l,

"You've got it, Jessie; and, with you to help me, I hope to make the
child feel that she is not quite fatherless and motherless."

"I'll do my best, Alec; and I think you will need me, for, wise as you
are, you cannot understand a tender, timid little creature like Rose as
a woman can," said Mrs. Jessie, smiling back at him with a heart full of
motherly goodwill.

"I cannot help feeling that I, who have had a daughter of my own, can
best bring up a girl; and I am very much surprised that George did
not entrust her to me," observed Aunt Myra, with an air of melancholy
importance, for she was the only one who had given a daughter to
the family, and she felt that she had distinguished herself, though
ill-natured people said that she had dosed her darling to death.

"I never blamed him in the least, when I remember the perilous
experiments you tried with poor Carrie," began Mrs. Jane, in her hard
voice.

"Jane Campbell, I will not hear a word! My sainted Caroline is a sacred
object," cried Aunt Myra, rising as if to leave the room.

Dr. Alec detained her, feeling that he must define his position at once,
and maintain it manfully if he hoped to have any success in his new
undertaking.

"Now, my dear souls, don't let us quarrel and make Rose a bone of
contention though, upon my word, she is almost a bone, poor little lass!
You have had her among you for a year, and done what you liked. I cannot
say that your success is great, but that is owing to too many fingers in
the pie. Now, I intend to try my way for a year, and if at the end of it
she is not in better trim than now, I'll give up the case, and hand her
over to someone else. That's fair, I think."

"She will not be here a year hence, poor darling, so no one need dread
future responsibility," said Aunt Myra, folding her black gloves as if
all ready for the funeral.

"By Jupiter! Myra, you are enough to damp the ardour of a saint!" cried
Dr. Alec, with a sudden spark in his eyes. "Your croaking will worry
that child out of her wits, for she is an imaginative puss, and will
fret and fancy untold horrors. You have put it into her head that she
has no constitution, and she rather likes the idea. If she had not had a
pretty good one, she would have been 'marked for the tomb' by this
time, at the rate you have been going on with her. I will not have any
interference please understand that; so just wash your hands of her, and
let me manage till I want help, then I