in lifeless lines from her hips to her feet, of good
material but seemingly bad design. At that time the colored "jersey,"
so-called, was just coming into popular wear, and, being close-fitting,
looked well on those of good form. Alas for Mamie Calligan! The mode of
the time compelled her to wear one; but she had neither the arms nor the
chest development which made this garment admirable. Her hat, by choice,
was usually a pancake affair with a long, single feather, which somehow
never seemed to be in exactly the right position, either to her hair
or her face. At most times she looked a little weary; but she was not
physically weary so much as she was bored. Her life held so little of
real charm; and Aileen Butler was unquestionably the most significant
element of romance in it.

Mamie's mother's very pleasant social disposition, the fact that they
had a very cleanly, if poor little home, that she could entertain
them by playing on their piano, and that Mrs. Calligan took an adoring
interest in the work she did for her, made up the sum and substance
of the attraction of the Calligan home for Aileen. She went there
occasionally as a relief from other things, and because Mamie Calligan
had a compatible and very understanding interest in literature.
Curiously, the books Aileen liked she liked--Jane Eyre, Kenelm
Chillingly, Tricotrin, and A Bow of Orange Ribbon. Mamie occasionally
recommended to Aileen some latest effusion of this character; and
Aileen, finding her judgment good, was constrained to admire her.

In this crisis it was to the home of the Calligans that Aileen turned in
thought. If her father really was not nice to her, and she had to leave
home for a time, she could go to the Calligans. They would receive her
and say nothing. They were not sufficiently well known to the other
members of the Butler family to have the latter suspect that she had
gone there. She might readily disappear into the privacy of Cherry
Street and not be seen or heard of for weeks. It is an interesting
fact to contemplate that the Calligans, like the various members of the
Butler family, never suspected Aileen of the least tendency toward a
wayward existence. Hence her flight from her own family, if it ever
came, would be laid more to the door of a temperamental pettishness than
anything else.

On the other hand, in so far as the Butler family as a unit was
concerned, it needed Aileen more than she needed it. It needed the light
of he