aid, and her voice sounded like the song
of a mother bird. "Poor lamb; poor, blessed child! It was a shame she
was so frightened, but she is safe now. Now go to sleep if you can,
dear child; it will do you good."

Charlotte smiled helplessly and gratefully, and after a happy stare
around the room, with its scroll-work of green on the walls,
reflecting green gloom from closed blinds, and another look of
childish wonder into the loving eyes bent over her, she closed her
own. Presently Mrs. Anderson tiptoed out into the sitting-room, where
Randolph was waiting, standing bolt-upright in the middle of the room
staring at the bedroom door. She beckoned him across the hall into
the opposite room, the parlor. The parlor had a musty smell which was
not unpleasant; in fact, slightly aromatic. There were wooden
shutters which were tightly closed, all except one, through an
opening in which a sunbeam came and transversed the room in a shaft
of glittering motes.

"What scared her so?" demanded Mrs. Anderson. She had upon her a new
authority. Anderson felt as if he had reverted to his childhood. He
explained. "Well," said his mother, "the poor child has had an awful
shock, and she is lucky if she isn't down sick with a fever. I don't
like to see anybody look the way she did. But I'm thankful the man
didn't see her."

"He might have been harmless enough," said Anderson.

Mrs. Anderson sniffed. "I don't see many harmless-looking ones round
here," said she. "An awful-looking tramp came to the door this
morning. I shouldn't wonder if it was the same one. I guess she will
be all right now. She looked quieted down, but she had an awful
shock, poor child."

"I wonder when I ought to take her home," said Anderson.

"Not for two hours," said his mother, decidedly. "She is going to
stay here till she gets rested and is a little over it."

"Perhaps she had better," said Anderson; "her folks may have gone on
a long drive, too."

"Did you know her before?" asked his mother, suddenly, and a sharp
expression came into her soft, blue eyes.

"I have seen her in the store," replied Anderson, and he was
conscious of coloring.

"She knew you, then?" said his mother.

"Yes. She was in the store this morning."

"It was lucky you were there."

"Oh, as for that, she was in no danger," said Anderson, coolly. "The
tramp had gone."

"If you hadn't been there, I believe that poor little thing would
have fainted dead away and lain there, nobo