ose and I'm almost eleven----"

"H-sh, h-sh, dearie!" Mrs. Donovan's hand slipped over the red lips
and she sent a quick glance over her shoulder. Bewildered and
surprised as she was she realized that her niece's age was not to be
shouted out in the vestibule of the Washington in any such joyous
fashion. "My soul an' body," she murmured again as she looked at the
sturdy little figure in knickerbockers. "You're Mary Rose Crocker?"
she asked doubtfully. She almost hoped she wasn't.

"Mary Rose Crocker," repeated the red lips and the knickerbockered legs
jumped up and down.

"My soul an' body!" Mrs. Donovan murmured helplessly. "Will you come
down to my rooms, ma'am," she said to Mrs. Black, as she tried to
remember her manners and not think how she was to tell Larry the truth.
Why, this child was undersized rather than over. Her mother might have
weighed a hundred and twenty-five pounds when she was twelve but Mary
Rose couldn't weigh seventy. Dear, dear, why couldn't she just as well
have been bigger? But after one glance at the glowing little face,
Kate Donovan would have lost almost everything rather than her right to
take care of diminutive Mary Rose.

Mrs. Black smiled at her. She liked her honest good-natured face. It
was a shining door-plate for the big heart behind it. She had been
rather worried over Mary Rose's only living relative, for she was fond
of Mary Rose and wanted her to have a real home.

"Thank you, but I fear I must go on. Our train was a little late. I
am glad to have met you and if you like Mary Rose half as much as I do
you will think you are a lucky woman to have her always with you.
Good-by, Mary Rose. Thank you for coming with me."

Mary Rose threw her arms about her friend. "Thank you for bringing
me," she whispered.

"Have you everything? Her trunk is at the station and she has the
check," she explained to Mrs. Donovan. "Good-by." And with another
kiss for Mary Rose she was gone. They could hear the purr of the
taxicab as it dashed up the street.

Mary Rose drew a deep breath. "It's very pleasant to get to the end of
a journey," she began a trifle tremulously. Mary Rose was beginning to
feel a bit forlorn at being left alone with an aunt she had never seen
before. "Mrs. Black's a very kind lady and she brought me here in a
taxicab. It's very pleasant riding in a taxicab."

"I've no doubt it is," remarked Mrs. Donovan, who knew taxicabs only by
sight. "Now,