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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elsie Marley, Honey, by Joslyn Gray
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Elsie Marley, Honey
+
+
+Author: Joslyn Gray
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2007  [eBook #22819]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 22819-h.htm or 22819-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/1/22819/22819-h/22819-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/1/22819/22819-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE MARLEY
+
+by
+
+JOSLYN GRAY
+
+Author of "Kathleen's Probation"
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Elsie . . . repeated the performance in a manner that
+was only the more captivating.]
+
+
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+Copyright, 1918, by
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MARY BULLIONS GRAY ANDERSON
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Elsie . . . repeated the performance in a manner that was only the more
+captivating . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,
+as you call it"
+
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none of them," he remarked
+
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now"
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mrs. Bennet, her travelling companion from San Francisco, having proved
+to be talkative and uninteresting, Elsie Marley was more than content
+to find herself alone after the change had been made and her train
+pulled out of Chicago.  It was characteristic of the girl that she did
+not even look out of the window to see the last of Mrs. Bennet, who,
+having waited on the platform until the train started and waved her
+handkerchief in vain, betook herself indignantly to her carriage.
+Quite unaware of any remissness on her part, Elsie settled herself
+comfortably--Mrs. Bennet had disposed of her luggage--folded her hands
+in her lap, and gazed idly out the window opposite.
+
+A pale, colorless girl, the simplicity of her dress was in almost too
+great contrast with its elegance--a contrived simplicity that left no
+room for any trace of careless youth or girlishness.  Slender and
+rather delicate-looking, she had brown eyes, regular features, and
+soft, light-brown hair waving loosely about her face and hanging in two
+long, demure curls from a shell clasp at her neck.  But her eyes were
+of rather a shallow brown, her brows and lashes still lighter; her
+features were almost too regular, and her skin, though soft and clear,
+was quite colorless.  Even so, she might have been pretty, perhaps
+lovely, had she possessed any animation.  But the girl's face and even
+her eyes were as nearly expressionless as human features may be.  She
+was like a superior sort of doll with white cheeks in lieu of red.
+
+After a little she opened a small leather satchel, took out a letter,
+and perused it attentively.  It was the last she had received from her
+guardian and only living relative, Cousin Julia Pritchard, and, as she
+was to see her soon, it behooved her to prepare herself so far as she
+might for that occasion.  For Elsie Marley realized, though dimly, that
+she was to encounter a personality unlike any with which she had come
+in contact in all her sheltered, luxurious life.
+
+"My dear Elsie," the letter ran, "I find myself very much pleased at
+the thought of having you with me.  The heart of a woman of fifty
+cannot but rejoice in anticipation of the company of a young girl with
+the ideals, the vigor, and buoyancy of sixteen.  And since we are both
+alone in the world, you representing all my kith and kin as I believe
+myself to represent all yours, it is only fitting that we should be
+together instead of being separated by the breadth of our great
+American continent.
+
+"You will, I am sure, like this great, busy, restless, humming city,
+though the only home I have to offer you, I am truly sorry to say, is
+in a boarding-house, comfortable though it is.  Remembering Aunt
+Ellen's beautiful home in California, which I visited fifteen years
+ago, I fear the change may be difficult, though, for a young person,
+not too painfully so, I trust.  A boarding-house is the only home I
+have myself known for thirty years, and this particular one is
+excellent and full of interesting people, though the youngest among
+them are middle-aged.
+
+"I am, I repeat, happy to say that I can give you a home here and
+clothe you suitably.  That will release your income, which can be put
+to any use which we may decide upon after consultation together.  Your
+lawyer tells me that you are through school, and neither you nor he
+speak of any desire on your part to go to college.  I suppose, however,
+like most young girls, you will wish to take up some study or
+occupation to fit yourself to become self-supporting or to be useful to
+the world in some definite manner.  I heartily sympathize with such an
+aim, having worked since my eighteenth year myself, and shall be
+cordially interested in helping you either to plan or to carry out a
+future for yourself."
+
+Here Elsie broke off.  Cousin Julia was certainly absurd!  She had
+always been regarded, indeed, by the California Pritchards as a
+singular, eccentric person, rather wanting in refinement and careless
+of social amenities--one from whom they were quite content to be
+separated by the "breadth of our great American continent."  She had
+taken after her mother, who came from Nebraska--or some such place--and
+the family had considered it a pity that she should have been and
+remained Pritchard by name, particularly since Elsie herself, Pritchard
+of Pritchards, had to go by the name Marley.
