nd tender little fancies, which Bea had not
the courage to confess to others, and Ernestine, bolstered up with
pillows, would listen, and now and then, do a little of the pretty work
that was going on to the bridal garments.

After a while, when she grew strong enough to talk more, and cough less,
she told them of her life, while they had been separated, and the girls
never forgot the day on which they listened to it. She was partly
sitting up in bed, as colorless as the snowy ruffled linen about her,
with her beautiful golden hair in the old-time waves, and curly ends;
her lovely eyes, with their liquid brown lights and heavy lashes, and
the dainty ruffles to her snowy night-dress, fastened at the throat with
a fragile bit of coral, that seemed to throw a shade of its exquisite
coloring into her stainless face.

It was a lovely home-scene, for the girls were sewing in their low
rocking-chairs, Olive was sketching at the window, Mrs. Dering sat at
the bedside holding Ernestine's hand, and over them all the autumn
sunshine fell, warm and sweet, as with a touch of loving benediction;
and the trill of Jeanie's canary down stairs, was the only sound, save
Ernestine's low voice, sad and sweet, in its feebleness.

"I went on the midnight train, you know," she was saying. "It seemed
terrible, and with all the people around, I felt as if I was the only
person out in the night. Oh, it is too horrible to feel so alone and as
though no one knew, or cared where you were going, or what terrible
trouble you might be in. Nearly everybody in the car was asleep, and
there was only one lady; so I sat down behind her, and for a long time I
was so miserable myself that I didn't notice her; then her baby woke up,
and began to cry, so did her little girl, and I saw that she was sick or
something; so in a little bit, I spoke to her, and asked if I could do
anything. She said no, at first, but afterwards said if I would take the
baby a moment, as she felt so sick and faint; so I did, and he seemed so
astonished that he stopped crying, and then the little girl wanted to
come over in my seat, and I helped her over, and told the lady to lie
down, as she looked very pale. I knew she was astonished at my being
alone, and thought that she might ask my name, and after thinking about
it a while, I decided to take my very own name, my--mother's," with a
little choke over the name. "She did ask me in a little while, said I
looked so young, and why was