ne.

Judy loved the cozy sort of tea-dinners which began those evenings, and
then the long talk afterward in the lengthening twilight, when she sat
on a stool at Hilda's feet, with her head pressed up against Hilda's
arm, and her happy heart beating close to the other heart, which was all
her world.

On those evenings too Hilda came upstairs and tucked her up in her white
bed, and said, _Now I lay me down to sleep_ to her, just as she used in
the old nursery at home, after mother died.

It was an understood thing, although no words had passed between the
two--it was an understood thing, that on the evenings when Jasper was at
home, Hilda should not come upstairs to Judy. This seemed a perfectly
fair and just arrangement, they were both in full accord on the subject;
but Judy could not help loving those days when she might have her sister
all to herself the best.

On the morning after Rivers had dined in Philippa Terrace, as Jasper was
preparing to go out as usual, Hilda ran into the little hall to give him
a last word; she left the door of the dining room ajar, which was not
her invariable custom, and Judy, sitting at the breakfast table, found
herself in the position of an eavesdropper.

"You are coming back to dinner to-night?" asked the wife.

Jasper had been visited with some slight qualms of compunction that
morning, as he noticed how much paler Hilda's face was than when first
he had married her, so he put his arm round her neck now, and looking at
her with something of his old tenderness, said gently:

"Do you really wish it?"

"Jasper, how can you doubt?" she replied. "All the moments you are away
from me are long and wearisome."

"Long and wearisome," repeated Judy softly to herself in the breakfast
parlor. Some of the color fled out of her face now; she lost her
appetite for the bread-and-butter and marmalade which she was eating.

"You don't find three trumpery," pursued Jasper. Then he added with a
little sigh, "I wish I didn't; but I'll come home, Hilda, if you wish
it. Good-by, my dear. Stay, stop a moment; suppose I take you to the
play to-night. Judy won't mind going to bed a little earlier than
usual."

Just at that moment Hilda started and looked round; she heard a slight
noise, and wondered if Susan were coming upstairs. The sound which
disturbed her was made by Judy, who, awaking suddenly to the knowledge
that she was an eavesdropper, had risen from the breakfast table and had
gently cl