the object of her deepest devotion. Caroline was beautiful and clever,
and to question her opinions never entered Miss Virginia's mind. It
puzzled and hurt her loyal heart that she could not quite get back to
the old attitude when Caroline returned to her home a widow. She
submitted when Caroline assumed command of the household; but after
their father's death relieved her of the position of devoted nurse,
Miss Virginia found life a little empty; and what made it the harder
was that she no longer felt herself altogether in sympathy with her
sister's opinions and methods.

Her aspirations had never gone beyond making home pleasant for
somebody, and now even this was taken from her. The things that most
absorbed Mrs. Millard were of little interest to her; she began to
feel useless and unhappy. She was a failure. Life had somehow slipped
by unawares. She felt old at forty-eight.

Above everything she disliked change, and the sale of the corner lot
and the building of the shop caused her many a pang. In the midst of
all this disquietude Mr. Landor's letter arrived.

"I have most agreeable recollections of your home," he wrote, "and I
realize I am asking a good deal of you, for our little niece is a
somewhat tumultuous person. She has suffered from both over indulgence
and neglect. She needs a different atmosphere, and much in the way of
training that her old guardian cannot give her, so he ventures for
Helen's sake to ask if you will take charge of her daughter for a few
years."

This half sister, twelve years younger than herself, had come and gone
like some happy dream in Miss Virginia's life. She had grown up under
the care of her grandmother, almost a stranger in her father's house,
to which she returned in her gay young girlhood, and for the one time
in her experience Miss Wilbur had been swept into a whirl of gayety as
Helen's chaperon. Her charge had married early, and after a few years
went abroad with her husband and little girl in search of health she
was never to find.

The thought of Helen's child aroused memories both bright and
sorrowful, but at least here was an opportunity to be useful again. It
would be pleasant to have a child in the house, Miss Virginia thought,
studying the photograph of Charlotte at seven, bright-eyed and demure.

The tall, well-grown girl had been a surprise to her aunts. Her
assured manner and pronounced style of dress were not exactly what
one desired in a girl of fourteen. A