o do credit to my efforts." And finding the bird
incorrigible in his shrill singing, she moved over to the cage, where
she stood balancing her white finger for the bird to peck at, with a
pretty caressing motion of her lip, the little Geraldine of the wistful
blue eyes, had never seen.

"You are welcome to do what you please in such matters," was her
husband's reply. He was thinking again of that same little Geraldine; a
fall of snow like the present always made him think of her and her
innocent query as to whether God threw down such big flakes to amuse
little children. "I give you _carte blanche_," said he with sudden
emphasis.

Mrs. Sylvester paused in her attentions to the bird to give him a sharp
little look which might have aroused his surprise if he had been
fortunate enough to see it. But his back was towards her, and there was
nothing in the languidly careless tone with which she responded, to
cause him to turn his head. "I see that you would really like to have me
entertain the child; but--"

She paused, pursing up her lips to meet the chattering bird's caress,
while her husband in his impatience drummed with his fingers on the
pane.

--"I must see her before I decide upon the length of her visit,"
continued she, as weary with the sport she drew back to give herself a
final look in the glass. "Will you please to hand me that shawl,
Edward."

He turned with alacrity. In his relief he could have kissed the snowy
neck held so erectly before him, as he drew around it the shawl he had
hastily lifted from the chair at his side. But that would not have
suited this calm and languid beauty who disliked any too overt tribute
to her charms and saved her caresses for her bird. Besides it would look
like gratitude, and gratitude would be misplaced towards a wife who had
just indicated her acceptance of his offer to receive a relative of her
own into his house.

"She might as well come at once," was her final remark, as satisfied at
last with the lay of every ribbon she swept in finished elegance from
the room. "Mrs. Kittredge's reception comes off a week from Thursday,
and I should like to see how a dark beauty with a fair skin would look
in that new shade of heliotrope."

And so the battle was over and the victory won; for Mrs. Sylvester for
all her seeming indifference was never known to change a decision she
had once made. As he realized the fact, as he meditated that ere long
this very room which had been the