inely-marked features, her straight, slim white body, her
slender hands and feet, her dainty ways and fearless bearing,--to adapt
herself to the situation. The first excitement over, her terror and
fright returned, and the cry went up unceasingly in lisping English
interspersed with words utterly unintelligible to the two distracted
ladies, begging to be taken to that mother of whom Mary Carew
entertained so poor an opinion.

It was in vain that good woman, with a tenderness and patience quite at
variance with her harsh tones, rocked, petted, coaxed and tried to
satisfy with vague promises of "to-morrow." In vain did Norma, no less
earnestly now that the touch of romance had faded into grim
responsibility, whistle and sing and snap her fingers, the terror was
too real, the sense of loss too poignant, the baby heart refused to be
comforted, and it was only when exhaustion came that the child would
moan herself to sleep in Mary's arms.

So passed several days, the baby drooping and pining, but clinging to
Mary through it all, with a persistency which, while it won her heart
entirely, sadly interfered with the progress of jean pantaloons.

As for the more material Norma, whose time, free from the requirements
of her profession, had hitherto been largely given to reshaping her old
garments in imitations of the ever-changing fashions, finding that the
baby clung to Mary, she bore no malice, but good-naturedly turned her
skill toward making the poor accommodations of their room meet the needs
of the occasion, and in addition appointed herself maid to her small
ladyship. And an arduous task it ultimately proved, for, as the child
gradually became reconciled and began to play about, a dozen times a day
a little pair of hands were stretched toward Norma and a sweet, tearful
voice proclaimed in accents of anguished grief, "Angel's hands so-o-o
dirty!"--which indeed they were each time, her surroundings being of
that nature which rubbed off at every touch.

Indeed so pronounced was the new inmate's dislike to dirt, that Mary,
sensitive to criticism, took to rising betimes these hot mornings and
making the stuffy room sweet with cleanliness. Not so easy a task as one
might imagine either, in an apartment which combined kitchen, laundry,
bedroom, dining-room and the other conveniences common to housekeeping
in a 12 x 15 space, as evidenced by the presence of a stove, a table
with a tub concealed beneath, a machine, a bed, a washs