door which Stimson opened for her.
She found herself in a large, handsomely-furnished room, where the table
was laid for tea; and Miss Harley sat before the tray, already busy with
cups and saucers.

"Come here, Edith, and sit where I can see you. Yes, that is a great
improvement. Your hair looks tidy and respectable now."

After this greeting, to Edith's great relief, she was left to take her
tea in peace and silence, the doctor and his sister being occupied in
conversation about their early days, and continually mentioning the
names of persons and places of whom she knew little or nothing.

Only once the girl started to hear her aunt say, "I always told you,
Henry, that it was a great mistake. With your talents you might have
done almost anything; and here you are, a man still in middle life,
saddled and encumbered with a helpless invalid wife and half a score of
children, to take all you earn faster than you can get it. It is a mere
wasted existence, and if you had listened to me it might all have been
different."

"How cruel!" exclaimed Edith to herself indignantly. "Does Aunt Rachel
think I am a stock or a stone, to sit and hear my mother--all of
us--spoken about like that? I shall never, never be able to bear it!"

Even the doctor was roused. "Once for all, Rachel," he said in a
peremptory tone, "you must understand that I cannot allow my wife and
children to be spoken of in this manner. No doubt I have had to make
sacrifices, but my family have been a source of much happiness to me;
and Maria, who cannot help her health, poor thing! has done her best
under circumstances that would have crushed a great many women. As for
the children, of course they have their faults, but altogether they are
good children, and I often feel proud of them. You have been kind enough
to ask Edith to stay here, but if I thought you would make her life
unhappy with such speeches as you made just now, I would take her back
with me to-morrow."

"Well, well," said Miss Harley, a little frightened at the indignation
she had raised. "You need not take me up so, Henry. Of course I shall
not be so foolish as to talk to the child just as I would to you. I have
her interest and yours truly at heart; and since I don't want to quarrel
with you again, we will say no more of your wife and family. If you have
quite finished, perhaps we might take a turn in the garden."

The rest of the evening passed quietly away. Edith was glad when the
time