d disagreeably. "I'm just going up to look
over some of my mother's things." And she turned to the back stairway,
and went up, closing the door behind her.

Mr. Luddington gazed after her a second; and then, taking his glasses
off and wiping them energetically, he remarked:

"Well, well, bless my soul! It must be getting late! We've had such a
good time I didn't realize. Those certainly were good buckwheats, Miss
Cloud. I shan't forget them very soon. And now I suppose we'd better
get down to business. Could we just go into the other room there, and
close the door for a few minutes, not to be interrupted?" and he cast
an anxious glance toward the stair-door again.

Julia Cloud smiled understandingly, and ushered them into the little
parlor ablaze with fall sunshine, its windows wreathed about with
crimsoning woodbine; and, as she caught the glow and glint from the
window, she remembered the gray evening when she had looked out across
into her future as she supposed it would be. How beautiful and
wonderful that the gray had changed to glow! As she sat down to enter
into the contract that was to bind her to a new and wonderful life
with great responsibilities and large possibilities, her heart,
accustomed to look upward, sent a whisper of thanksgiving heavenward.

The details did not take long, after all; for Mr. Luddington was a
keen business man, and he had gone over the whole proposition, and had
the plan in writing for her to sign, telling just what were her duties
and responsibilities with regard to his wards, just how much money she
would have for housekeeping and servants and other expenses, and the
salary she would receive herself for accepting this care.

"You're practically in a position of mother to them, you know," he
said, beaming at her genially; "and I declare I never laid eyes on a
woman that I thought could fill the part better!"

Julia Cloud was quite overwhelmed. But the matter of the salary
troubled her.

"I think it should not be a matter of money," she demurred. "I would
rather do it for love, you know."

"Love's all right!" said the old man, smiling; "but this thing has got
to be on a business basis, or the terms of the will will not allow me
to agree to it. You see what you are going to undertake means work,
and it means sticking to it; and you deserve pay for it, and we're not
going to accept several of the best years out of your life for
nothing. Besides, you've got to feel free to give