ver give him up," echoed Miss Prudence in her heart.

"They thought Will Rheid was lost once, but he came back! Linnet didn't
give him up, and his father and mother almost did."

"I'd never give him up," said Linnet again, emphatically.

"Will Rheid," teased Marjorie, "or anybody?"

"Anybody," replied Linnet, but she twitched at her work and broke her
thread.

"Now, girls, I'm going in to talk to your mother awhile, and then perhaps
Linnet will walk part of the way home with me," said Miss Prudence.

"To talk about _that_," cried Marjorie.

"I'll tell you by and by."

VIII.

BISCUITS AND OTHER THINGS.

"I am rather made for giving than taking."--_Mrs. Browning._

Mrs. West had been awakened from her nap with an uncomfortable feeling
that something disagreeable had happened or was about to happen; she felt
"impressed" she would have told you. Pushing the light quilt away from
her face she arose with a decided vigor, determined to "work it off" if
it were merely physical; she brushed her iron gray hair with steady
strokes and already began to feel as if her presentiment were groundless;
she bathed her cheeks in cool water, she dressed herself carefully in her
worn black and white barege, put on her afternoon cap, a bit of black
lace with bows of narrow black ribbon, fastened the linen collar Linnet
had worked with button-hole stitch with the round gold and black
enamelled pin that contained locks of the light hair of her two lost
babes, and then felt herself ready for the afternoon, even ready for the
minister and his stylish wife, if they should chance to call. But she was
not ready without her afternoon work; she would feel fidgety unless she
had something to keep her fingers moving; the afternoon work happened to
be a long white wool stocking for Linnet's winter wear. Linnet must have
new ones, she decided; she would have no time to darn old ones, and
Marjorie might make the old ones do another winter; it was high time for
Marjorie to learn to mend.

The four shining knitting needles were clicking in the doorway of the
broad little entry that opened out to the green front yard when Miss
Prudence found her way around to the front of the house. The ample figure
and contented face made a picture worth looking at, and Miss Prudence
looked at it a moment before she announced her presence by speaking.

"Mrs. West, I want to come to see you a little while--may I?"

Miss Prudence had a pretty, appealing