two years that would go to the shaping of this girl's character. Might
she not care largely for what the money would give her?

"My dear! my dear!" she began in a muffled sort of tone from
contradictory emotions.

Helen raised her face of her own accord, and her eyes were like the sun
shining through a shower.

"Oh, what must you think," and her voice had a broken tremulous sound,
yet was very sweet. "I didn't see how anyone could cry for joy--but I am
learning something new all the time. Are you in very earnest? Would you
take me with you if I were older and knew more? And would you like to
have me trained and made into the kind of girl that suited you?"

"A girl proud and honorable and truthful, sincere and grateful----"

"Oh, I would try to be all that. It seems almost as if I had been
deceitful to Uncle Jason, not to tell him about the High School, but I
was not sure of passing, and not sure that I could work my way through.
And sometimes I don't tell Aunt Jane things because I know she would
make such a fuss, and they are not bad in themselves, and often don't
come to pass. But I hate falsehoods. It makes me angry when they are
told to me."

Mrs. Van Dorn smiled at the impetuosity.

"But you would give up the High School for this other plan? You would be
willing to go away among strangers, and trust me for the future? I will
provide everything for you, you will not have a care, only to study and
do your very best, and take care of yourself. Even if you should decide
to teach rather than travel about with me, you would be at liberty to
choose."

"I should choose you," she said frankly. "Oh, how can I thank you for
anything so splendid! There are no words good enough."

She kissed the wrinkled hands fervently.

"The thanks will be your improvement. Westchester is a beautiful place,
with mostly educated people. Mrs. Aldred, who is a connection, is a lady
in the truest sense of the word. You will learn what the higher class
girls are like--some are fine, some under a charming and well-bred
exterior you will find full of petty meanness. I should hate to have you
mean, grudging. I want you to keep broad, unselfish; though sometimes
you will get the worst and the smallest measure in return. And you will
be quite content to leave your people?"

A serious sweetness overspread Helen's countenance.

"If I had a mother who loved me, such a mother as Mrs. Dayton would
make, I am afraid I would not want to leave h