you here after all this time," cried Jessie,
snuggling close to her guardian as she spoke. "I feel as if any minute
you're likely to fade away just as the ghosts and visions do in the
moving pictures."

There was a general laugh, and then Evelyn broke in, gallantly.

"I protest," she said, stoutly. "I deny that our guardian is a ghost."

"No; but she is a vision," said a voice behind them, and Lucile slipped
noiselessly into the circle.

"Goodness, Lucile, anybody would think you were the redskin you look
like," commented Dorothy, a trifle sharply, for she had started in a most
undignified manner.

"See, you frightened the child, Lucile," said Marjorie, aggravatingly.
"You should be more careful with one so young."

"What do you call yourself?" retorted Dorothy, and Lucile saw it was high
time she took a hand in the argument.

"Don't tease, Marj," she admonished. "And don't get mad about nothing,
Dotty--I mean Dot," she corrected quickly, as Dorothy eyed her
menacingly.

"I don't wonder she draws the line at Dotty," laughed Jessie. "I haven't
called you that for two weeks, Dot; I've kept track."

"When you haven't called me that for two years," said Dorothy,
graciously, "I'll begin to think you're improving."

"That's right, Dot," cried one of the girls, with a merry laugh. "Never
refuse a helping hand to the wicked!"

"Encourage them once in a while and some time, soon or late, you will be
rewarded," chanted Marjorie in a solemn tone that brought a laugh from
every one.

"Lucy was right, just the same," said Margaret, with apparent
irrelevance, and the girls turned inquiring eyes on the speaker as she
sat, chin in hand, gazing into the fire.

Somehow the girls' faces always sobered when they looked at Margaret, and
when they spoke to her their voices softened to an undernote of
tenderness never used among themselves. She had won her way steadily to
every girl's heart. They had marveled at her invariable sweetness of
temper; they had laughed at her quaint, naive sayings, and, most of all,
they had loved her for the warm, grateful heart that found room and to
spare for them all.

So now Evelyn, merry, irresponsible Evelyn, said, with a gentleness that
caused Mrs. Wescott to look at her in surprise:

"What do you mean, Margaret? Pictures in the fire again?"

"No; I was just thinking of what Lucy said when she first came in, before
Dorothy jumped all over her," said Margaret, with a twinkle in her eye