g very queer about a girl who thinks like that.
'Tisn't natural. I really shouldn't allow her to stay and associate
with Bet."

"We'll leave that to Colonel Baxter, he'll know what to do."

"Him? He'll shake hands with that girl as if she were the Queen of
Sheba or that Mary Antynetty he talks about. And after that she can
have the run of the house."

"That's so, that's so!" agreed Nat Gibbs from long habit of agreeing
with his wife. But while Auntie Gibbs stormed, and at times, raged
over the way the Colonel was training his daughter, she never did try
to take matters into her own hands, as she often threatened to do.

"'Tain't his system that's working, let me tell you. It just happens."

Then after having had her say, the old woman dropped the subject to
bustle about her kitchen and prepare a special supper for Bet and her
chums, a thing she loved to do.

When Kit was led into the great entrance hall, she could only stare in
amazement. It was as grand as she had imagined the palace of a king
might be. The stained-glass windows that usually sent shafts of
colored light across the floor, now gave a somber effect as of a
dimly-lighted cathedral. A broad, winding stairway led to the floor
above.

Kit stood in the center of the hall transfixed by what she saw. It was
not the statue of Youth that held her attention. From a golden frame
on the wall a face smiled down upon her and it was hard for the girl to
believe that it was only a portrait. A fleeting smile seemed to play
about the mouth, the delicately curved lips almost quivered and the
brown eyes sparkled with joy.

Kit's hands instinctively went out toward the beautiful woman. She
stood there smiling up at the portrait, and forgot the girls as they
chattered about her.

Bet, who had been watching her closely, ran impulsively to her and
threw both arms around the girl's neck.

"Oh you dear, darling thing! I knew you would! You love her already
just the same as Shirley and Joy and I do."

"Who is she?" Kit's voice was hardly more than a whisper, she acted as
if she had suddenly been brought back to earth after a flight in the
clouds.

"It's our Lady of the Manor, Lady Betty Merriweather!"

"O--oh!" gasped Kit, without taking her eyes from the smiling eyes in
the picture.

"Come along upstairs, Kit," called Joy as she took the steps two at a
time. But the stranger felt that she was on sacred ground and could
not have romped as Joy did.