sment she began to talk.

"Did you know that Cousin Kate is going to let me live with you always?"
she asked.

"Yes; mamma told me."

"Isn't she good?" went on Candace, impulsively. "I can hardly believe
yet that it is true. What makes you all so very, very kind to me, I
can't think."

"I haven't been particularly kind," said Gertrude, suddenly.
"Candace,--I might as well say it at once, for it's been a good deal on
my mind lately,--I wish you would forget how nasty I was when you first
came to us."

"Were you nasty?" said Candace, trying to speak lightly, but with a
flush creeping into her face.

[Illustration: THE CLIFFS.

"I shall always love this rock," said Candace.--PAGE 281.]

"Yes, I was; very nasty. I didn't care to have you come, in the first
place; and I thought you seemed awkward and countrified, and I didn't
like your clothes, and I was afraid the girls here would laugh at you.
It was a mean sort of feeling, and the worst thing is that I didn't
see that it was mean. I was ashamed of you; but now I am ashamed,
dreadfully ashamed, of myself. I felt so much wiser and more knowing
than you then; and yet when Georgie, my own sister, got into this
dreadful trouble and came to me for help, I had none to give her. I was
as much a coward as she was. I gave her bad advice; and it was you, whom
I laughed at and was unkind to, who saw what she ought to do, and was
brave and really helped. When I think of it all, I feel as if I couldn't
forgive myself."

"Why, Gertrude dear, don't!" cried Cannie; for Gertrude was almost
crying. "I don't wonder you didn't care for me at first. I was
dreadfully awkward and stupid. And you never were nasty to me. Don't say
such things! But"--with a shy longing to remove beyond question the
doubt which had troubled her--"you _do_ like me now? You are not sorry
that I am to stay and live with you?"

"Sorry! No; I am very, very glad. You are the best girl I know. It will
do me heaps of good to have you in the house."

"Oh, how delightful!" cried Cannie. "Now I haven't a thing to wish for.
It is all nonsense about my doing you good, but I am so glad you want me
to stay."

The two girls nestled closer and kissed each other, with a new sense of
friendship and liking. The west wind blew past, making little quick
eddies on the surface of the water. The gulls flew lower, their white
wings flashing close to the flashing surf; sails far out at sea gleamed
golden in the level rays of