se came to
the rescue.

"Never mind. We'll go up and look the lists over after she has finished
them all."

"Oh, can we? Will you truly go with me?" Lila drew a quick breath of
relief and gratitude. This was one of the precious privileges of having
found a friend. She gazed at Bea with such an adorable half-wistful,
half-joyful smile on her delicate face that Bea never quite forgot the
sensation of realizing that it was meant wholly for her. The memory of it
returned again and again in later days when Lila's exacting ways seemed
beyond endurance. For Lila's nature was one of those that give all and
demand all and suffer in a myriad mysterious ways.

On the afternoon of that Saturday when Bea skipped up the narrow tower
stairs to invite Lila to go to the orchard to gather a scrapbasket full
of apples, she discovered the door locked. In answer to her lively
rat-tattoo and gay call over the transom, she heard the key turn.

Bea started to dash in; then after one glance stopped and fumbled
uneasily with the knob. In her happy-go-lucky childhood with many
brothers and sisters at home, tears had always an embarrassing effect.

"Let's--let's go to the orchard," she stammered. "It's lovely, and the
fresh air will help your--your headache." She had a boyish notion that
anybody would prefer to excuse heavy eyes by calling it headache rather
than tears.

Lila pointed to the bed which was half made up.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded in agonized reproach. "I thought
the maids attended to the beds here. I left the mattress turned over the
foot all day long, and the door was wide open. Everybody in the
neighborhood must have looked in and then decided that I was lazy and
shiftless. They believe that I have been brought up to let things go
undone like that. They do, they do! Miss Merriam just the same as said
so. She poked in her head a minute ago and said, 'Heigho, little one,
time to make up your bed. It has aired long enough and the maid is not
expected to do it.' She said that to me! Oh, I hate her!" Lila caught her
breath hard.

Bea opened her candid eyes wider in astonished curiosity. "But didn't you
want to know about the maid?"

"She mortified me. Do you know how it feels to be mortified? The--the
awfulness--" Lila stopped and swallowed once or twice as if something
stuck in her throat. "She might have told me in a different manner so as
not to wound me so heartlessly. She isn't a lady."

"Please." Bea twi