to settle into quite regular living.

"I've just had a fright," said Mrs. Borden, coming up to her sister's
room. "A man has been here inquiring about school children and I _did_
stretch the truth a little. You see, now children have to go to school
until they are fourteen. I simply can't let Marilla go. I didn't adopt
her nor consider her in any sense my own. A child like that isn't
worth more than her board and clothes. What good would she be to us if
we had to get her off at nine in the morning, and then have only an
hour in the afternoon. The twins _must_ be taken out, and there's so
much running up and down. She's a nice honest, truthful child and a
born nurse girl. But if I had to send her to school, I'd trot her off
to the Home."

"There is so much to do this winter. When you come to that, she knows
enough for ordinary, and later on she could go to evening school.
There's so much shopping and planning, and we must be out a good deal.
The twins mightn't take to a new girl. Let us keep her if we possibly
can."

Miss Borden's lover was to return before Christmas and wanted every
thing ready for a speedy marriage. It would be in church with a very
small reception afterward. And that was hardly three months'
distance.

Marilla was coming home with the babies one afternoon when two lady
callers and a girl were saying adieu and coming down the steps. Yes,
that was Ada Brant who had been at Bayside in the summer and at first
had been quite friendly with her. Now she looked as if she had never
known her.

Maybe that was the way all the girls would feel to one who had been
bound-out from an institution. There they had all been on an equality.
And somehow the Bordens had not really put her down. Then that lovely
Miss Armitage. Why, there had been a place for her at the table, and
Jane had waited on her as if she had been a guest!

Perhaps it would be different now. Then came a very bitter knowledge
to Marilla Bond. Five years more of this, and wouldn't people remember
she had been Mrs. Borden's nursemaid? Why, even now she would be glad
to be Miss Armitage's maid. What made the difference?

She was to hear more of it that evening. After the babies came in from
their outing they were washed, undressed, and a nice warm wrapper put
over their nightgown, and then fed. Afterward laid in their crib. They
didn't go to sleep at once but kicked and laughed and chatted in a
regular frolic. Phlegmatic babies can be easily tr