se, a small matter upset her entirely. The spoiled handkerchief was
the straw too many, and her tears came faster as she held it in one
hand, and with the other tried to wipe them away.

"Take mine, please; I've not used it," Jack said, offering her one of
fine linen, and as daintily perfumed as a woman's.

She took it unhesitatingly. She was in a frame of mind to take anything,
and smiled her thanks through her tears.

"I know I must seem very weak to you to be crying like a baby; but you
don't know how I dread meeting Mr. Bills, or how much is depending upon
my having this school, or what it would be to me to lose it, if he can't
wait. Do you think he will?"

She looked at Jack, who knew nothing whatever of the matter, or of Mr.
Bills, but who answered promptly, "Of course he will wait; he must wait.
We shall see to that. Don't cry. I'm awfully sorry for you; we both
are."

He was standing close to her, and involuntarily laid his hand on her
hair, smoothing it a little as he would have smoothed his sister's. She
seemed so young and looked so small, wrapped up in Mrs. Biggs's gown,
that he thought of her for a moment as a child to be soothed and
comforted. She did not repel the touch of his hand, but cried the harder
and wiped her face with his handkerchief until it was wet with her
tears.

"Mr. Bills wants to know if he can come in now," came as an interruption
to the scene, which was getting rather affecting.

"In just a minute," Jack said. Then to Eloise, "Brace up! We'll attend
to Mr. Bills if he proves formidable."

She braced up as he bade her, and gave his handkerchief back to him.

"I shan't need it again. I am not going to be foolish any longer, and I
thank you so much," she said, with a look which made Jack's pulse beat
rapidly.

"We'd better go now and give Mr. Bills a chance," he said to Howard, who
had been comparatively silent and let him do the talking and suggesting.

Howard could not define his feeling with regard to Eloise. Her beauty
impressed him greatly, and he was very sorry for her, but he could not
rid himself of the conviction which had a second time taken possession
of him that in some way she was to influence his life or cross his path.

He bade her good-by, and told her to keep up good courage, and felt a
little piqued that she withdrew her hand more quickly from him than she
did from Jack, who left her rather reluctantly. They found Mr. Bills
outside talking to Mrs. Biggs, who