astily made plans; now she did not
quite know what to do. She knew that Barbara and the boys had gone back
to Richie in Mill Valley. Captain Fox was duck shooting in Novato, and
Constance had returned to her own home. But Ted and her little son
should be here, Janey, Jim, and the widowed mother.

Presently she found Mrs. Toland in the study, seated alone before a
dying fire. Julia kissed the shrivelled soft old cheek, catching as she
did so the faint odour of perfumed powder and fresh crepe.

"Where are the girls, darling, that you're here all alone?" she asked
affectionately.

"Oh, Julie dear! Isn't it nice to see you," Mrs. Toland said, "and so
fresh and rosy, like a breath of fresh air! Where are the girls? Bab's
with Richie, you know, and she took her boys and Ted's Georgie with her,
and Connie had to go home again. I think Ted and Janey went out for a
little walk before dinner."

"And haven't you been out, dear?"

Ready tears came to poor Mrs. Toland's eyes at the tender tone. She
began to beat lightly on Julia's hand with her own.

"I don't seem to want to, dearie," she said with difficulty; "the girls
keep telling me to, but--I don't know! I don't seem to want to. Papa and
I used to like to walk up and down in the garden--"

Speech became too difficult, and she stopped abruptly.

"I know," Julia said sorrowfully.

"It would have been thirty-five years this November," Mrs. Toland
presently said. "We were engaged in August and married in November.
Marriage is a wonderful thing, Julia--it's a wonderful thing! Papa was
very much smarter than I am--I always knew that! But after a while
people come to love each other partly for just that--the differences
between them! And you look back so differently on the mistakes you have
made. I've always been too easy on the girls, and Ned, too, and Papa
knew it, but he never reproached me!" She wiped her eyes quietly. "You
must have had a sensible mother, Julie," she added, after a moment;
"you're such a wise little thing!"

"I don't believe she was very wise," Julia said, smiling, "any more than
I am! I may not make the mistakes with Anna that Mama made with me, but
I'll make others! It's a sort of miracle to see her now, so brave and
good and contented, after all the storms I remember."

Mrs. Toland did not speak for a few moments, then she said:

"Julie, Jim's like a son of my own to me. You'll forgive a fussy old
woman, who loves her children, if she talks frank