+
+Still the girl's smooth brow did not contract.  In any event, she said
+to herself, after Cousin Julia had seen her, it wasn't likely that she
+would suggest that she go out and earn her living.  And as for her
+future, which the letter mentioned--why, her future was of course far
+ahead.  Elsie had rather taken it for granted that she should marry
+when the proper time came, as girls did in books, as her grandmother
+and mother had done, and as Aunt Ellen would have done had she not been
+so frail.  Once it had even occurred to her that it would be rather
+appropriate if she should marry some one named Pritchard, though she
+realized that to be only a remote possibility.  In any event, she
+didn't know why going to New York should necessarily make any essential
+difference in her future, and she was thankful that she hadn't to
+consider it for some years yet.  Meantime, the boarding-house
+confronted her.
+
+Very likely, however, she could endure even that.  She knew it would be
+comfortable, so far as that went, and she needn't mingle with the other
+people.  She could have a piano and continue her lessons, and she might
+study vocal music.  She could buy books and attend concerts and perhaps
+even the theatre and opera.  She could go alone in a carriage to
+matinée performances, and quite likely there would be some reduced
+gentlewoman living at the boarding-house who might be glad of the
+chance to accompany her as chaperon in the evenings.
+
+For Elsie took it for granted that Cousin Julia wouldn't care for the
+sort of things she was accustomed to any more than she herself would be
+interested to go about with her.  Somehow the girl felt that Miss
+Pritchard would be devoted to vaudeville and even moving pictures--she
+might even refer to the latter as "movies"!  Of course, that was the
+worst of the whole situation--Cousin Julia herself!  For, no matter how
+singular or even coarse she might be, Elsie had to live with her and to
+put up with a certain amount of her society.
+
+That would be very difficult; still, even now, the girl seemed to see
+wide spaces between.  Except for Sundays and evenings when neither of
+them went out, she wouldn't have to see a great deal of the older
+woman.  She might have to dine with her every night, but, as she worked
+in a business office, she probably wouldn't be home to lunch, and of
+course Elsie would have her breakfast in her room.  Sunday might be
+long and boring, but, whatever Cousin Julia's ideas might be, Elsie
+would always insist upon going to service, and that would occupy a part
+of the day.
+
+An hour had passed since Mrs. Bennet had left Elsie Marley.  As she
+returned the letter to the satchel she became aware that the train was
+at a standstill and not before a station.  Indeed, there was not a
+building in sight: only a dreary waste of sunburnt prairie-grass
+extended flatly to the glare of the burning horizon.  She looked about
+wonderingly, vaguely aware that they must already have waited some time.
+
+Her gaze included the rear of the car and emboldened a young girl who
+had been watching her longingly a great part of the way from San
+Francisco, to act upon her desire.  Immediately she donned a coquettish
+little red hat and linen top-coat, and made her way to the other girl's
+seat.
+
+"Don't you want to come out and walk a little?" she asked in a
+singularly sweet, eager voice.  "There's a hot-box, or some such thing,
+and they say it'll be an hour more before we get away.  It might seem
+good to stretch our legs on the prairie yonder?"
+
+Elsie Marley didn't care at all to go.  Indeed, she didn't wish to make
+the acquaintance of this conspicuous-looking girl with her dark hair
+cut square about her ears who had travelled alone all the way from San
+Francisco and seemed to know every one in the car.  If she should give
+her any encouragement, no doubt she would hang about her all the rest
+of the way.  She excused herself coldly.
