Letty
hazarded, bluntly.

"Oh, it wasn't a question of looks. Of course if she'd considered
that, why, any foolish young fellow--but she knew what she would have
got."

Not being at her ease in this kind of conversation, and finding the
effort to see Steptoe as Lothario difficult, Letty became blunt again.
"He must have had an awful crush on the first one."

"It wasn't her exactly; it was the boy."

"Oh, there was a boy?"

"Why of course, dear! Didn't you know that?"

"Whose boy was it?"

"Why, the mistress's boy; but I don't think _he_----" Letty understood
the pronoun as applying to Steptoe--"I don't think _he_ ever realized
that he wasn't his very own." Straightening the white cover on the
chest of drawers Miss Towell shook her head. "It was a sad case."

"What made it sad?"

"A lovely boy he was. Had a kind word for everyone, even for the cat.
But somehow his father and mother--well, they were people of the
world, and they hadn't wanted a child, and when he came--and he so
delicate always--I could have cried over him."

Letty's heart began to swell; her lip trembled. "I know someone like
that myself."

"Do you, dear? Then I'm sure you understand."

Partly because the minute was emotional, and partly from a sense that
she needed to explain herself, Letty murmured, more or less
indistinctly: "It's on his account that I'm here."

Failing to see the force of this Miss Towell was content to say: "I'm
glad you were led to me, dear. There's always a power to shepherd us
along, if we'll only let ourselves be guided."

To Letty the moment had arrived when plainness of speech was
imperative. Leaning across the tray, which still stood on her lap, she
gazed up at her hostess with eager, misty eyes. "_He_ said you'd teach
me all the ropes."

Miss Towell paused beside the bed, to look inquiringly at the tense
little face. "The ropes of what, dear?"

"Of what--" it was hard to express--"of what you--you used to be
yourself. You don't seem like it now," she added, desperately, "but
you were, weren't you?"

"Oh, that!" The surprise was in the discovery that an American girl of
Letty's age could entertain so sensible a purpose. "Why, of course,
dear! I'll tell you all I know, and welcome."

"There's quite a trick to it, isn't there?"

"Well, it's more than a trick. There are two or three things which you
simply _have_ to be."

"Oh, I know that. That's what frightens me."

"You needn't be afraid, once you