in a beautiful pair of eyes away back in the old home
valley, would never say what would be his calling.

Elizabeth burst radiantly into the room and was received with joyous
acclaim. No matter how busy these two might be, there was never any
doubt of her welcome here.

"Miss Gordon, I declare!" cried the Pretender, making a deep bow. He
handed her a chair and John pulled her into it.

"Hello, Betsey! I say it's a great comfort and uplift to Malc and me
when we toil and moil and perspire up here, to remember there's one
lady in the family anyhow. It keeps up a fellow's self-respect."

"I hope you're going to be nice to me," said Elizabeth, turning to the
other young man. "It's a great strain on a frivolous person like me
belonging to a clever family. Jean's grinding at the Mills, and I came
up here for relaxation, and now John's throwing witticisms at me."

"Jean's studying too hard," said Charles Stuart. "It is enough to
drive those girls out of their minds the way they go at it."

"Well, I hope they won't go that distance. It's hard enough to have
them out of temper all the time," said Elizabeth. Charles Stuart was
always so staid and solemn, she took an especial pleasure in being
frivolous in his presence. She knew he disapproved of her fondness for
dress, so she turned to her brother.

"How do you like my new frock, Johnny?" she asked.

She slipped out of her cloak, dropping the magazine into a chair with
it, and walked across the room, with an exaggerated air of haughty
grandeur. The soft gray folds of the gown swept over the carpet.
There was a hint of rose-color in it that caught the lamp-light.
Elizabeth glanced teasingly over her shoulder at the Pretender, who
turned abruptly away. He was a very poor sort of Pretender, after all,
and he feared the mocking gaze of those gray eyes. They might read the
secret in his own and laugh at it. He picked up the magazine she had
dropped and began turning over its pages, just to show his lofty
disapproval, Elizabeth felt sure.

John proceeded to make sarcastic remarks upon her appearance, while his
admiring eyes belied his tongue. But Elizabeth and John had never
outlived the habits of their reserved childhood, and found it necessary
always to keep up a show of indifference lest they reveal the deep
tenderness between them. Lizzie looked frightfully skinny in the
dress, he announced, and her neck was too long by a foot. Besides, as
her medical adv