ra blushed, but she answered them
all good-naturedly. And when at length the meal had marched sedately
down to the fruit, Mrs. Holt rose and drew Honora out of the dining
room.

"It is a little hard on you, my dear," she said, "to give you so
much family on your arrival. But there are some other people coming
to-morrow, when it will be gayer, I hope, for you and Susan."

"It is so good of you and Susan to want me, Mrs. Holt," replied Honora,
"I am enjoying it so much. I have never been in a big country house
like this, and I am glad there is no one else here. I have heard my aunt
speak of you so often, and tell how kind you were to take charge of me,
that I have always hoped to know you sometime or other. And it seems
the strangest of coincidences that I should have roomed with Susan at
Sutcliffe."

"Susan has grown very fond of you," said Mrs. Holt, graciously. "We are
very glad to have you, my dear, and I must own that I had a curiosity to
see you again. Your aunt struck me as a good and sensible woman, and it
was a positive relief to know that you were to be confided to her care."
Mrs. Holt, however, shook her head and regarded Honora, and her next
remark might have been taken as a clew to her thoughts. "But we are not
very gay at Silverdale, Honora."

Honora's quick intuition detected the implication of a frivolity which
even her sensible aunt had not been able to eradicate.

"Oh, Mrs. Holt," she cried, "I shall be so happy here, just seeing
things and being among you. And I am so interested in the little bit I
have seen already. I caught a glimpse of your girls' home on my way from
the station. I hope you will take me there."

Mrs. Holt gave her a quick look, but beheld in Honora's clear eyes only
eagerness and ingenuousness.

The change in the elderly lady's own expression, and incidentally in the
atmosphere which enveloped her, was remarkable.

"Would you really like to go, my dear?"

"Oh, yes indeed," cried Honora. "You see, I have heard so much of it,
and I should like to write my aunt about it. She is interested in the
work you are doing, and she has kept a magazine with an article in it,
and a picture of the institution."

"Dear me!" exclaimed the lady, now visibly pleased. "It is a very modest
little work, my dear. I had no idea that--out in St. Louis--that the
beams of my little candle had carried so far. Indeed you shall see it,
Honora. We will go down the first thing in the morning."

Mrs. R