ony, that here was a young
lady who had been allowed her own way more than was good for her, he was
left stranded on the shore of his own conjectures by her present tone.
He had mentally dubbed her a sort of princess, determined to have her
say in everything; now she seemed a child eager to be led by any one.
But Ellen was answering with fine sarcasm.

"I might walk faster, too, if I hadn't got 'most paralyzed on them
wooden chairs. But never mind! Keep right on--I guess I can manage to
get there, if I try hard."

Fortunately for her legs and temper, they stopped presently before a
rather ornate cottage, with several peaks and a turret, which was set
down in the midst of a square lawn that looked unnaturally green to
Joyce in comparison with the bareness all about it. Grass, except in
long scraggy tufts here and there, or in sparse blades in some odd fence
corner, was not prevalent at the Works. Joyce liked all that was trim
and beautiful, but just now this house and lawn, so new and snug and
smiling, jarred upon her like a discordant note. What business had he to
live where fresh paint and large windows and broad verandas should mock
at the poverty and squalor of all the other houses? She felt it almost
as a personal insult.

Mr. Dalton, to whom a neat home of his own was still a novelty, was a
trifle hurt by her lack of enthusiasm. He had really looked for a
girlish "Oh, how pretty!" and somewhat resented Miss Lavillotte's quiet
way of saying,

"I see you have been able to make yourself comfortable, even in this
forbidding spot, Mr. Dalton."

But he answered cheerfully,

"Oh, yes, yes. It seems good to have a home after so many years of
fifth-rate boarding houses. And the best of it is, my good aunt, who has
had a hard time breasting the world, enjoys it even more than I."

The girl did not speak at once. She was distinctly ashamed of herself.
Then she broke out quickly:

"I see. It was most good of you. I am hasty as an ill-tempered child in
my judgments! Mr. Dalton"--she stopped before the neat iron gate in the
low fence, which he was holding open for her to pass through, and
barring the way, said rapidly, "as we will have to work together in all
that is done here, I may as well say at once--I am often quick,
irascible, unkind. I want things to move at once, and when they don't it
makes me cross. It isn't because I--I have money, though--you mustn't
think it. I am not such a cad! It's just my nature, that'