will you ask him to let me stay?"

"Yes, I'll ask him, but I can't promise that he will."

"You won't ask him 'fore my face and then tell him not to behind my
back?" and there was a sly, keen look in her eyes which tears could not
conceal.

"No," said Alida gravely, "that's not my way. How did you get here,
Jane?"

"Run away."

"From where?"

"Poorhouse."

Alida drew a quick breath and was silent a few moments. "Is--is your
mother there?" she asked at length.

"Yes. They wouldn't let us visit round any longer."

"Didn't your mother or anyone know you were coming?"

Jane shook her head.

Alida felt that it would be useless to burden the unhappy child with
misgivings as to the result, and her heart softened toward her as one
who in her limited way had known the bitterness and dread which in that
same almshouse had overwhelmed her own spirit. She could only say
gently, "Well, wait till Mr. Holcroft comes, and then we'll see what he
says." She herself was both curious and anxious as to his course. "It
will be a heavy cross," she thought, "but I should little deserve God's
goodness to me if I did not befriend this child."

Every moment added weight to this unexpected burden of duty. Apart
from all consideration of Jane's peculiarities, the isolation with
Holcroft had been a delight in itself. Their mutual enjoyment of each
other's society had been growing from day to day, and she, more truly
than he, had shrunk from the presence of another as an unwelcome
intrusion. Conscious of her secret, Jane's prying eyes were already
beginning to irritate her nerves. Never had she seen a human face that
so completely embodied her idea of inquisitiveness as the uncanny
visage of this child. She saw that she would be watched with a
tireless vigilance. Her recoil, however, was not so much a matter of
conscious reasoning and perception as it was an instinctive feeling of
repulsion caused by the unfortunate child. It was the same old story.
Jane always put the women of a household on pins and needles just as
her mother exasperated the men. Alida had to struggle hard during a
comparatively silent hour to fight down the hope that Holcroft would
not listen to Jane's and her own request.

As she stepped quickly and lightly about in her preparations for
dinner, the girl watched her intently. At last she gave voice to her
thoughts and said, "If mother'd only worked round smart as you, p'raps
she'd hooked him 'stid er