se-pink wrapper. Turn the key in the door, dearie. An invalid should
never be seen except looking her best. You can slip away and get into a
tea gown before you meet them, if they are coming to supper. Whose
birthday is it? This seems to be a surprise party."

"Why, mamma--it's my birthday; but you don't think there's anything on
foot that I don't know of--do you, dearest?"

"I wouldn't like to say what I think, my pet. There, the coast is
clear. Run away and change your gown. Whoever wished to see me now may
do so. The queen is ready to give audience. Just wheel my chair a little
to the left, so that I can catch the last of that soft pink after-glow."

"And were you really entirely unprepared, Grace," said the girls later,
"and didn't you ever for a single moment notice anything whatsoever we
were doing?"

"Never for one instant. I missed my Tennyson and my French Bible, but
thought Eva had borrowed them, and in my wildest imagination I never
dreamed you would furnish a lovely big room at the top of the house all
for me, my own lone self. It doesn't seem right for me to accept it."

"Ah, but it is quite right!" said her father, tenderly, "and here is
something else--a little birthday check from me to my daughter. Since
you came home and set me on my feet I've prospered as never before. Eva
has collected ever so many of my bills, and I've sold a corner of the
meadow for a good round sum, a corner that never seemed to me to be
worth anything. I need not stay always in your debt, financially, dear
little woman."

"But, papa."

"But, Grace."

"Your father is right, Grace," said the sweet low tones of Mrs.
Wainwright, even and firm. "Through God's goodness you have had the
means and disposition to help him, but neither of us ever intended to
rest our weight always on your shoulders. You needn't work so hard
hereafter, unless you wish, to."

"Thank you, dear papa," said Grace. "I shall work just as hard, because
I love to work, and because I am thus returning to the world some part
of what I owe it; and next year, who knows, I may be able to pay Eva's
bills at Miss L----'s."

Eva jumped up and down with delight.

Then came supper, served in Mrs. Wainwright's room, and after that music
and a long merry talk, and at last, lest Mrs. Wainwright should be
weary, the Raeburns took their way homeward over the lane and across the
fields to the Manse.

Grace from the tower window watched them going, the light of the mo