ing
under the lilac bush and who presently stole away through the moonlit
orchard to the woods like a shadow, going home with a vision of you in
your girlish beauty to companion her through the watches of that summer
night.

IV. The August Chapter

One day the minister's wife rushed in where Spencervale people had
feared to tread, went boldly to Old Lady Lloyd, and asked her if she
wouldn't come to their Sewing Circle, which met fortnightly on Saturday
afternoons.

"We are filling a box to send to our Trinidad missionary," said the
minister's wife, "and we should be so pleased to have you come, Miss
Lloyd."

The Old Lady was on the point of refusing rather haughtily. Not that she
was opposed to missions--or sewing circles either--quite the contrary,
but she knew that each member of the Circle was expected to pay ten
cents a week for the purpose of procuring sewing materials; and the
poor Old Lady really did not see how she could afford it. But a sudden
thought checked her refusal before it reached her lips.

"I suppose some of the young girls go to the Circle?" she said craftily.

"Oh, they all go," said the minister's wife. "Janet Moore and Miss Gray
are our most enthusiastic members. It is very lovely of Miss Gray to
give her Saturday afternoons--the only ones she has free from pupils--to
our work. But she really has the sweetest disposition."

"I'll join your Circle," said the Old Lady promptly. She was determined
she would do it, if she had to live on two meals a day to save the
necessary fee.

She went to the Sewing Circle at James Martin's the next Saturday, and
did the most beautiful hand sewing for them. She was so expert at
it that she didn't need to think about it at all, which was rather
fortunate, for all her thoughts were taken up with Sylvia, who sat in
the opposite corner with Janet Moore, her graceful hands busy with a
little boy's coarse gingham shirt. Nobody thought of introducing Sylvia
to Old Lady Lloyd, and the Old Lady was glad of it. She sewed finely
away, and listened with all her ears to the girlish chatter which went
on in the opposite corner. One thing she found out--Sylvia's birthday
was the twentieth of August. And the Old Lady was straightway fired with
a consuming wish to give Sylvia a birthday present. She lay awake
most of the night wondering if she could do it, and most sorrowfully
concluded that it was utterly out of the question, no matter how she
might pinch and cont