+
+"Oh, please do, please come for just a wee turn," urged the other,
+smiling and displaying a pair of marvellous dimples.  And Elsie Marley
+surprised herself by yielding.  Possibly she was too indolent to hold
+out; perhaps she felt something in the stranger that wouldn't take no
+for an answer, and didn't care to struggle against it.  Again, she may
+have felt, dimly and against her will, something of the real charm of
+the other.  However that was, she yielded listlessly, put on her neat
+sailor hat reluctantly, drew on the jacket of her severe and elegant
+dark-blue suit, and followed the stranger slowly from the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The stranger, who was dressed in a rather graceful and perhaps rather
+flamboyant adaptation of the prevailing fashion, was picturesque and
+radiant to the extreme: slender, dark, vivid, with big, dark eyes in a
+small pointed face, dark hair "bobbed" and curling sufficiently to turn
+under about her ears and neck, a rather large mouth flanked by really
+extraordinary dimples, and an expression at once gay and saucy and
+sweet and appealing withal.  Her voice was very sweet, her unusually
+finished pronunciation and enunciation giving a curious effect to her
+slangy speech.  She wore her clothes jauntily, carried herself with
+charming grace, and her great dimples made her frank smile irresistible.
+
+"Do you know, I've been simply crazy all the way to come and speak to
+you," she confessed as soon as they were outside.  "I spotted you the
+very first thing, but I was rather phased by that woman with you.
+Wasn't she the--goodness gracious!  I hope she wasn't any
+relation--your aunt or mother?"
+
+"Oh, no indeed, scarcely an acquaintance," returned the other,
+surprised that any one should even conjecture that Mrs. Bennet might be
+connected with her.  Then it occurred to her that Cousin Julia might be
+even worse!
+
+"I never met her until a week ago," she went on languidly.  "She
+happened to be a friend of my lawyer's wife, and he wished me to come
+as far as I could in her company.  I suppose I oughtn't to travel the
+rest of the way alone, but he didn't make any other arrangement."
+
+"Oh, it isn't bad.  I've come all the way alone and everything's been
+jolly.  I've made awfully good friends, though they're all either
+elderly or children.  So your being about my age only made me want to
+know you the more.  Well, now that we're acquainted, we'll have to make
+the most of what's left of the way.  I am Elsie Moss and I was sixteen
+Christmas day.  Aren't you about that age?"
+
+"I am sixteen, Miss Moss," returned Elsie Marley formally.
+
+"But don't call me _Miss_," pleaded the other.  "_Everybody_ calls me
+Elsie."
+
+Elsie Marley did not reply.  She disliked the idea that the
+unchaperoned stranger should be Elsie, also, and should even have the
+same initials.  Her imagination was limited; still it occurred to her
+that the situation would have been much worse had the girl happened to
+bear the surname Pritchard.
+
+She stifled a sigh.  They seemed to be getting acquainted perforce.
+Now that she was out, however, she didn't care to go back at once, even
+though the sun beat down upon them fiercely, and the dry grass was full
+of dust and cinders.  She glanced about irresolutely.
+
+"Now if this were a scene in a play," remarked Elsie Moss reflectively,
+"the engine would have broken down near a grove with immemorial trees,
+or there'd be a dell hard by where the hero and heroine could wander by
+a stream.  Or else--" she hesitated.  "You don't feel comfy, do you?"
+
+"The sun is so hot, it's hardly safe to be out.  I'd better go in
+again," replied the other.
+
+"But the car'll be awfully hot, too, standing right in the sun.  I
+know--I'll get an umbrella."
+
+She rushed off at full speed lest the other should
+remonstrate--something that Elsie Marley didn't think of doing.  She
+accepted the favor as a matter of course, and they walked on slowly,
+the one restraining her eager feet with difficulty.
+
+"Oh, dear, I suppose _you're_ going to New York, too?" she asked.
+"Everybody seems to be except poor me."
+
+The other returned a spiritless affirmative.
+
+"Of course!  Oh, dear, and I'm simply _perishing_ to go!  But I'm due
+in a poky little place in Massachusetts called Enderby.  Isn't that the
+limit?  The name alone would queer the place, don't you think so?  It's
+fairly near Boston, but they say Boston's slow compared with New York
+or even with San Francisco."
+
+She waited a moment, then rattled on.
+
+"Do you know, sometimes it seems my _duty_ to go to New York.  I've got
+five hundred dollars all my own.  Dad had a long sickness, and, anyhow,
+he never got much ahead; but he left me that clear, and I'm just going
+to beg and implore my uncle on bended knee to let me take it and go to
+New York to study.  I could get a start with that, I'm sure."
+
+She looked up so eagerly that something strange seemed to stir within
+the quiet girl.  It was almost as if she would have liked to express
+her sympathy had she known how.  And when the light suddenly died out
+of the sparkling eyes and even the shadows of the dimples disappeared,
+she felt almost at fault.
