she glanced anxiously about for the fair, pale little Pritchard.
But the radiant child stopped short before her and looked up into her
face.

"Cousin Julia?" she asked in the sweetest voice Miss Pritchard had ever
heard. She smiled half-shyly and the dimples deepened.

For a single instant, Miss Pritchard stood still and stared at the
girl, not so much incredulous as stunned. Then she cried out:

"Elsie--Elsie Marley?"

"Sure," said the smiling child, holding out her hand. Miss Pritchard
gathered her to her heart.

CHAPTER X

From that moment, all idea of sacrifice vanished forever. Miss
Pritchard felt suddenly, amazingly, and incomparably blessed. Her
realization that the girl's charming face and figure were matched by a
most lovable personality came so quickly as to seem instantaneous. In
very truth, Elsie's bubbling gayety and sweetness of disposition were
as natural and inseparable as her very dimples.

At once, Miss Pritchard's life took on new color, new meaning. The
change for her was far greater than if she had carried out her former
intention and gone from work in the city to leisure in the country.
She was in a new, strange, wonderful country where life was
interesting, even thrilling, beyond anything she had ever known. She
had not dreamed that youth could be at once so gay and blithe and yet
so simple and generous, so spontaneous, so affectionately considerate
of the older and the less richly endowed.

For her part, the eager, warm-hearted girl adored Miss Pritchard almost
at sight. The strength and sincerity of the woman, her utter
unselfishness, her wisdom, her humor, and her keen intelligence
combined to make her the most impressive personality the sensitive
young girl had ever encountered. Quite untroubled by the ethical
aspect of the situation, she gave herself up to it wholly, only
troubled lest she had gotten the better part of the exchange she had
made with the real Elsie Marley; lest she be cheating the other out of
companionship with this wonderful Cousin Julia.

No difficulty offered itself. Keen as she was, Miss Pritchard was
without shadow of suspicion. Stare as she would, she couldn't discover
any slightest resemblance to the Pritchards in the girl, yet she drew
only the one conclusion.

"Elsie, you must be altogether a Marley," she said to her as they sat
happily together on the third evening after the girl's arrival. And
her voice indicated that she was quite