with her throbbing head in the governess' lap. A tender
hand stroked her disheveled hair, a tender voice spoke words of comfort
to her, and she was soothed and solaced by both.

"Shall I tell you a story, Nan?" asked Miss Blake at length.

The girl gave a silent nod of assent.

"Well, once upon a time," began the governess in a gentle monotone,
"there lived two girls and they were friends. They loved each other
dearly. One was tall and fair and beautiful, and the other was small
and dark, and if people ever thought her even pretty it was because
love lighted their kind eyes and made it seem that what they looked
upon was sweet.

"The first girl had father and mother and a happy home. The second was
an orphan, having nothing to remind her of the parents she had lost
when she was a baby but the fortune they had left her. She never knew
what love meant until she met her beautiful friend. Then she learned.
Oh, how those two girls loved each other! When Florence, the beautiful
one, found that Isabel had no home she pleaded with her parents to take
her into theirs, and they not only took her to their home but to their
hearts as well. And so she and her dear friend grew up together like
sisters, and the little lonely girl was not lonely any more, but very,
very happy among those she loved. Well, time went on, and by and by
when the two girls had become quite young women, the first more
beautiful than ever, the other a little less plain, maybe, something
happened that, in the end, caused them to be separated forever.

"God sent into their lives the self-same experience and into their
hearts the self-same thought. It was a beautiful experience and a
beautiful thought, but if it was to mean happiness for one, it must be
at the cost of grief to the other. Perhaps it was because they both
knew this that neither of them told her secret. But presently it was
decided which was to have the happiness. It came to the one who
expected it least--who had the least right to expect it. It came to
Isabel, and for a moment she thought she might accept it. But it was
only for a moment. Then she knew that she must relinquish it. It
would have been base, would it not, my Nan, to have defrauded the
friend who had done so much for her? And so she, Isabel, left the
house that had been her home for so many years, and quite solitary and
alone sailed across the sea to the other side of the world, and there
she stayed for--well, o