m her stiff and rather non-committal letters, she began to feel,
about the time that she forwarded a letter to Elsie's lawyer in San
Francisco, that she must induce her to come to New York for a visit.

A letter from her stepmother seemed to render it almost imperative.
Mrs. Moss, who was devoted to Elsie and missed her sadly, was greatly
troubled by the irregularity of the girl's letters and hurt by their
want of frankness. Knowing that John Middleton had not approved of
Elsie's father marrying her, she began to fear lest he be trying to
turn his niece against her. Now she had written to protest against the
perfunctory letters, which, instead of allowing her to share in any way
in Elsie's life, shut her out.

Elsie was deeply moved and full of compunction. She loved her
stepmother dearly and thought of her constantly, faithful soul that she
really was. She was always wondering how _auntie_ would take this or
view that; but the very topics she was moved to enlarge upon in her
letters were those which circumstances forbade her to mention. All her
interests were connected with Miss Pritchard, of whose very existence
Mrs. Moss was unaware, with the school, and less directly with Elsie
Marley, whose name she was masquerading under. Leaving all these out
of consideration, and depending almost wholly upon the fragments she
received concerning life in the parsonage at Enderby, a brief letter
once in three or four weeks was the utmost the girl could compass.

Immediately upon receipt of her stepmother's letter, she determined to
ask Miss Pritchard if she might invite her friend Elsie Moss to come on
for a week or a fortnight. As she waited for Miss Pritchard to come
from the office that night, however, it suddenly occurred to her to
wonder if it would be quite safe. Despite her enthusiastic admiration
of Elsie Marley, which had not in the least abated, and despite the
unfavorable impression she had of the Pritchards, which only deepened
as the days passed, she had come to feel that in personal appearance
and somewhat in manner her friend must resemble her kinsfolk.

In which case it would be as dangerous for the well-being of the one as
of the other for her to be brought in contact with Miss Pritchard.
For, stiff as were her letters and non-committal, Elsie knew that there
was little difference in the strength of attachment that held the wrong
Elsie to the place she had usurped in either instance. Whatever she
might