ck the children of the
bordering houses had all come out with sleds and happy laughter, and
were making the old silence ring.

"Maybe, after all, anything which pleases the children is not an
unmitigated annoyance," observed Miss Armacost, reflectively.

Jefferson brought the horses to a standstill and stepped down to
loosen the robes about his mistress and help her alight, if need be.
But Towsley had been before him. He had pulled off his hat, thrust it
under his arm, and extended his hand toward the lady, to assist her,
as courteously and gracefully as any grown gentleman could have done;
even if not with quite so much strength.

Repressing a smile at the difference in size between her assistant
and herself, Miss Armacost quietly placed her hand within his and
stepped to the sidewalk. This was slippery in spots, as Towsley
observed, and he remarked:

"Better let me hold your hand till you get clear up the steps, hadn't
you, Miss Lucy?"

"Yes, dear, I think I would much better." Then when the lad reached
the top and she had rung for admittance, she turned to him with a
lovely smile:

"Welcome home, Lionel Towsley Armacost."

"Thank you, Miss Lucy. I hope we won't neither of us ever be sorry
I've come."

She liked his answer; liked it far more than she would have done one
full of enthusiasm. So they went in together, well pleased, and as the
boy had been so lately a hospital patient, he was sent early to bed
and to sleep.

As she had done before, Miss Lucy visited him afterward, and enjoyed
without restraint the sight of her adopted son, lying so peacefully
upon his pillow. For there were now no soiled stains of the street to
mar his beauty, and the little hands upon the coverlet were as dainty
as need be.

But even in slumber Towsley had an uncomfortable effect upon the
lady's thoughts: reminding her of the many other little lads who had
shared his poverty yet not his present good fortune. She had never
considered her house as an especially large one till his small person
served to show the size of the empty rooms, and how tiny a space one
child could occupy.

Miss Lucy sat so long that she grew chilled. Then she reflected that
she might easily become ill, which would be most unfortunate now,
since she had taken a child to care for. So she rose rather stiffly
and started for her own room; though she had not taken a dozen steps
in its direction before she came to a sudden, startled pause. Somebody
was r