, and you were in one of your naughty moods."

"Oh, Max, don't!" Lulu said in a choking voice, as she turned and walked
away, hot tears in her eyes.

Max ran after her. "Come, Lu, don't take it so hard; I didn't mean to be
cruel."

"But you were! Go away! you've got me into one of my moods, as you call
it, and I'd better be let alone," she returned almost fiercely, jerking
herself loose--for he had caught a fold of her dress in his hand--and
rushing away to the farther end of the grounds, where she threw herself
on a rustic seat panting with excitement and the rapidity of her flight.

But the gust of passion died down almost as speedily as it had arisen;
she could never be angry very long with Max, her dear, only brother; and
now her thoughts turned remorsefully upon the conduct he had condemned.
It was no news to her that she had more than once caused her father much
anxiety and grief of heart, nor was it a new thing for her to be
repentant and remorseful on account of her unfilial behavior.

"Oh, why can't I be as good as Max and Gracie?" she said to herself,
covering her face with her hands and sighing heavily. "I wish papa was
here so I could tell him again how sorry I am, and how dearly I do love
him though I am so often naughty. I am glad I did tell him, and that he
forgave me and told me he loved me just as well as any other of his
children. How good in him to say that! I wonder if Evelyn Leland ever
behaved badly to her father. If she ever was naughty to him, how sorry
she must feel about it now!"

During the remainder of the short visit at Lansdale, and all through the
homeward journey, Lulu's thoughts often turned upon Evelyn, and she had
scarcely alighted from the carriage on their arrival at Ion before she
sent a sweeping glance around the welcoming group on the veranda, in
eager search of the young stranger.

Yes, there she was, a little slender girl in deep mourning, standing
slightly apart from the embracing, rejoicing relatives. She was not
decidedly pretty, but graceful and refined in appearance, with an
earnest, intelligent countenance and very fine eyes. She seemed quite
free from self-consciousness and wholly taken up with the interest of the
scenes being enacted before her.

"How many of them there are! and how they love one another! how nice it
is!" she was thinking within herself, when the two Elsies, releasing each
other from a long, tender embrace, turned toward her, the older one
sayin