e--were found of a sudden to be but shifting sands,
hard-packed enough on the surface, but subjected to the most
insidious and devastating undertow. Many a weaker spirit would have
thrown up his arms and dived with desperation overboard in search of
solid footing. But not so Mary Louise. She had a momentary whirl at
negation and then a firm and ever-increasing determination to build
her own footing. If Bloomfield and the McCallum family were not all
they should be, she would make them so, to her own satisfaction at
least. Money was the one thing needed, she soon found or thought she
found, and money was the thing she was determined to get, enough of it
to accomplish her purpose. When she had started the tea room she had
not had the slightest idea that she could possibly fail to do just
exactly what she wanted.

As she read the note that Joe had left for her, the news of Miss
Susie's illness caused her temporary distress. But her mind did not
dwell for long on the distressing part of it, but got busy with the
problem in hand, went into conference with itself over it, analyzed
and dissected it to its complete satisfaction, and then put out the
resulting dicta on the bulletin board of her consciousness. The
particular "Thou must" was in this case "Go to Bloomfield." And
inasmuch as Mary Louise never under any circumstances thought of
disregarding these highly accurate mental dicta, go to Bloomfield she
did. She went the following morning, which was Friday. And it must be
said that in spite of the attention which was focused on the
immediate difficulty before her, which was, "What to do with Miss
Susie," her mind kept straining at this barrier for continued and
reassuring glimpses of the ultimate goal ahead. Still, she loved her
aunt, and the realization of her suffering was to her genuine pain.

As she entered the sitting-room door, she found the little old lady
propped in a rocking chair just inside the doorway with a patchwork
quilt across her lap, tucking her in. There was no appreciable change.
She was as yellow, as parchment like as ever. Her eyes perhaps were
brighter; indeed they seemed almost to have a heat of their own as
Mary Louise stooped to kiss the cheek held up to her.

"Why didn't you let me know sooner?" she chided.

"There was no reason for you to come at all," Miss Susie responded
briskly. "Some people haven't enough questions to decide for
themselves. Have to go about hunting for other people's prob