sideration for their mother's fatigue; "we'll finish the dishes."

The girls perceived what, perhaps, the stranger had already perceived,
that if their mother consented to sit there was a chance of a more equal
conversation. And Mrs. Rexford sat down. Her mind had been
unconsciously relieved from the exercise of great dignity by the fact
that the stranger did not appear to notice her daughters, apparently
assuming that they were only children.

"It is _real_ kind of you, ma'am, to be so kind to me. I don't think
_any_ lady has seemed so kind to me since I saw my own mother last."

He looked pensively at the stove.

"Your mother lives in the United States, I suppose." He shook his head
sadly. "In heaven now."

"Ah!" said Mrs. Rexford; and then in a minute, "I am glad to see that
you feel her loss, I am sure." Here she got half off her chair to poke
the damper of the stove. "There is no loss so great as the loss of a
mother."

"No, and I _always_ feel her loss most when I am tired and hungry;
because, when I was a little chap, you know, it was always when I was
tired and hungry that I went home and found her just sitting there,
quite natural, waiting for me."

Blue and Red looked at the cupboard. They could not conceive how their
mother could refrain from an offer of tea. But, as it was, she gave the
young man a sharp glance and questioned him further. Where had he come
from? When had he arrived?

He had come, he said, from the next station on the railway. He had been
looking there, and in many other places, for an opening for his work,
and for various reasons he had now decided that Chellaston was a more
eligible place than any. He had come in the early morning, and had
called on the doctor and on Principal Trenholme of the College. They had
both agreed that there was an opening for a young dentist who would do
his work well, charge low prices, and be content to live cheaply till
the Tillage grew richer. "It's just what _I_ want," he said. "I don't
seem to care much about making money if I can live honestly among
kind-hearted folks."

"But surely," cried Mrs. Rexford, "neither Dr. Nash nor Principal
Trenholme suggested to you that Captain Rexford could give you rooms
for--" She was going to say "pulling out teeth," but she omitted that.

The young man looked at her, evidently thinking of something else.
"Would you consider it a liberty, ma'am, if I--" He stopped diffidently,
for, seeing by his manner that he