he went out, she had a dim consciousness in her
mental background of Sophia's eyes following her, of Sophia's thoughts
upon her trail, of Sophia's face peering from the bay-window as she went
from one door to another. She begged some slips, and put a half dozen
new flower-pots on a bracket-shelf in the window, in order to obscure
the casual view, and left the inner curtain drawn.

She came in one day, and there was that inner curtain strung wide open,
and the sun pouring through the plants in a broad radiance. Before she
took off her bonnet she stepped to the window and drew the curtain.

"Oh!" cried Mrs. Maybury, "what made you do that? The sunshine is so
pleasant."

"I can't have the sun streaming in here and taking all the color out of
my carpet, Sophia!" said Julia, with some asperity.

"But the sun is so very healthy," urged Mrs. Maybury.

"Oh, well! I can't be getting a new carpet every day."

"You feel," said Mrs. Maybury, turning away wrath, "as you did when you
were a little girl, and the teacher told you to lay your wet slate in
your lap: 'It'll take the fade out of my gown,' said you. How long ago
is it! Does it seem as if it were you and I?"

"I don't know," said Julia tartly. "I don't bother myself much with
abstractions. I know it is you and I." And she put her things on the
hall-rack, as she was going out again in the afternoon to bible-class.

She had no sooner gone out than Mrs. Maybury went and strung up every
curtain in the house where the sun was shining, and sat down
triumphantly and rocked contentedly for five minutes in the glow, when
her conscience overcame her, and she put them all down again, and went
out into the kitchen for a little comfort from Allida. But Allida had
gone out, too; so she came back to the sitting-room, and longed for the
stir and bustle and frequent faces of the tavern, and welcomed a
book-canvasser presently as if she had been a dear friend.

Perhaps Julia's conscience stirred a little, too; for she came home
earlier than usual, put away her wraps, lighted an extra lamp, and said,
"Now we'll have a long, cosy evening to ourselves."

"We might have a little game of cards," said Sophia, timidly. "I know a
capital double solitaire--"

"Cards!" cried Julia.

"Why--why not?"

"Cards! And I just came from bible-class!"

"What in the world has that got to do with it?"

"Everything!"

"Why, the Doctor and I used--"

"That doesn't make it any better."

"Why, J