may feel quite like an heiress, but I
warn you that a big city is a glutton and its avaricious maw is always
open for money. Be warned by one who knows. If you need any advice of
any nature that a man can give better than Miss Merriman, I want you to
promise to call on Phil ... Dr. Bentley, that is, for I mean to put you
in his charge. You can trust him just as you do me."

"I know that," answered Rose frankly.

"Well, here we are, little sister. Don't tell any one what I have just
told you, for I want to make all my preliminary arrangements before I
astound the world with the announcement of what I am going to do."

"You needn't laugh," answered Rose. "I guess that it will dismay plenty
of Back Bay families who have babies."

There was a catch in her voice as she bade him good-night, and she was
not sorry for an excuse for running into the hospital, offered by the
mellow notes of a distant church clock tolling the hour of ten. It was
the signal for "lights out" in the bedrooms, and this was appreciated,
too, for it made it possible for her to undress in the dark, and the
pale moonlight which came in through the window, as the moon played
hide and seek behind the broken masses of storm clouds--for the blizzard
had ended as quickly as it had come on--was reflected on two glistening
tear drops on her flushed cheeks. In the darkness her roommate could not
see them and be led to ask questions.

The two girls, one the self-educated, unknown child of the southern
mountain side, the other the college-bred daughter of one of New
England's oldest families, had become fast friends and generally
exchanged whispered confidences until the sleep which comes of physical
exhaustion speedily claimed them; but to-night Rose was in no mood for
conversation.

The last thread which bound the old life to the new was soon to be
broken, and she felt lonelier, more nearly homesick, than she had since
leaving Webb's Gap.

"Perhaps I shall never see him again," she half whispered. "But I shall
never, _never_ forget him, he has been so good and meant so much to me.
And I shall always love him." She saw that her roommate was asleep,
softly raised the window-shade to let in the moonlight that she loved,
and, clad in her simple nightdress, short sleeved and cut low at the
neck, seated herself before the mirror to brush her wavy mass of hair,
and, as she leaned forward, and it fell about her face, tear bedewed and
made almost childlike again b