always liked on you?"

"I made it over for Lucy, dear. She had to have a dress to wear to Lily
Carrington's birthday party, and I didn't want to buy one. It looks ever
so nice on her."

"Doubtless, but I like it better on you."

"It doesn't matter what I wear, but Lucy is so fond of pretty things,
and children dress more now than they used to do. What did Susan have to
say?"

He had turned to bolt the front door, and while his back was towards
her, she raised her hand to smother a yawn. All day she had been on her
feet, except for the two hours when she had worked at her
sewing-machine, while Harry and Jenny were taking their morning nap. She
had not had time to change her dress until after supper, and she had
felt so tired then that it had not seemed worth while to do so. There
was, in fact, nothing to change to, since she had made over the blue
silk, except an old black organdie, cut square in the neck, which she
had worn in the months before Jenny's birth. As a girl she had loved
pretty clothes; but there were so many other things to think about now,
and from the day that her first child had come to her it had seemed to
matter less and less what she wore or how she appeared. Nothing had
really counted in life except the supreme privilege of giving herself,
body and soul, in the service of love. All that she was--all that she
had--belonged to Oliver and to his children, so what difference could it
make to them, since she gave herself so completely, whether she wore new
clothes or old?

When he turned to her, she had smothered the yawn, and was smiling. "Is
Aunt Belinda just the same?" she asked, for he had not answered her
question about Susan.

"To tell the truth, I forgot to ask," he replied, with a laugh. "Susan
seemed very cheerful, and John Henry was there, of course. It wouldn't
surprise me to hear any day that they are to be married. By the way,
Virginia, why did you never tell me what a good rider you are? Abby
Goode says you would have been a better horsewoman than she is if you
hadn't given up riding."

"Why, I haven't been in the saddle for years. I stopped when we had to
sell my horse Bess, and that was before you came back to Dinwiddie. How
did Abby happen to be there?"

"She stopped to see Susan about something, and then we got to
talking--the bunch of us. John Henry asked me to exercise his horse for
him when he doesn't go. I rather hope I'll get a chance to go
fox-hunting in the autumn. Abb