ust, and those girls of
his simply couldn't stand it. They couldn't stand it, after they had
neglected him all through his illness so that it was a scandal, that he
should treat the person who had done their daughters' duty for them the
same as he treated them, no better and no worse, but just the same. The
things those people did to me, Hat, the things they said about me--"

"I know, I know; you've told me," said Hattie, soothingly and
deterringly.

"The things those people did to me, and the things they said about
me,"--Nell, not to be deterred, repeated intensely,--"if I'd ever wanted
to give up my share, those things they did and said would have made me
hold on like grim death just to spite them. Oh,"--she broke off, and
flung her finished braids back over her shoulders,--"why do I let myself
think of them? I grow so hot! It's the sight of Tom that has started me
back to thinking of all that excitement and disgustingness. Dear good
Tom, who stood by me like a trump! I do wish, Hat, I didn't hate so hard
when I hate. We've taken pride in my family, I'm afraid, in being good
haters, as if it were part of the same trait that makes you loyal and
true to your friends. But perhaps it's a mistake. I know that Gerald
said once"--she yielded to the obscure desire to hear the air vibrate,
as it had not done for some time, with the syllables of his
name--"Gerald said once, when we were talking of things, 'We must
forgive everything,' he said; 'we must forgive happenings the same as we
must people.' And Gerald, you know, when he's in sober earnest, has some
good ideas."

"Talking about Gerald," Estelle came in quickly, glad of a change from
the other subject, "did Livvy tell you that our cook met Giovanna at the
market, and Giovanna told her that her master was doing finely; that he
hadn't yet been out of doors, but that he sat at the open window in the
sunshine? I'd been meaning to ask you."

"Oh." Aurora quietly took it, and thought it over a minute. "No, she
hadn't told me. I suppose those long stairs would keep him from going
out till he was good and strong. Did she say anything else?"

"Only that Giovanna was buying a chicken, and the abbe, she said, was
still staying with them."

* * * * *

The ladies of the Hermitage did the honors of Florence with modest pride
and a certain glibness. Before the early old masters, Aurora said to
Tom:

"At first I couldn't stand them. I