it, she wrote and told me that
she, too, had been obliged by her husband's death to earn her own
living, and that she had established this school in her
great-grandmother's old mansion. She offered me the position of
professional nurse here. I came on the next steamer, and have been here
ever since.

"You don't know how many times I've thought how different my life would
have been if she had failed in that one little matter of sending a
yearly letter. No doubt it was a bore to her oftentimes, but it was the
line that kept us in touch and finally drew me to this happy anchorage.
Alicia Chartley is a great woman, my dear. She has left her imprint on
every girl who has passed through this school, and there'll be a long
line of them to rise up and call her blessed. Not so much for the fine
ladies she has made of them with her high-bred ways and ideals, but for
the example she has set them always in that one thing. No matter in how
small a duty, she has never once failed to keep the tryst."

Lloyd would have liked to ask some questions about Madam's girlhood, but
some one called Miss Gilmer into the office just then, so, taking the
tray with its empty cup and plate, she passed out. Lloyd thumped her
pillows and lay looking out of the window at the sparrows on the balcony
railing. All the ache was gone, and, with a delightful sense of
drowsiness and of well-being, she began slipping into a little doze.
Even illness had its bright side, she thought, languidly. She liked Miss
Gilmer's reminiscences. They opened into a world so delightfully
English. When she came back she would ask for more stories. Down from
the distant music-room stole the faint echo of one of the carols. She
opened her eyes to listen.

"God rest you, merry Christians,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Christ our Lord and Saviour
Was born on Christmas Day."

Lloyd liked that carol. "'Let nothing you dismay,'" she repeated,
softly. "No, it doesn't really make any difference what happens," she
thought, closing her eyes again and curling up like a sleepy kitten. "It
will all come right in the end, as it did with Miss Gilmer. I'll not
worry about missing so many lessons and so many pearls on my rosary.
I'll just be thankful for Christmas and all it brings."

Again through her drowsy senses echoed the refrain, and she dropped to
sleep, repeating, slowly, "'Let--nothing--you--dismay!'"

CHAPTER VI.

CHRISTMAS