ot heard of that from you yet."

"She is looking rather pale and thin, Tante; but she is quite well
again; already she will go out into the garden," Karen answered, with,
perhaps, an evident relief.

"That is well," said Madame von Marwitz with quiet satisfaction. "That
is well. I cannot think of Tallie as ill. She is never ill. It is
perhaps the peaceful, happy life she leads--_povera_--that preserves
her. And the air, the wonderful air of our Cornwall. I fixed on Cornwall
for the sake of Tallie, in great part; I sought for a truly halcyon spot
where that faithful one might end her days in joy. You knew that,
Karen?"

"No, Tante; you never told me that."

"It is so," Madame von Marwitz continued to muse, her eyes on the fire,
"It is so. I have given great thought to my Tallie's happiness. She has
earned it." And after a moment, in the same quiet tone, she went on.
"This idea of yours, my Karen, of bringing Tallie up to town; was it
wise, do you think?"

Karen, also, had been looking at the flames. She brought her eyes now
back to her guardian. "Wasn't it wise, Tante? We had asked her to come
and stay--long ago, you know."

"Had she seemed eager?"

"Eager? No; I can't imagine Mrs. Talcott eager about anything. We hoped
we could persuade her, that was all. Why not wise, Tante?"

"Only, my child, that after the quiet life there, the solitude that she
loves and that I chose for her sake, the pure sea air and the life among
her flowers, London, I fear, would much weary and fatigue her. Tallie is
getting old. We must not forget that Tallie is very old. This illness
warns us. It does not seem to me a good plan. It was your plan, Karen?"

Karen was listening, with a little bewilderment. "It seemed, to me very
good. I had not thought of Mrs. Talcott as so old as that. I always
think of her as old, but so strong and tough. It was Gregory who
suggested it, in the first place, and this time, too. When I told him
that I was going he thought of our plan at once and told me that now I
must persuade her to come to us for a good long visit. He is really very
fond of Mrs. Talcott, Tante, and she of him, I think. It would please
you to see them together."

Karen spoke on innocently; but, as she spoke, she became aware from a
new steadiness in her guardian's look, that her words had conveyed some
significance of which she was herself unconscious.

Madame von Marwitz's hand had tightened on hers. "Ah," she said after a
moment