er knees again and
put her arms about the shrinking little figure.

"Yours, Arabella?" she whispered. "Was it intended for you?"

Miss Arabella nodded. Her head went down on her friend's shoulder.
The girl patted her lovingly, as though she had been a hurt child.
"There, there, dear," she said soothingly, "tell me all about it. I
won't tell, you know I won't."

"Do you promise, sure and certain, Elsie?" came the frightened whisper.

"Yes, sure and certain."

"I don't think I could stand it if Susan an' Bella were to know. Even
after I'm gone I'd like it kept a secret. I guess I'm foolish, an'
Susan says there's no fool like an old fool, but I jist can't help it."

She lay back again on her pillow, her thin fingers passing caressingly
up and down the shining folds of silk. She was silent for some
minutes, and at last, with much halting, she began the story of the
blue silk gown. She told in a shy whisper of the lover of her girlhood
days. She had met him a long time ago, while on a visit to an aunt,
away over in Bruce County. He was foreman in the mill there, and he
was--well, she couldn't exactly tell what he was like, he was so awful
nice. Through the sentences Elsie Cameron could make out a picture of
him: big, handsome, honest, whole-hearted, and as tender as a woman
with his shy little sweetheart; but in Miss Arabella's worshiping eyes
he was a very demigod.

His home was down in Nova Scotia, the story went on, his father and
mother lived there alone on the home farm, and some day he was to take
her there. And then she had come home, and her mother had helped her
make her clothes for her wedding day. And once he had come to Elmbrook
and had taken her to a circus at Lakeview, and they had seen this piece
of silk in a store window. He had said it was just the color of her
eyes--Miss Arabella blushed and hung her head at this confession--and
he had gone right in and bought it, in spite of her. He was just that
kind, always giving other folks everything. He had given her Polly,
too, had sent her all the way from Halifax after he went back. He had
taught her to say "Annie Laurie"--that was the name he always called
her. But he had not taught Polly that other dreadful thing she said;
she learned that from the men on the ship.

It was while he was still working over in Bruce County that the day was
set for their wedding, and she and her mother were planning how she
should have the blue silk made,