ke
everything clean and shinin'. I meant to 'a' done it to-day, but I
didn't get a minute, and I thought one night wouldn't make much matter."

While Elsie was endeavoring to frame some sentence to inform Katy that
she needn't take the trouble, the latter suddenly remembered something
in the oven and disappeared. Elsie rose and dressed. She couldn't eat
in such a place, but she couldn't get away without explaining and,
perhaps, the tea-table would be a suitable occasion for that.

Mr. Middleton met her at the foot of the stair and led her to the
dining-room. Another surprise! The room was not only large, pleasant,
and airy, overlooking a beautiful garden, but it was neat and tidy, and
the table was spotless, with fine damask, delicate china, and beautiful
silver. The food was delicious--Elsie had taken her place
perforce--and was particularly appetizing after five days on the train.

Mrs. Middleton still wore the pink wrapper, but she had little to say,
and her husband was so elegant and attractive, was in such good spirits
and talked so entertainingly, that Elsie almost forgot. In any event,
before the meal was over she had decided to remain overnight, and to
postpone her confession until morning.

The evening passed pleasantly. Mrs. Middleton excused herself directly
after tea, and Mr. Middleton took Elsie out to show her the garden,
which he tended himself, an old-fashioned garden with formal beds
radiating from a sun-dial. Thence they went to his study, an
attractive room lined with books, which, though untidy, was not
startlingly so, not, perhaps, far beyond that peculiar limit of
disorder allowed to a student's sanctum.

Here the Reverend John Middleton, unmistakably and infectiously happy,
talked with his supposed niece for an hour. Full of enthusiasm,
quieter but almost as youthful as that of Elsie Moss, of ideas and
ideals, he had not realized his want of companionship and sympathy, nor
understood why he had looked forward so eagerly to the coming of the
daughter of the sister who had been the companion and intimate friend
of his youth and young manhood. Believing he saw already much of the
mother in the girl, he seemed to feel no need of preliminaries, of
getting acquainted. He strove only to make her feel at home, hoping
there might be no strangeness even on the first night.

His powers being by no means inconsiderable, he succeeded so well that
Elsie Marley went to her room in a state of re