an. She packed the gifts which
she had bought for her father and Evelyn and Ida, and took them to
the express office. The day after that she received the remembrances
of which Ida spoke. They were very pretty. Aunt Maria thought them
extravagant. Ida had sent her a tiny chatelaine watch, and her father
a ring set with a little diamond. Maria knew perfectly well how her
father's heart ached when he sent the ring. She never for one moment
doubted him. She wrote him a most loving letter, and even a deceptive
letter, because of her affection. She repeated what Ida had written,
that it was a long journey, and expensive, and she did not think it
best for her to go home, although she had longed to do so.

Ida sent Aunt Maria a set of Shakespeare. When it was unpacked, Aunt
Maria looked shrewdly at her niece.

"How many sets of Shakespeare has she got?" she inquired. "Do you
know, Maria?"

Maria admitted that she thought she had two.

"I miss my guess but she has another exactly just like this," said
Aunt Maria. "Well, I don't mean to be ungrateful, and I know
Shakespeare is called a great writer, and they who like him can read
him. I would no more sit down and read all those books through,
myself, than I would read Webster's Dictionary."

Maria laughed.

"You can take this set of books up in your room, if you want them,"
said Aunt Maria. "For my part I consider it an insult for her to send
Shakespeare to me. She must have known I had never had anything to do
with Shakespeare. She might just as well have sent me a crown. Now,
your father he has more sense. He sent me this five-dollar gold-piece
so I could buy what I wanted with it. He knew that he didn't know
what I wanted. Your father's a good man, Maria, but he was weak when
he married her; I've got to say it."

"I don't think father was weak at all!" Maria retorted, with spirit.

"Of course, I expect you to stand up for your father, that is right.
I wouldn't have you do anything else," Aunt Maria said approvingly.
"But he was weak."

"She could have married almost anybody," said Maria, gathering up the
despised set of books. She was very glad of them to fill up the small
bamboo bookcase in her own room, and, beside, she did not share her
aunt's animosity to Shakespeare. She purchased some handkerchiefs for
her aunt, with the covert view of recompensing her for the loss of
Ida's present, and Aunt Maria was delighted with them.

"If she had had the sense to send m