plaid, for the cold drive
homeward, was slipping past, glancing wistfully at Elizabeth, the
center of the grand group from town. Elizabeth instantly forgot her
own troubles in a sudden impulse to do Eppie a good turn. This was an
opportunity not to be lost. She caught her little friend by the hand
and drew her near.

"Oh, Mrs. Jarvis!" she cried, grown quite eloquent now that she had
found a subject so near her heart, "I'd rather have Eppie stay on the
farm than anything else in the wide, wide world!"

"Elizabeth!" cried her aunt in dismay, "what are you saying?"

Mrs. Jarvis looked down with a puzzled expression at the quaint little
figure wrapped in the old plaid. But she smiled in a very kindly way.

"What is she talking about?" she inquired.

Elizabeth hung her head, speechless again. She had been importuned to
speak only a moment before, but, now that she had found her tongue,
apparently she had made a wrong use of it.

Horace came to the rescue. He spoke just whenever he pleased, and he
knew all about this matter. He had not been Elizabeth's and Rosie's
chum for two weeks without hearing much of poor Eppie's wrongs.

"That's Eppie, auntie, Eppie Turner, and that's her grandpa over
there," he explained, nodding to where old Sandy stood with a group of
men. "Mr. Huntley sold his farm, and he won't leave it."

Mrs. Jarvis glanced at the bent figure of the old Highlander, and then
at the shy face of his little granddaughter; those two whose lives
could be made or marred by a word from her. But this was not the sort
of charity that appealed to Mrs. Jarvis. It meant interfering in
business affairs and endless trouble with lawyers. She remembered that
romantic young Mr. Coulson had bothered her about either this or some
affair like it not so long ago.

"Horace, my dear," she said wearily, "don't you know by this time that
the very mention of lawyers and all their business gives your poor
auntie a headache?" She patted Eppie's cheek with her gloved fingers.
"A sweet little face," she murmured. "Good-by, Miss Gordon. I shall
see you and your charming family very soon, I hope."

She shook hands most cordially, but Miss Gordon was scarcely able to
hide her chagrin. Elizabeth had let the great chance of her life slip
through her fingers! The good-bys were said, even Mrs. Oliver, now
that her aunt had for the moment escaped temptation, bidding the lady
of The Dale a gracious farewell.

And not unti