efforts of both families to get her off. She had
refused up to the last to see her grandmother, but had yielded to united
pressure and written a stiff good-by note in which she thanked her for
advancing the money, and added--not without a touch of bitterness--that
it would all be spent for the purpose intended.

Randolph Bartlett took her to the station in his car, and Miss Isobel met
them there with a suit-case full of articles that she feared Eleanor had
failed to provide.

"I put in some overshoes," she said, fluttering about like a distracted
hen whose adopted duckling unexpectedly takes to water. "I also fixed up
a medicine-case and a sewing basket. I knew you would never think of
them. And, dear, I know how you hate heavy underwear, but pneumonia is so
prevalent. You must promise me not to take cold if you can possibly avoid
it."

Eleanor promised. Somehow, Aunt Isobel, with her anxious face and her
reddened eyelids, had never seemed so pathetic before.

"I'll write to you, auntie," she said reassuringly; "and you mustn't
worry."

"Don't write to me," whispered Miss Isobel tremulously. "Write to mother.
Just a line now and then to let her know you think of her. She's quite
feeble, Nellie, and she talks about you from morning until night."

Eleanor's face hardened. She evidently did not enjoy imagining the nature
of Madam's discourse. However, she squeezed Aunt Isobel's hand and said
she would write.

Then Quin arrived with the ticket and the baggage-checks, the train was
called, and Eleanor was duly embraced and wept over.

"We won't go through the gates," said Mr. Ranny, with consideration for
Miss Isobel's tearful condition. "Quin will get you aboard all right.
Good-by, kiddie!"

Eleanor stumbled after Quin with many a backward glance. Both Aunt Isobel
and Uncle Ranny seemed to have acquired haloes of kindness and affection,
and she felt like a selfish ingrate. She looked at the lunch-box in her
hand, and thought of Rose rising at dawn to fix it before she went to
work. She remembered the little gifts Cass and Myrna and Edwin had
slipped in her bag. How good they had all been to her, and how she was
going to miss them! Now that she was actually embarked on her great
adventure, a terrible misgiving seized her.

"Train starts in two minutes, boss!" warned the porter, as Quin helped
Eleanor aboard and piloted her to her seat.

"You couldn't hold it up for half an hour, could you?" asked Quin. Then,
a