ation and for the almost instant exchange of
confidences between himself and Mrs. Forsyth, so that Charlotte was
free to enjoy the silence to which they left her in her labors.

"Before I say a word," Mrs. Forsyth said, after saying some hundreds
in their mutual inculpation and exculpation, "I want to ask something,
and I hope you will excuse it to an old woman's curiosity and not
think it rude."

At the words "old woman's" the young man gave a protesting "Oh!" and
at the word "rude" he said, "Not at all."

"It is simply this: how long have your things been here? I ask because
we've had this room thirteen or fourteen years, and I've never seen
your room opened in that whole time."

The young man laughed joyously. "Because it hasn't been opened in that
whole time. I was a little chap of three or four bothering round here
when my mother put the things in; I believe it was a great frolic for
me, but I'm afraid it wasn't for her. I've been told that my
activities contributed to the confusion of the things and the things
in them that she's been in ever since, and I'm here now to make what
reparation I can by listing them."

"She'll find it a great blessing," Mrs. Forsyth said. "I wish we had
ours listed. I suppose you remember it all very vividly. It must have
been a great occasion for you seeing the things stored at that age."

The young man beamed upon her. "Not so great as now, I'm afraid. The
fact is, I don't remember anything about it. But I've been told that I
embarrassed with my personal riches a little girl who was looking over
her doll's things."

"Oh, indeed!" Mrs. Forsyth said, stiffly, and she turned rather
snubbingly from him and said, coldly, to Charlotte: "I think they are
in that green trunk. Have you the key?" and, stooping as her daughter
stooped, she whispered, "Really!" in condemnation and contempt.

Charlotte showed no signs of sharing either, and Mrs. Forsyth could
not very well manage them alone. So when Charlotte said, "No, I
haven't the key, mother," and the young man burst in with, "Oh, do let
me try my master-key; it will unlock anything that isn't a Yale," Mrs.
Forsyth sank back enthroned and the trunk was thrown open.

She then forgot what she had wanted it opened for. Charlotte said,
"They're not here, mother," and her mother said, "No, I didn't suppose
they were," and began to ask the young man about his mother. It
appeared that his father had died twelve years before, and since then