+
+The other girl did not resent her want of sympathy, however.
+
+"But he'll never, never consent," she went on mournfully, "because he's
+an orthodox minister and I want to be an actress.  Of course he
+couldn't approve, and I ought not to blame him.  And yet, if I wait
+until I'm of age, I'll be too old.  I'd like to run away right now, but
+for the row it would make and for frightening auntie.  Really, you
+know, I'd rather join the circus than go to Enderby."
+
+"But I have always understood that to be an actress one must go through
+much that--isn't nice," remarked Elsie Marley in her colorless voice.
+
+"Oh, but that's half the fun--the struggle against odds," exclaimed
+Miss Moss with the assurance of untried youth.  "Our class motto at the
+high school was 'Per aspera ad astra.'  Isn't that fine and inspiring?"
+
+The other assented listlessly,
+
+A breeze had arisen, and now, at a little distance from the track, the
+air, though warm, was fresh and sweet.  The yellowed grass extended to
+the brilliant blue of the sky as far as the eye could reach.  For the
+first time, perhaps, in centuries, the plain was peopled by a throng;
+for by now nearly every one in the long train had come out.  Men stood
+in groups discussing politics and the Mexican affair; women wandered
+sedately about, most of them keeping a watchful eye upon the engine, as
+if it might suddenly start and plunge on, dragging an empty train of
+cars; children ran and frisked and shouted, making the most of the
+occasion, as only children can.  The two Elsies happened to be the only
+young girls.
+
+They had gone some little distance beyond the others.  Failing to draw
+out her companion, Elsie Moss took it for granted that she was shy, and
+chatted on about her own affairs, hoping presently to effect an
+exchange of confidences.
+
+"I can't help wondering what my uncle will be like," she said soberly,
+thrusting her hand into the pocket of her coat.  "You see, I've never
+seen him, though he and my mother were the greatest chums ever when
+they were young--almost like twins, though he was heaps older.  But
+mother went to California when she married and I was born there, and
+though he always meant to, he never got out to see us.  His wife
+couldn't stand the journey.  And when mother died, he was way over in
+Egypt, so of course he didn't come.  All that I know is that he's
+handsome and dignified and lives in a very proper place where they have
+everything correct and conventional--musical advantages and oratorios
+and lectures on Emerson, and village improvement and associated
+charities and all that, but no vaudeville nor movies.  I suppose if
+there were a theatre they'd only play Ibsen and Bernard Shaw."
+
+Elsie Marley opened her eyes rather wider than usual.  For it all
+sounded attractive to her, particularly in contrast with the
+boarding-house and New York.
+
+"He's awfully religious-looking, you know," Elsie Moss continued.  "He
+wears the same sort of waistcoats and collars the Episcopalians do,
+though he's a Congregationalist, and his picture is more than
+dignified, I can tell you.  Well, no doubt he's dreading me just as
+much as I am him, or else he's expecting me to be just like mother and
+will have the surprise of his life."
+
+She hesitated.  "I suppose I do look like her," she added gently and
+quite as if she believed the other girl to be deeply interested.  Then
+her voice dropped suddenly and her eyes filled with tears.  "Mother
+died--in the earthquake," she added.
+
+Something vaguely uncomfortable just stirred the surface of Elsie
+Marley's consciousness, though it wasn't sufficiently acute to be
+called a pang.  The earthquake had happened seven or eight years
+ago--and this girl's grief seemed fresh to-day.  Her own mother had
+been dead less than three years.
+
+She did not acknowledge that her mother was only a memory.  She hardly
+realized it, indeed.  Only, conscious of that vague, strange
+discomfort, she had an impulse to get away from it.  She put a languid
+question.
+
+"What have you done since?"
+
+"I've learned what a difference mothers make," returned the girl
+soberly.  Then she darted suddenly outside the range of the umbrella.
+
+"What's that?  A gopher?" she cried.  "Oh, my goodness, it's only one
+of those ridiculous Dutch dogs.
+
+"It might have been, you know," she said as she returned to the shade.
+Then she resumed the subject she had dropped.  Elsie Marley said to
+herself that she needn't listen, but as a matter of fact she heard
+every word.
