omen laughed with pleasure at the sight of her.

"Mother," said she, with that lingering on the last consonant that marks
the hurt pride of a child, "why diddunt you wake me?"

"Because you were sleeping so nicely, Pussy!" Julia laughed, on her
knees by this time, with both arms about the little figure. "Give me a
thousand kisses and say 'I love my mother!'"

"I love my mother!" said Anna, her eyes roving the room over her
mother's shoulder. "I guess you don't know how hard you're squeezing me,
Mother!" she added. "Can I come out here in my wrapper, and have
breakfast with Regina?"

"Yes, let her, Julia!" Regina urged. "Come on, darling! Bring your bowl
up here to my end. Do sit down and eat something yourself, Julia."

"This is the way to enjoy breakfast; not twenty feet from the stove!"
Julia said, pouring the cream into her coffee. "Was Geraldine stirring
when you got up, Regina?"

"Not a stir!" Regina said cheerfully. "She and Morgan were talking last
night until two--I looked at the clock when she came upstairs! What they
have to talk about gets me!"

"Oh, my dear, engaged people could talk forever," Julia said leniently.
"They were househunting yesterday, there's always so much to talk
about!"

"It seems to me that the people who don't marry have the most fun,"
Regina said. "Look at Muriel and Evvy, the money they make! Evvy going
East for the firm every year, and Muriel getting her little twenty-five
a week. And then look at Rita, with four children to slave for--"

"Ah, well, Rita's husband doesn't work steadily, and she hates
housework--she admits it!" Julia protested swiftly. "Rita could do a
good deal, if she would."

"Rita gives me a great big pain," said her younger sister absently.

"A boy named Willis had a sword, and he hit a little boy with it, and
Mrs. Calhoun said it was a wonder he wasn't killed!" contributed Anna
suddenly, her eyes luminous from some thrilling recollection.

"Fancy!" Julia said. "Eat your oatmeal, Baby, and run upstairs and get
some clothes on!" she added briskly. "You'll catch cold!"

But there was no severity in the glance she turned upon her daughter.
Indeed, it would have been a stern heart that little Anna Studdiford's
first friendly glance did not melt. She had been exquisite from her
babyhood, she was so lovely now, as she emerged from irresponsible
infancy to thoughtful little girlhood, that Julia sometimes wondered how
she could preserve so much charm and bea