"Oh, yes, it will," said Willard with assurance. "I am quite certain
she will like everything you like. I can never thank you enough for
helping me. If you hadn't consented I should have had to put it into
the hands of some outsider whom I couldn't have helped at all. And I
_wanted_ to help. I wanted to have a finger in everything, because it
is for her, you see, Miss Sally. It will be such a delight to fix up
this little house, knowing that she is coming to live in it."

"I wonder if you really mean it," said Miss Sally bitterly. "Oh, I
dare say you think you do. But _do_ you? Perhaps you do. Perhaps you
are the exception that proves the rule."

This was a great admission for Miss Sally to make.

For the next two months Miss Sally was happy. Even Willard himself was
not more keenly interested in Eden and its development. Miss Sally did
wonders with his money. She was an expert at bargain hunting, and her
taste was excellent. A score of times she mercilessly nipped Willard's
suggestions in the bud. "Lace curtains for the living room--never!
They would be horribly out of place in such a house. You don't want
curtains at all--just a frill is all that quaint window needs, with a
shelf above it for a few bits of pottery. I picked up a love of a
brass platter in town yesterday--got it for next to nothing from that
old Jew who would really rather _give_ you a thing than suffer you to
escape without taking something. Oh, I know how to manage them."

"You certainly do," laughed Willard. "It amazes me to see how far you
can stretch a dollar."

Willard did the painting under Miss Sally's watchful eye, and they
hung the paper together. Together they made trips to town or junketed
over the country in search of furniture and dishes of which Miss Sally
had heard. Day by day the little house blossomed into a home, and day
by day Miss Sally's interest in it grew. She began to have a personal
affection for its quaint rooms and their adornments. Moreover, in
spite of herself, she felt a growing interest in Willard's bride. He
never told her the name of the girl he hoped to bring to Eden, and
Miss Sally never asked it. But he talked of her a great deal, in a
shy, reverent, tender way.

"He certainly seems to be very much in love with her," Miss Sally told
Joyce one evening when she returned from Eden. "I would believe in him
if it were possible for me to believe in a man. Anyway, she will have
a dear little home. I've almost come