised to find Norah's friend Louise Martin so much like other
girls, and when Norah described the hall bedroom in the gloomy
boarding-house, which was her only home, Miss Virginia began to wish
and then to wonder if she could not do something to brighten a life
that seemed so dreary.

Another addition to the Friday gatherings was a Miss Jackson, a
fellow-boarder of Miss Martin's, a public school teacher and an
ambitious, high-spirited girl.

Toward these two Miss Virginia began to show a timid friendliness so
plainly sincere it was irresistible. She found them much m