about a horse and a yacht except how to pay for
them, poor boy," returned Eloise.

"Is he poor?"

"Yes, he is poor and expensive. It is a bad combination; it is almost
as bad as being poor and extravagant. His mother is a widow, and
they haven't much, but what there was she has insisted on spending on
him--that is, all she could spare from the doctor's bills."

"She needs Science then, doesn't she?"

"Jewel, that would be one thing that would keep me from wanting to be
a Scientist. What's the fun of being one unless everybody else is? My
mother, for instance."

"Yes; but then you'd find out how to help her."

Eloise glanced at the child curiously. She thought it would be
interesting to peep into Jewel's mind and see her estimate of Aunt
Madge.

"My mother has a great deal to trouble her," she said loyally.

"Yes, I know she thinks she has," returned the child.

Again her response surprised her companion.

"I'll take you as you are, Jewel," she said. "I'm glad you're not grown
up. You're fresher from the workshop."

CHAPTER XXI

AN EFFORT FOR TRUTH

When Eloise spoke in the ravine of talking with her grandfather, it was
because for a few days she had been trying to make up her mind to an
interview with him. A fortnight ago she would have felt this to be
impossible; but subtle changes had been going on in herself, and, she
thought, in him. If her mother would undertake the interview now and
take that stand with Mr. Evringham which Eloise felt that self-respect
demanded, the girl would gladly escape it; but there was no prospect
of such a thing. Mrs. Evringham was only too glad to benefit by her
father-in-law's modified mood, to glide along the surface of things
and wait--Eloise knew it, knew it every day, in moments when her cheeks
flushed hot--for Dr. Ballard to throw the handkerchief.

The girl wished to talk with Mr. Evringham without her mother's
knowledge, and the prospect was a dreaded ordeal. She felt that they had
won his contempt, and she feared the loss of her own self-control when
she should come to touch upon the sore spots.

"What would you do, Jewel," she asked the next morning, after they had
read the lesson; "what would you do if you were afraid of somebody?"

"I wouldn't be," returned the child quickly.

"Well, I am. Now what am I going to do about it?"

Anna Belle, who always gave unwinking attention to the lesson, was in
Jewel's lap, and the child twisted out the in-turning m