+
+"I was so small I couldn't do much, and we had an awful time for a
+year.  Dad was always more or less hard up, but he was worse after the
+earthquake, and if we had a servant she wasted things so that he was
+wild.  He married again--a schoolteacher, and it wasn't a year, quite,
+after--the earthquake.  Most people didn't blame him, but Uncle John
+where I'm going did, and wanted me to come right on East and live with
+him, but dad wouldn't hear of it.  And, anyhow, she was the nicest
+thing.  I loved her dearly at the end of a week.  She wanted to keep me
+with her after dad died, but my uncle insisted upon my coming to him,
+so here I am."
+
+She looked into the other girl's eyes half appealingly, though her big
+dimples were dimly visible.
+
+"She wouldn't stand for my being an actress, either, so there you are.
+And I liked her so much I couldn't half urge her.  And that's the worst
+of it; if I stay with my uncle the least little while I shall get to
+liking him so much I shan't be able to run away.  It's perfectly
+terrible to get so fond of people when you want a career.  I suppose
+the thing to do would really be to disappear right now.  Oh, not this
+moment, but simply never to go to Enderby.  Suppose I should go right
+on to New York with you?"
+
+Elsie Marley gazed at her without a word and almost without expression.
+But within, she was secretly roused.  She marvelled at the stranger's
+audacity.  She was surprised to feel that she was not bored.  She
+decided that she would not return to the car until they should be
+summoned.
+
+As she was fumbling in her mind for the response the Moss girl
+evidently awaited, one of the children whose acquaintance the latter
+had made came running up to her and shyly took her hand and kissed it.
+Again putting the umbrella into the other girl's hands, Elsie Moss
+impulsively caught the little thing into her arms and fondled her.
+Then dropping her gently, she took both the little hands in hers and
+danced away with her.
+
+They made a charming picture against the long, yellow prairie-grass.
+The little girl moved with the grace of a child, but Elsie Moss danced
+like a fairy.  Her cheeks glowed, her dark eyes shone, her dimples
+twinkled, her feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground.  Her red hat
+was like a poppy-cup, and the dark hair tumbling about her little face,
+elf-locks.  Elsie Marley gazed spellbound.
+
+But only for a moment; on a sudden she turned and made her way back to
+the car, which was almost empty.  She returned not because she wanted
+to, not even because she was indifferent as to what she did.  She went
+because she didn't want to.  Unconsciously she was struggling against
+yielding to the charm of the vivid young creature who threatened to
+take her by storm.  In all her life she had never been deeply or warmly
+affected by another personality.  Perhaps now she realized this dimly,
+and some instinct warned her subtly to avoid any departure from old
+habitude, even when avoidance meant the first real struggle she had
+ever made against definite inclination.
+
+It seemed long before the other occupants of the car began to stroll
+in.  Then the engine whistled sharp warning, the laggards trooped back,
+and the train started briskly.  Elsie Moss entered by the rear door, as
+Elsie Marley knew, though she did not turn around.  She said to herself
+that no doubt she would be upon her directly, that she would have her
+company for the rest of the day and the remainder of the journey.  But
+she established herself in the middle of the seat lest she seem to give
+any invitation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Elsie Marley was not interrupted, as it happened.  Some little time
+passed and still she was alone.  The girl could not understand a
+certain unrest that was upon her.  She waited a few moments longer,
+then she moved close to the window so as to leave more than half the
+seat vacant.  Still nothing happened.
+
+At length she turned and looked back.  Elsie Moss, who sat between an
+old lady and a little boy, smiled and nodded.  Elsie Marley half
+smiled.  Still the other made no move.  Then she looked back, really
+smiled, and beckoned her to a place beside her.
+
+Elsie Moss, more than willing to be summoned, had some difficulty in
+getting away from her present companions.  But the grandmother
+prevailed upon the little boy to spare her, and she presented herself
+at Elsie Marley's seat smiling in her irresistible way with the big
+dimples indented, and looking as if she would like to hug her as she
+had hugged the little girl outside.  And Elsie Marley had a curious
+intimation that she shouldn't have minded greatly.
+
+"What do you think," exclaimed Miss Moss as she seated herself, "you
+know all my family history and I don't even know your name.  I've been
+guessing.  It ought to be either Isabel or Hildegarde.  Is it?  Oh, I
+do wish it were, they're both so sort of stately and princess-like that
+they'd just suit you."
