e sight of her visitor.

"We have heard nothing," she began. "And yet the notice has been in all
the papers. Mrs. Penn was always a newspaper reader; nothing escaped her
eyes. I am beginning to fear that she is dead."

"We mustn't imagine evils," Elsie replied.

"But if she is dead, one doesn't know what may have happened to the boy!
Mrs. Penn had friends and relatives, but would they be likely to look
after him? That's what I have said to Andrew a dozen times at least."

She took off her spectacles with fingers that trembled a little, and put
her work into an old-fashioned basket with a crimson lining. Elsie had
gentle ways with old people, knowing instinctively how to soothe them
with touch and voice. She poured out tea, and hovered round Mrs. Beaton
with little attentions which were like caresses.

Andrew, coming in with his quiet step, gave Miss Kilner a look and a
word of gratitude.

If you set out to do a good deed, you may do a hundred small kindnesses
on the way. Elsie's quest seemed very likely to prove fruitless, but in
the seeking she was scattering flowers as she went along. Andrew, who
sometimes found his life sadly commonplace, picked up a blossom or two,
and wore them thankfully. The street, the shop, and the parlour were all
touched and beautified by these little graces which a woman like Elsie
bestows spontaneously.

It was a pleasant tea-drinking in the London parlour, although the sun
could send in only a slanting beam or two.

They had, all three, talked themselves into a hopeful mood. In their
brightened fancy Jamie was already found, and they were beginning to
arrange his future destiny. Elsie proceeded to state her views on the
education of boys; but, as she had never had any boys to educate, those
views were rather vague. Mrs. Beaton expressed a wish that he could be
turned into a blue-coat boy; his curly golden head was so pretty that it
was almost a sin to cover it with a cap, and he would soon grow used to
being without one. Andrew hoped that he wouldn't be spoiled, and made
into a milksop, and suggested that he ought to be taught a useful trade
as soon as possible.

Elsie had other ideas; she wanted him to be sent to college.

Mrs. Beaton said it would be a shame to set him to work too early; he
was only a little more than five years old. Both women thought that
Andrew was too severe in his notions about boys.

Andrew thought that many a good lad was spoilt because he had lacked a