s wave to her!" cried Miss Blake,
with one of her happy girl-hearted laughs.

It seemed to Nan that she had never seen the Park look as beautiful as
it did to-day. To be sure, most of the trees were bare, but the naked
branches stood out delicate and clear against the blue of the
violet-clouded sky and by the lake-shore the pollard willows were gray
and misty, and a few russet maple trees still held their leaves against
the sweeping wind. They saw numberless wheels spinning along the
smooth paths, and though the governess said nothing, Nan knew she had
given up this chance of a ride for her sake.

Impulsively she put out her hand and laid it on Miss Blake's.

"If it weren't for me you'd be on your wheel now, wouldn't you?" she
asked.

"Yes," came the answer, prompt as an echo. "But as it is I'm not on my
wheel, and it so happens that I'm doing something that gives me much
more pleasure."

"If I had a bike it would make me simply furious to have to give up a
ride such a day as this," said Nan.

"Then isn't it rather fortunate you haven't one?" asked Miss Blake,
saucily. "But seriously, Nan, why haven't you one?"

Nan set her jaw. "My father can't afford it," she said proudly.

The governess turned her head to look at a faraway hill, and there was
an embarrassing little pause. When she faced about again Nan could see
that her chin was quivering, and in a spirit of tender thoughtfulness
quite new to her, she hastened to change the subject since Miss Blake
felt so badly about having asked the question.

"This is the lake where we skate in winter," she said. "That is, most
of the girls come here. I go to the Steamer. I like it better."

The governess looked at it and asked, absently, "Why?"

"Oh, because its jollier there. Most of the girls I know--I don't
know--that is, they don't know me; they don't like me much, and I'd
rather not go where they are. John Gardiner and some other boys and I
go to the Steamer and have regular contests, and it's the best sport in
the world."

But Miss Blake was not listening. She was thinking of other things,
and only came back to a sense of what was going on about her when Nan
gave a great sigh to indicate that she was tired of waiting to be
entertained. The governess roused herself with a smile and an apology
and began at once to chat briskly again.

"Whenever you want Michael to turn you have only to say so," she said.
"What do you think of going down-town and