t _believe_ you were prayin'. I heard the knockin'
o' your whis'-broom. You was brushin' down the stairs."

"Well, what if I was? Cleanliness is next to godliness, ain't it?
Prayin' an' cleanin', it amounts to the same thing in the end--it's just
a question of what you clean, outside you or _in_."

"But say, now, listen, mother, you never cleaned down Mr. Snyder's
stairs before. An' you been making shirtwaists for Mrs. Snyder, after
you get home nights. I saw her with one of 'em on."

"Cora, do you know what happened to a little girl oncet who asked too
many questions?"

"No."

"Well, I won't tell you now. It might spoil your appetite for dinner.
But you can take it from me, the end she met with would surprise you."

Shortly after, Claire's door quietly opened, and Cora, with a lighted
taper in her hand, tiptoed cautiously in, like a young torch-bearing
_avant-courriere,_ behind whom Mrs. Slawson, laden with a wonderful
tray, advanced processionally.

"Light the changelier, an' then turn it low," Martha whispered. "An'
then you, yourself, light out, so's the pretty lady can eat in comfort."

The pretty lady, sitting up among her pillows, awake and alert, almost
brought disaster upon the taper, and the tray, by exclaiming brightly,
"Good-evening! I'm wide awake for good! You needn't tiptoe or hush any
more. O, I feel like new! All rested and well and--_ready_ again. And I
owe it, every bit, to you! You've been so _good_ to me!"

It was hard on Cora to have to obey her mother's injunction to "clear
out," just when the pretty lady was beginning to demonstrate her right
to the title. But Martha's word in her little household was not to be
disputed with impunity, and Cora slipped away reluctantly, carrying with
her a dazzling vision of soft, dark hair, starry blue-gray eyes,
wonderful changing expressions, and, in and over all, a smile that was
like a key to unlock hearts.

"My, but it's good to see you so!" said Mrs. Slawson heartily. "I was
glad to have you sleep, for goodness knows you needed it, but if you'd
'a' kep' it up a day or so longer, I'd 'a' called in a doctor--shoor!
Just as a kind of nacherl percaution, against your settlin' down to a
permanent sleepin'-beauty ack, for, you can take it from me, I haven't
the business address of any Beast, here in New York City, could be
counted on to do the Prince-turn, when needed. There's plenty of
beasts, worse luck! but they're on the job, for fair. No magic,
l