ach art
Assail a fault or help a merit grow;
Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads,
Let love through good deeds show."

--_Edwin Arnold._

"Now how shall I get this to him?" pondered Bee the next morning as she
stood before the study door with a bowl of pansies in her hand. Since
old Rachel had told her that it had been a custom of her mother's she
had not failed to put a flower of some sort on her father's table each
morning. "Adele!"

"Yes?" answered Adele, coming to the hall. "What is it, Bee? Those
pansies?"

"Yes; do you mind putting them on father's table for me? I don't know
how to get them there this morning."

"Certainly I'll do it, Bee. But why don't you take them in yourself? He
has not gone in yet, and I won't tell."

"Father told me not to," returned Bee. "I don't want to go in until I am
worthy."

Adele laughed as she took the pansies.

"You know, Bee, if you were to go right in, and tease him a bit, he
wouldn't think anything more about your staying out," she said. "You
ought to take some lessons from me. I know just how to manage him."

"We are different, Adele," answered Bee. "What would be all right for
you would not do at all for me. If you will just help me a little about
this you don't know how much I will appreciate it. I have been wondering
how it could be managed."

"What will you do when I am gone?" asked Adele.

"I don't know," answered Bee slowly. "Are you thinking of going soon?"

"I suppose that I'll have to go when school begins," said Adele. "I
don't want to go a bit. It's poky at home without you. I'd rather stay
here."

"You would?" questioned Bee wonderingly. "I should think that you would
rather be with your father and mother. Now, why doesn't she go home
now?" she asked herself as her cousin went into the study. "Uncle Henry
is better, and I should think that she would want to see him. I would
not want to be away from father if he were ill."

So it came about that each morning Beatrice carefully arranged the
flowers, and Adele took them into the study from which Bee was barred.
The girl's eyes always grew wistful whenever her father disappeared into
the room, and she was obliged to busy herself about the house in order
not to dwell too much upon the fact of her exclusion.

The summer was drawing to a close. There was a cool crispness in the air
that heralded the approach of Autumn. To Bee it seemed at times as
though a blight had fall