er own reflection in the
glass, "had the taste in such matters of some other members of our
family and could manage to lend me a helping hand now and then, why I
could almost imagine I had my younger sister back with me again, who
with her skill in making one look fit for the eyes of the world, was
such a blessing to us in our old home."

"I have no doubt Paula could be taught to be equally efficient," her
husband responded, carefully restraining any further show of impatience.
"She is bright, I am certain, and ribbon-tying is not such a very
difficult art, is it?"

"I don't know about that; by the way Sarah succeeds I should say it was
about on a par with the science of algebra or--what is that horrid study
they used to threaten to inflict me with at the academy whenever I
complained of a headache? Oh I remember--conic sections."

"Well, well," laughed her husband, "she ought soon to to be an expert in
it then; Paula is a famous little mathematician."

A silence followed this response; Mrs. Sylvester was fitting in her
ear-rings. "I suppose," said she when the operation was completed, "that
the snow will prevent half the people from coming to-night." It was a
reception evening at the Sylvester mansion. "But so long as Mrs.
Fitzgerald does not disappoint me, I do not care. What do you think of
the setting of these diamonds?" she inquired, leaning forward to look at
herself more closely, and slowly shaking her head till the rich gems
sparkled like fire.

"It is good," came in short, quick tones from the lips of her husband.

"Well, I don't know, there might be a shade more of enamel on the edge
of that ring. I shall speak to the jeweller about it to-morrow. But what
were we talking about?" she dreamily asked, still turning her head from
side to side before the mirror.

"We were talking about adopting your cousin in the place of our child
who is dead," replied her husband with some severity, pausing in the
middle of the floor which he was pacing, to honor her with a steady
glance.

"O yes! Dear me! what an awkward clasp that man has given to these rings
after all. You will have to fasten them for me." Then as he stepped
forward with studied courtesy, yawned just a trifle and remarked, "No
one could ever take the place of one's own child of course. If Geraldine
had lived she would have been a blonde, her eyes were blue as
sapphires."

He looked in his wife's face and his hands dropped. He thought of the
day w