e the children an
education befitting their position, without removing them from you.
Then we shall see what time will do. Let me see the little ones. I
wish you had called one Helena, after me."

Dora remembered why she had not done so, and a flush of shame rose to
her face.

They were beautiful children, and Dora brought them proudly to the
stately lady waiting for them. Lady Earle took Beatrice in her arms.

"Why, Dora," she said admiringly, "she has the Earle face, with a novel
charm all its own. The child will grow up into magnificent woman."

"She has the Earle spirit and pride," said the young mother; "I find it
hard to manage her even now."

Then Lady Earle looked at the fair, spirituelle face and golden hair of
little Lillian. The shy, dove-like eyes and sweet lips charmed her.

"There is a great contrast between them," she said, thoughtfully. "They
will require careful training, Dora; and now we will speak of the
matter which brought me here."

Dora noticed that, long as she remained, Lady Earle never let Beatrice
leave her arms; occasionally she bent over Lillian and touched her soft
golden curls, but the child with the "Earle face" was the one she loved
best.

Together with Stephen Thorne and his wife, Lady Earle went over the
Elms. The situation delighted her; nothing could be better or more
healthy for the children, but the interior of the house must be
altered. Then with delicate grace that could only charm, never wound,
Lady Earle unfolded her plans. She wished a new suite of rooms to be
built for Dora and the children, to be nicely furnished with everything
that could be required. She would bear the expense. Immediately on
her return she would send an efficient French maid for the little ones,
and in the course of a year or two she would engage the services of an
accomplished governess, who would undertake the education of Beatrice
and Lillian without removing them from their mother's care.

"I shall send a good piano and harp," said Lady Earle, "it will be my
pride and pleasure to select books, music, drawings, and everything
else my grandchildren require. I should wish them always to be nicely
dressed and carefully trained. To you, Dora, I must leave the highest
and best training of all. Teach them to be good, and to do their duty.
They have learned all when they have learned that."

For the first time in her life, the thought came home to Dora: How was
she to teach what she h