could, Tilly, because I ain't got the money or the
intellect; but s'posing I could do it for somebody else, like this
Captain Ferguson who could do so much if he just could get a hired girl
to take care of his wife. Well, I do know how to cook and to keep a
house neat and to do for the sick----"

Tilly could restrain herself no longer; her voice rose to a shout of
dismay--"Mother Louder, you AIN'T thinking of going to be the Ferguson's
_hired girl!_"

"Not their hired girl, Tilly; just their help, so as he can work for
those poor starving creatures." Jane strangled a sob in her throat.
Tilly, in a kind of stupor of bewilderment, frowned at her plate. Then
her clouded face cleared. If Mrs. Louder had surprised her daughter, her
daughter repaid the surprise. "Well, if you feel that way, mother," said
she, "I won't say a word; and I'll ask Mr. Lossing to explain to the
Fergusons and fix everything. He will."

"You're real good, Tilly."

"And while you're gone I guess it will be a good plan to move and git
settled----"

For some reason Tilly's throat felt dry, she lifted her cup. She did not
intend to look across the table, but her eyes escaped her. She set the
coffee down untasted. The clock was slow, she muttered; and she left the
room.

Jane Louder remained in her place, with the same pale face, staring at
the table-cloth.

"It don't seem like I COULD go, now," she thought dully to herself; "the
time's so awful short, I don't s'pose Maria Carleton can git up to see
me more'n once or twice a month, busy as she is! I got so to depend on
seeing her every day. A sister couldn't be kinder! I don't see how I am
going to bear it. And to go away, beforehand----"

For a long while she sat, her face hardly changing. At last, when she
did push her chair away, her lips were tightly closed. She spoke to the
little pile of books lying on the table in the corner. "I cayn't--these
are my own and you are strangers!" She walked across the room to take up
the same magazine which Tilly had found her reading the day before.
When she began reading she looked stern--poor Jane, she was steeling her
heart--but in a little while she was sniffing and blowing her nose.
With a groan she flung the book aside. "It's no use, I would feel like a
murderer if I don't go!" said she.

She did go. Harry Lossing made all the arrangements. Tilly was
satisfied. But, then, Tilly had not heard Harry's remark to his mother:
"Alma says Miss Louder is t