housework, in return for her board and
clothes."

"Let her wear a kep an' apron, then, an' eat wi' Marg'et."

"Margaret might object," and I laughed at the probable dismay of our
stalwart, rough-and-ready five-foot-tenner, should this ladyfied blonde
permanently invade her domain.

"Hoo lang's she gaun to st'y?"

"That's more than I can tell you."

When Mary had been a week in the house, it became apparent that
something must be done with her.

"She's bound she'll not go back to the public school, Dave, and yet she
cannot read or write. Do you think we can afford to send her to
boarding-school--to a convent, for instance, where she'd be well looked
after, and allowances made for her backwardness?"

Belle and I were out driving together. It was the first springlike
evening we had had, and I was trying Jim Atwood's new mare on Maple
Avenue, which had been newly block-paved. So engrossed was I in watching
her paces I did not reply to my wife at once, and she continued:

"You were going to get me a horse and a victoria this spring, but I'm
willing to give them up to send Mary to school."

"Please yourself, my dear. You would be the one to use the turnout. I'm
content to borrow from my friends. Isn't she a beauty?"

Belle came out of space to answer me.

"Yes, just now; but she'll not be when she's old. Her features are not
good at all; her forehead's too narrow, and her nose too broad. Were it
not for her lovely hair and complexion, she'd have nothing to brag about
but a pair of very ordinary blue eyes."

"Who? The mare?"

"Don't be stupid, Dave, and do attend to what I am saying. I hardly ever
have a chance to speak to you, goodness knows!"

"You get the editorial ear oftener and longer than anybody else."

"Lend it to me now, then. Don't you think a convent would be the best
place for Mary?"

"Perhaps--as there are no theosophical educational institutions that we
know about."

"Mary isn't far enough on for theosophist yet. She'll have to come back
many times before she is. The Roman Catholic Church is on her plane this
incarnation."

"It does seem to catch the masses, that's a fact, whereas your theosophy
doesn't appear to be practicable for uneducated people nor for
children."

"I don't agree with you there."

"Then why were you so anxious to send Watty to a church school to finish
his education, and why are you on the lookout already for a
boarding-school for the two girls where they will have