chie's rusty
white mare plodded up and up the mountain road. "Ozone--and
aromatic--and exhilarating! In town it was a little oppressive
to-day--Anna and I were quite wilted!"

"You don't look wilted!" Richie smiled at his goddaughter, who was in
her mother's arms. "Look, Ju--there's columbine! Loads of it up near my
place!" "And the wild currant, with that delicious pungent smell!"
sighed Julia blissfully. "What's new with you, Richie?" she asked
presently.

"Oh, nothing much! Cable from Bab yesterday, but you must have had one,
too?"

"Yes, I did. A third boy!" Julia laughed. "Poor Bab--when she wanted a
girl so badly!"

"I suppose she did," grinned Richard.

"Oh, of course she did! Who wouldn't?" Julia hugged her own girl. "And
isn't it glorious about Keith?" she added, with sudden enthusiasm.

"Is it? I suppose it is," Richie said. "But then those old guys in
Germany called him a genius long before New York did, and you girls
didn't make so much fuss!"

"Oh, but Richie, there's so much money in this American tour; three
concerts in New York alone, think of it!" Julia protested eagerly. "And
Sally's letter sounded so gay; they were having a perfectly glorious
time. I hope they come to San Francisco!"

"Well, she deserves it," Richie observed, flicking the rusty mare with a
whip she superbly ignored. "Sally's had a pretty rotten time of it for
seven or eight years--paying his lesson bills when she didn't have
enough to eat or shoes to wear--and losing the baby----"

"I don't believe all that meant as much to Sally as you think," Julia
said sagely. "Her entire heart was set upon Keith's success, and that
has come along pretty steadily. Her letter to me about the baby wasn't
the sort I should have written; indeed, I couldn't have written at all!
And then that was four years ago, Richie, and four years is a long
time!"

"It is!" Richie agreed. "Keith's about all the baby she'll ever want;
those fellows take an awful lot of spoiling. But I get more pleasure
from Mother's and Dad's pleasure than for Sally herself," he added.
"Mother saves up newspaper accounts, and has this translated from the
German and that from the French--it's sort of pathetic to see! Dad and
Janey are in New York now; something was said last night about their
going over to see Bab."

"Ted and your mother are alone, then? How's Ted?"

"Oh, driving Mother crazy, as usual. She'd flirt with the Portuguese
milkman if she had a chance. She c