+
+"It isn't either," responded the other with a curious sense of
+disappointment.  "My name is Elsie also."
+
+"Of all things!  But it's rather jolly, after all.  And what's the
+rest?"
+
+"Marley, Elsie Pritchard Marley.  But at home they called me Elsie
+Pritchard, because I am--all Pritchard."
+
+Unacquainted with the Pritchard distinction, Elsie Moss was not
+impressed.  But she exclaimed gleefully over the real surname.
+
+"Elsie Marley!" she cried.  "Why, isn't that funny, and oh, isn't it
+dear!  Elsie Marley, honey!"
+
+The other girl looked blank.
+
+"Of course you know the song, or at least the rhyme?"
+
+"Song?  Rhyme?"
+
+"Why, yes.  You must have heard it: 'And Do You Ken Elsie Marley,
+Honey?'"
+
+"Is it really and truly Elsie Marley?" queried the pale Elsie speaking
+for the first time like a real girl, though she had no girlish
+vocabulary from which to draw.
+
+"Sure," asserted the other, delighted to be able to surprise her
+seatmate.  And she sang a stanza in the sweetest voice Elsie Marley had
+ever heard, though she had heard good music all her life, and famous
+singers.
+
+  "Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+"Is there--any more?" demanded Elsie Marley almost eagerly.
+
+"One more, and then you just repeat the first.  I've known it all my
+life.  Mother used to sing it to me when I was a baby.  Then a few
+years ago when I first went to see vaudeville, I 'got it up,' as they
+say, with dancing and a little acting.  I used to spring it on people
+that came to the house.  Dad liked it, but it made my stepmother feel
+bad--dad said because I was too professional."
+
+She sighed deeply.
+
+"Sing the rest, please, Elsie?" asked the other, using her name for the
+first time.
+
+"I will if you'll let me call you Elsie-Honey?  You see it really
+belongs."
+
+Elsie knew that it was silly, but she found herself quite willing.  She
+seemed under a strange spell.
+
+"Only," she added, with a stronger sensation of discomfort, "after
+to-morrow it isn't likely we'll ever see one another again."
+
+"Oh, yes we will, sure.  Why, we just _must_--at least if you want to
+half as much as I do, Elsie-Honey?"
+
+"I do," Elsie confessed shyly and now with a curiously pleasant
+feeling.  "And now, Elsie, please sing the other stanzas."
+
+"It sounds just dear to say _stanzas_," cried the other.  "I should
+always say _verses_, even if I didn't forget which was which."
+
+With an absurd little flourish of her hands, she turned slightly in her
+seat.  The dimples came out strongly, and though she sat quite still,
+there was truly something dramatic in the manner in which the would-be
+actress sang the lines.
+
+  "Elsie Marley is grown so fine
+  She won't get up to feed the swine,
+  But lies in bed till eight or nine,
+  And surely she does take her time.
+
+  Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+Both girls broke into natural, infectious laughter.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Bliss, or any one who had known Elsie Marley, could scarcely have
+believed their eyes or credited their hearing.  But Elsie's father, who
+had died while she was an infant, had had a warm heart and a keen sense
+of humor, and it might well be that his daughter had inherited
+something of this that had lain dormant all the while.  For truly, the
+wholesome, hardy qualities brought out in others through simple human
+association had had little chance to germinate in her hothouse
+existence in the Pritchard household.
+
+Despite the rumble of the train, four children in the rear of the car
+caught the sound of the singing and came trooping up begging for more.
+A pretty nursemaid followed with a fat, smiling infant.  Elsie Moss
+made her sit down with it (beside Elsie Marley!) and she herself
+perched on the arm of the seat and sang song after song until it was
+time to go into the dining-car.  The children, wild with enthusiasm,
+were not in reality more appreciative of the lovely voice than Elsie
+Marley herself.  The two girls went in to dinner together in happy
+companionship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Elsie Marley lay in her berth that night for some time in a state
+between musing and actually dreaming.  She was conscious--partly
+conscious, that is--of a new sensation of happiness.  She did not,
+however, at all realize how fortunate she was.  She did not know that
+for the first time in her life the door of her heart had been opened in
+response to another.  It was, perhaps, open only a crack.  Possibly it
+had been fast so long that it would not remain open.  None the less, at
+the moment it stood ajar.
