pocket. I know that you are careful and economical and think it must
be for your education in some manner, and don't feel that I am foolish
in doing it. How will you have it, check or cash?"

Elsie had been growing weak after the first surprise. She had already
cashed three huge checks (as they seemed to her), and sent them in
money-orders to Enderby: and she had forwarded a letter some time
before that Elsie had explained to be a request for money. But she was
aghast at the sum. She couldn't imagine what the other girl could want
it for.

The tradition had always been in her family, who were always poor, that
Uncle John was rich; and though she had learned with some surprise that
he had only one servant, she had heard nothing to indicate that he did
not live in the "style" she had always imagined. She felt troubled if
it was in order to keep up with that style that Elsie Marley wanted the
money; but though she was reluctant to take it from Miss Pritchard, she
by no means hesitated as she had in the case of the opera-cloak. For
this was a legitimate case of Pritchard to Pritchard.

"A check?" repeated Miss Pritchard.

"Cash, please, Cousin Julia," returned the girl, her dimples almost
visible. Then she looked straight into Miss Pritchard's eyes.

"Please tell me--are you doing this, too, because I'm not a Pritchard,
or as my guardian?"

And whether it was because the girl's heart was so set upon that
particular answer, or because Julia Pritchard was so staunch and true,
with such a keen instinct for the real and right--in any event she
returned promptly: "As your guardian, Elsie, Pritchard to Pritchard."

Elsie embraced her warmly, whispering that she couldn't explain, but it
was truly all right. The next day she got a post-office order and sent
the money to Elsie Marley without saying that it hadn't come from the
lawyer in California as the other sums she had forwarded had done.
Consequently, when a letter came from Mr. Bliss saying that he couldn't
let Elsie Marley have the five hundred dollars she had asked for
without an order from her guardian, she felt obliged to withhold it
entirely.

It troubled her to do so, and weighed upon her mind afterward. She
told herself that she would, of course, explain when she saw Elsie
Marley, and meantime--it was, after all, nothing but a formal business
communication, not a real letter, and of no account in that the
business itself had gone through. Still, it