ake away with her--and
the little matron was in her glory. From top to bottom, and every
cupboard and corner, and the numerous up-to-date appliances, and the
stocks of silver, linen, china, the ample furnishings of every part,
the solid goodness of every bit of material--all was displayed with
modest pride, the complacence of one who knows there is nothing to hide
or apologise for.

"Isn't it a nice home, Debbie? Could any woman wish for a better home?"
she asked again and again, unable to restrain herself.

And Deb, with a few secret reservations, said "Yes" and "No" with
kindly warmth, thinking to herself: "Happy child, to be satisfied so
easily! How much happier than we who want the moon!"

"I often wonder why I am so blessed," Rose said, in the midst of the
house inspection, "when poor Molly, who deserved so much more, lives
the life she does. Ah, Deb--what a marriage!"

She spoke of it exactly as Bennet Goldsworthy had spoken of hers--in a
spirit compounded of benevolence and contempt, the former element
preponderating in him, the latter in her. At the moment she was
exhibiting the complete appointments of Peter's dressing-room.

"My husband may be a draper," said she, "but at least he does not shave
in my room."

The survey of the house ended at the nurseries. Rose had purposely left
the best till last. Her throwing open of the door revealed a picture so
charming that it persuaded Deb to accept an invitation to dinner in
order that she might do justice to it.

"Oh, what a delightful room!" she cried, as her eyes ran round its
pictured walls, glowing in the evening firelight.

"Not large enough now," the smiling mother objected. "We are going to
build new ones--a wing at the back--and turn these into bedrooms for
the elder children, who will soon be old enough to have their own."

"Oh, what little loves!" Deb then exclaimed, her eyes upon the young
inhabitants--five little fat, white, vigorous creatures in various
stages of preparation for bed.

"There is one absent," explained Rose, in accents of keen regret.
"John, the eldest; he is paying a visit to his grandparents. This is
Constance, the second"--a golden-haired girl, enjoying her nightly
treat of nursing the new baby. "And this is Kathleen"--a chubby
creature in a flannel dressing-gown, waiting for her bath; "and
Lucy"--being rubbed down by the nursery underling, Jane; "and
Pennycuick"--Deb started at the name, and was uncertain whether it
please