+
+After dinner the girls had talked late--late for sleeping-car hours,
+that is to say.  Elsie Marley herself had talked; had said more in an
+hour than she had ever before said in a day.  Questioned in a frank,
+sympathetic manner by the other Elsie, she had been led to speak of her
+grandmother's household and of her daily life there, going into details
+so far as she knew how, as she found the other so generously and
+romantically concerned.  Then she had gone on to speak of Cousin Julia
+Pritchard and the boarding-house, confessing her apprehension and
+dread, which seemed somehow to have become more definite in the
+interval.  She even showed the stranger Cousin Julia's letter.
+
+Having perused it, Elsie Moss acknowledged that it wasn't altogether a
+pleasant outlook for such a one as Elsie Marley, honey, though she
+herself wouldn't mind it.  Indeed, she declared that she should have
+liked it immensely.  And finally, as she left to go back to her berth,
+she exclaimed with fervor that she only wished that Miss Pritchard were
+her cousin, and the Reverend John Middleton Elsie Marley's uncle and
+guardian.
+
+As those were Elsie Moss's last spoken words that night, so that
+thought was uppermost in her mind as she fell asleep shortly after her
+cropped head touched the pillow.  And next morning when she woke early
+with a startlingly delightful idea, it almost caused her to bound from
+her upper berth as if it had been a bed in the middle of a stationary
+floor.  For it came not in embryo, not in the egg, so to speak, but
+full-fledged.  It seemed as if she couldn't possibly wait until she was
+dressed to divulge it to Elsie Marley.
+
+But Elsie Marley was, like her prototype, late in rising, and the other
+Elsie's eagerness grew yet keener as she waited.  Finally, however,
+they were alone together in the former's seat, as the train sped
+rapidly eastward.
+
+Elsie Marley's countenance seemed almost to have changed overnight.
+There was truly something in it that had not been there before.  Of
+course it was not animated now; nevertheless, it was not so utterly
+wanting in expression as it had been the day before, even in
+juxtaposition with the vivid little face beside her.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey, I've got something perfectly gorgeous to tell you,"
+cried the dark Elsie.  "Listen--you're not very keen about going to
+your cousin's, are you?"
+
+Elsie confessed that she liked the idea less than ever.
+
+"And I just _hate_--the short of it is--I simply _cannot_ go anywhere
+but to New York.  You'd ever so much prefer Enderby because it's select
+and has culture and advantages, and you'd sooner have a dignified
+clergyman uncle than a newspaper cousin.  As for me, I should adore
+Cousin Julia."
+
+"It seems a pity, surely," admitted Elsie quietly.
+
+The other looked at her.  "You see what's coming, honey?"
+
+She shook her head, perplexed.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey!  It's plain as pudding.  Presto! change!  That's all.
+Aren't we both Elsie, and don't we both want just what's coming to the
+other?  All we have to do is to swap surnames.  See?"
+
+Still Elsie Marley did not understand.
+
+"Shake us up in a box, you know," the other explained, her dimples very
+conspicuous, "and you come out Elsie Moss and I, Elsie Marley, without
+the honey.  You go to live with Reverend John Middleton and I'll go to
+New York and try to persuade your Cousin Julia to let her supposed
+relative study for the stage.  What could be better?  It's simply
+ripping and dead easy.  Neither of them has seen either of us.  Uncle
+John would draw a prize instead of me, and--I'd be awfully good to your
+cousin, Elsie-Honey."
+
+Really to grasp a conception so daring and revolutionary took Elsie
+Marley some time.  But when she had once grasped it, she considered it
+seriously.  It did not seem to her, even at first, either unreasonable
+or impossible.  Indeed, influenced by the enthusiasm of the other girl,
+she began to feel it both reasonable and fitting.  In a way, too, it
+was only natural.  For after all, the girl had always had her way made
+smooth for her, and this appeared only a continuation of that process.
+She certainly _didn't_ want to go to Cousin Julia's, and she liked the
+idea of living in the quiet parsonage of the aristocratic country town.
