"This lady," he said, with an air of making any further talk
unnecessary, "needs a secretary, and she has offered your sister
Margaret the position. That's the whole affair in a nutshell. I'm not
at all sure that your mother and I think it a wise offer for Margaret
to accept, and I want to say here and now that I don't want any child
of mine to speak of this matter, or make it a matter of general gossip
in the neighborhood. Mother, I'd like very much to have Blanche make
me a fresh cup of tea."

"Wants Margaret!" gasped Julie, unaffected--so astonishing was the
news--by her father's unusual sternness. "Oh, Mother! Oh, Mark! Oh,
you lucky thing! When is she coming down here?"

"She isn't coming down here--she wants Mark to go to her--that's it,"
said her mother.

"Mark--in New York!" shrilled Theodore. Julie got up to rush
around the table and kiss her sister; the younger children
laughed and shouted.

"There is no occasion for all this," said Mr. Paget, but mildly, for
the fresh tea had arrived. "Just quiet them down, will you, Mother? I
see nothing very extraordinary in the matter. This Mrs.--Mrs. Carr
Boldt--is it?--needs a secretary and companion; and she offers the
position to Mark."

"But--but she never even saw Mark until to-day!" marvelled Julie.

"I hardly see how that affects it, my dear!" her father observed
unenthusiastically.

"Why, I think it makes it simply extraordinary!" exulted the generous
little sister. "Oh, Mark, isn't this just the sort of thing you would
have wished to happen! Secretary work,--just what you love to do! And
you, with your beautiful handwriting, you'll just be invaluable to
her! And your German--and I'll bet you'll just have them all adoring
you--!"

"Oh, Ju, if I only can do it!" burst from Margaret, with a little
childish gasp. She was sitting back from the table, twisted about so
that she sat sideways, her hands clasped about the top bar of her
chair-back. Her tawny soft hair was loosened about her face, her dark
eyes aflame. "Lenox, she said," Margaret went on dazedly; "and Europe,
and travelling everywhere! And a hundred dollars a month, and nothing
to spend it on, so I can still help out here! Why, it--I can't believe
it!"--she looked from one smiling, interested face to another, and
suddenly her radiance underwent a quick eclipse. Her lip trembled, and
she tried to laugh as she pushed her chair back, and ran to the arms
her mother opened. "Oh, Mother!" sobbed Ma