. The upper staircase, very steep and
dark, opened off it at the further end. All the light from a square,
small-paned window fell sideways upon the faces of the girls as they
stretched their heads towards the shadowed covert of the stairs.

And they could not, _could_ not, speak, although they made gestures of
despair at each other and mauled each other's poor little arms sadly in
the endeavour to prove how hard they were trying to be sober.

If any one wants to know precisely what they were laughing at, the only
way would be to become for a time one of two girls to whom all the world
is a matter of mutual mirth except when it is a matter of mutual tears.

Although it seemed very long to them, it was, after all, only a minute
before Blue called in trembling tones, "Eliza!"

"Eliza!" called Red.

"Eliza! Eliza!" they both called, and though there was that in their
voices which made it perfectly apparent to the young man in the next
room, that they were laughing, so grand was their composure compared
with what it had been before, that they thought they had succeeded
admirably.

But when a heavy foot was heard overhead and an answering voice, and it
was necessary to explain to Eliza wherefore she was called, an audible
laugh did escape, and then Blue and Red scampered upstairs and made the
communication there.

It spoke much for the strength and calibre of character of the girl who
had so lately come into this family that a few minutes later, when the
three girls entered the kitchen, it was Eliza who walked first, with a
bearing equal to that of the other two and a dignity far greater.

The young man, who had been fidgeting with the stove, looked up gravely
to see them enter, as if anxious to give his lesson; but had any one
looked closely it would have been seen that his acute gaze covered the
foremost figure with an intensity of observation that was hardly called
for if he took no other interest in her than as a transient pupil in the
matter of stove dampers.

Perhaps any one might have looked with interest at her. She was
evidently young, but there was that in her face that put years, or at
least experience of years, between her and the pretty young things that
followed her. She was largely made, and, carrying a dimpled child of two
years upon her shoulder, she walked erect, as Southern women walk with
their burdens on their heads. It detracted little that her gown was of
the coarsest, and that her abundant r