er lesson,' she said to herself; and yet Eva
had made no confidences to her, nor had Mrs. Morrison said anything to
the girl about her private affairs. In fact, Vava was inclined to think
that the old woman was blind to Eva's faults, for she seemed to pet her
even more than the rest.

She would have been confirmed in this opinion if she had been down
earlier; for when Eva came into the kitchen and asked in a hurried way
if she could have a cup of tea, as she wanted to go earlier to town,
instead of saying she ought to have told her the evening before, Mrs.
Morrison said pleasantly, 'You can have your breakfast as soon as you
like. What train must you catch?'

'The 8.5,' replied Eva.

'Then you have twenty-five minutes to eat a good breakfast, and if you
will be so good as to sit by the fire and toast this bread I will have
it ready for you in five minutes,' declared the housekeeper.

It was a cold March morning, and Eva looked very chilly, and perhaps it
was that which made the kindly Scotchwoman suggest the toast and draw up
a chair for her before the bright kitchen fire, for as a matter of fact
she generally made it on the toaster.

Eva was only too glad to sit close to the fire and watch the good woman
moving so quietly about and yet getting everything so quickly. 'Let me
have it here, may I?' she cried impulsively, for the old woman's
presence and her motherly attentions soothed the girl.

'If you wish. I doubt if the sitting-room is very warm yet, so I'll put
your tray on this table near the fire, and you'll get well-warmed before
you go out, and that's the secret of not taking chills,' remarked the
old woman as she put a plate of crisp bacon on the tray and a hot roll
beside it.

'You are a lovely cook, Mrs. Morrison,' said Eva. 'When I'm rich I'd
like you to live with me.'

'If you want to be rich when you are old you must save when you are
young. I'm thinking of buying you all money-boxes and putting into them
all the money I save for you every week,' she observed, for she was
given the housekeeping money every week, on Saturday, and after putting
aside for the rent, the rest was left with her to do as she thought
best; and on the next Saturday she accounted for it to Stella and Amy,
who, she insisted, must go into the accounts and see how it all went,
and to their astonishment and delight there was always a small balance,
which they left with the housekeeper for emergencies.

'I don't know how you ma