its Stuarts and
Sullys, and its gracious, gray-haired host and hostess, seemed only a
picturesque part of it.... Her hostess caught up the tale again.

"Angela has been nearly distracted," she said. "And the idea has come to
her that if she could find some conscientious woman, a lady, and a
person to whom what she could offer would be a consideration, who would
take charge of poor Allan, that she could die in peace."

"But why did you think of asking me?" the girl asked breathlessly. "And
why does she want me married to him? And how could you or she be sure
that I would not be as much of a hireling as any nurse she may have
now?"

Mrs. De Guenther answered the last two questions together.

"Mrs. Harrington's idea is, and I think rightly, that a conscientious
woman would feel the marriage tie, however nominal, a bond that would
obligate her to a certain duty toward her husband. As to why we selected
you, my dear, my husband and I have had an interest in you for some
years, as you know. We have spoken of you as a girl whom we should like
for a relative----"

"Why, isn't that strange?" cried Phyllis, dimpling. "That's just what
I've thought about you!"

Mrs. De Guenther flushed, with a delicate old shyness.

"Thank you, dear child," she said. "I was about to add that we have not
seen you at your work all these years without knowing you to have the
kind heart and sense of honor requisite to poor Angela's plan. We feel
sure you could be trusted to take the place. Mr. De Guenther has asked
his friend Mr. Johnston, the head of the library, such things as we
needed to supplement our personal knowledge of you. You have everything
that could be asked, even to a certain cheerfulness of outlook which
poor Angela, naturally, lacks in a measure."

"But--but what about _me_?" asked Phyllis Braithwaite a little
piteously, in answer to all this.

They seemed so certain she was what they wanted--was there anything in
this wild scheme that would make _her_ life better than it was as the
tired, ill-paid, light-hearted keeper of a roomful of turbulent little
foreigners?

"Unless you are thinking of marriage--" Phyllis shook her head--"you
would have at least a much easier life than you have now. Mrs.
Harrington would settle a liberal income on you, contingent, of course,
of your faithful wardership over Allan. We would be your only judges as
to that. You would have a couple or more months of absolute freedom
every year, contro