e belonged to poor, dead Arthur's
wife? Oh, my generous darling! Poor dead Arthur! and the poor young wife
who died with him!"

For some time Pamela said nothing, but Theo felt the slender, worn form,
that her arms clasped so warmly, tremble within them, and the bosom on
which she had laid her loving, impassioned face throb strangely. But she
spoke at length.

"I will not say it is not a sacrifice," she said. "I should not speak
truly if I did. I have never told you of these things before, and why I
kept them; because such a life as ours does not make people understand
one another very clearly; but to-night, I remembered that I was a girl
too once, though the time seems so far away; and it occurred to me that
it was in my power to help you to a happier womanhood than mine has
been. I shall not let you refuse the things. I offer them to you, and
expect you to accept them, as they are offered--freely."

Neither protest nor reasoning was of any avail. The elder sister meant
what she said, with just the settled precision that demonstrated itself
upon even the most trivial occasions; and Theo was fain to submit now,
as she would have done in any smaller matter.

"When the things are of no further use, you may return them to me,"
Pamela said, dryly as ever. "A little managing will make everything as
good as new for you now. The fashion only needs to be changed, and we
have ample material. There is a gray satin on the bed there, that will
make a very pretty dinner-dress. Look at it, Theo."

Theo rose from her knees with the tears scarcely dry in her eyes. She
had never seen such dresses in Downport before. These things of Pamela's
had only come from London the day of Arthur's death, and had never been
opened for family inspection. Some motherly instinct, even in Mrs.
North's managing economy, had held them sacred, and so they had rested.
And now, in her girl's admiration of the thick, trailing folds of the
soft gray satin, Theodora very naturally half forgot her tears.

"Pamela!" she said, timidly, "do you think I could make it with a train?
I never did wear a train, you know, and--"

There was such a quaint appeal in her mellow-lighted eyes, that Pamela
perceptibly softened.

"You shall have half a dozen trains if you want them," she said; and
then, half-falteringly, added, "Theo, there is something else. Come
here."

There was a little carven ebony-box upon the dressing-table, and she
went to it and opened it. Upo