being in the pleasure of seeing
the waifs bathed and wrapped in warm things from the girls' wardrobes and
fed as only Connie's mother could feed such children.

Gradually the fear died out of the children's eyes, and once the little
boy even reached over timidly and put a soft, warm hand in Billie's.

"You darling," she choked, bending over to kiss the little hand. "You're
not afraid of Billie now, are you?"

The little girls, who were twins and as like as two peas, were harder to
win over. But by love and tenderness Connie's mother and the girls
managed it at last.

And then eyes grew drowsy, tired little heads nodded, and Connie's
mother, with a look at Mr. Danvers, who had been hovering in the
background all the time, picked up one of the little girls and started
for the stairs.

"I'm going to tuck them in bed," she said, speaking softly. "We can put
them in our room, John--in the big bed."

A few minutes later the girls stood in Mrs. Danvers' room, looking down
at three little flushed faces, three tousled heads that belonged to three
very sound-asleep little children.

Connie's mother tiptoed out of the room and motioned to the girls to
follow, but they lingered for a minute.

"Aren't they lovely?" asked Connie, with a catch in her voice.

"They're beautiful," said Laura. "Especially the little boy."

"And they ate," said Vi softly, "as if they had been half starved. Poor
little things--I wonder who they are?"

"Girls," said Billie gravely, "I suppose you will laugh at me when I tell
you, but ever since I first saw them I have had a strange feeling----"

"Yes," they said impatiently, as she paused.

"That I have seen them somewhere before," she finished, looking at them
earnestly. "And now, as they lie there I'm almost sure of it."

"Seen them before?" repeated Connie, forgetting in her astonishment to
lower her voice, so that the little boy stirred restlessly. Billie drew
them out into the hall.

"Come into our room," she said; and they followed her in wondering
silence.

"I wish you would say that all over again, Billie," said Vi eagerly, when
they had drawn their chairs up close to Billie. "You said you had seen
them before?"

"No, I said I thought I had seen them before," said Billie, frowning with
the effort to remember. "It seems foolish, I know----"

"But, Billie, if you feel like that you must have some reason for it,"
said Laura eagerly.

There followed a silence during which Billie