lightest, I am afraid."

"How horrid of you! Oh, Aunt Jeannie, what a nice world!"

Daisy settled herself on the floor by her aunt's chair, and possessed
herself of her hand.

"And to think that till less than a year ago I was quite, quite blind,"
she said. "I always loved you, I think, but I am so different now. What
has happened, do you think?"

"I think you have grown up, my dear," said Jeannie.

"I suppose it may be that. I wonder how it happens. Do you think one
grows up from inside, or does something come from outside to make one?"

"Surely it is a combination of the two. It is with us as it is with
plants. From outside comes the rain and the sun, which make them grow,
but all the same it is from within that this growth comes, so that they
put forth leaves and flowers."

Daisy sighed.

"What a lot of time I wasted," she said. "To think that Willie was
waiting so long before I could see him as he was. Yes, I know what the
sun and the rain were in my case. They were you, you darling, when for
my sake and poor Diana's you did what you did."

"Ah, my dear," said Jeannie, "we need not speak of that."

"But I want to just once--just to tell you that it was you who opened my
eyes. And it wasn't my eyes alone you opened. It was his too--Tom's, I
mean. He knows that, and he told me so."

"That is quite enough about me," said Jeannie, with decision. "Daisy, I
wish Tom would marry. Can't we find some nice girl for him?"

"Oh, we can find a hundred nice girls for him," said Daisy, "and he will
respectfully reject them all. He doesn't want any nice girl. Oh, Aunt
Jeannie, why shouldn't I say it? He's in love with you. I think he
always will be. Some people might call it sad, but I don't think it is
at all. The thought of you makes him so tremendously happy."

Daisy plaited Jeannie's long white fingers in with her own.

"I think it's one of the nicest things that ever happened," she said.
"It's like some old legend of a man who has--well, racketed about all
his life, and then suddenly finds his ideal, which, though she is quite
out of reach, entirely satisfies him. He is so fond of Uncle Victor too.
That's so nice of him, and so natural, since Uncle Victor is your
husband. It's just what the man in the legend would do."

Jeannie gave a long, happy sigh.

"Oh, I thank Heaven for my friends," she said.

"They thank Heaven for you," said Daisy softly.

* * * * *

April continue