+
+Indeed, she agreed to the proposal more readily and unquestioningly
+than a girl of more imagination or experience could have done.  For her
+part, Elsie Moss foresaw certain complications, though in truth only
+the most obvious ones.  They discussed these gravely, yet with much
+confidence.  Indeed, an older person must have been both amused and
+amazed at the youthfulness, the inexperience, and the ignorance of life
+the girls exhibited, at their utter unconsciousness that they were not
+qualified to act as responsible human beings and shuffle blood
+relationships about like pawns on a chess-board.
+
+"There's certainly nothing about it that even my stepmother could
+object to," Elsie Moss concluded.  "Nobody's being cheated: they are
+both going to get what they would really choose if they had a chance,
+and to escape what might be very uncomfortable, and so are we.  We're
+both Elsies, and about the same age, and have brown eyes: if Uncle John
+were to take his pick, wouldn't he take a quiet, dignified, ladylike
+Elsie, instead of a harum-scarum one with short hair that was mad for
+the stage?  And Aunt Milly being rather frail, I should have driven her
+to drink, while you're used to an invalid aunt.  Isn't it just
+wonderful?  The more I think of it, the _righter_ it seems.  I almost
+feel now as if it would be wrong _not_ to do it, don't you?"
+
+Like one in a dream, Elsie Marley assented.  She was almost giddy at
+the swift flight of the other's imagination.  She listened spellbound
+while Elsie Moss spun plans, able herself to contribute nothing but
+assent and applause.  Under skilful questioning, however, she related
+all the Pritchard traditions and family history that Cousin Julia might
+be expected to be familiar with, and endeavored in a docile manner to
+learn enough of Moss and Middleton annals to take her part in the
+Middleton household.
+
+Elsie Moss possessed a certain sort of executive ability which enabled
+her to make the practical arrangements for carrying through the plan.
+Quite self-reliant, she planned to accompany the other to Boston to
+make sure that all went well, going thence herself to New York.  After
+consultation with the conductor in regard to time-tables, she sent a
+telegram asking Miss Pritchard to meet a later train.  The change in
+the destination of their respective luggage was more difficult to
+effect, but she accomplished that also, and both girls changed cars for
+Boston.
+
+Indeed, presently it seemed as if the only difficult part of the whole
+affair would be the parting from each other.  They were to write
+frequently, of course, and not only for the sake of mutual information;
+but it seemed, particularly to the pale Elsie, who had never had a
+friend, cruelly hard to have to be separated so soon from this most
+charming companion.  She gazed at her wistfully, unable to express
+herself.
+
+The other Elsie, as quick, nearly, to read as to express feeling, and
+naturally the more impulsive, answered from her heart.
+
+"Oh, we'll see each other often, we'll just have to, Elsie-Honey," she
+cried.  "And anyhow, we'll want to compare notes and brush up on our
+parts.  We'll visit back and forth.  You come to New York and I----"
+
+She stopped short.
+
+"My goodness, that'll never do!  I can never come to Enderby.  You'll
+have to do all the visiting, honey.  I'm the very image of my mother,
+and I'd give it all away."
+
+"Oh," said the other feebly.
+
+"You've noticed that I have dimples, I suppose?" inquired the other
+gloomily.
+
+Elsie could not deny it, though denial was evidently what the other
+craved.
+
+The latter sighed deeply.  "Then they're just as plain as ever, and
+would give me away first thing," she said.  "Dad used to say he had
+never seen such big dimples as mother's, and that mine were just like
+'em.  He said if I had straight yellow hair and blue eyes, any one that
+had seen her would know me.  Oh, dear, aren't you lucky to have nothing
+conspicuous about you?  I'm sure you're not the image of any one,
+Elsie-Honey, and you'll come to see me often enough to make up, won't
+you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Elsie, unless he--Mr. Middleton--should object to my coming
+to New York alone?"
+
+"You'd better begin right away calling him Uncle John, so as to get
+used to it as soon as you can," suggested the other.  "And I'm sure he
+won't object.  I'm sure from his letters that he's not an old fuss, and
+it's a straight trip with no changes from Boston to New York.  And
+Cousin Julia and I will meet you at the Grand Central!"
+
+She grinned at her own _cheek_, as she called it, and the other Elsie
+smiled happily.
+
+"Just the same, I'm more than sorry not to be able to come to Enderby
+to visit," Elsie Moss declared.  "You know it would be simply stunning
+practice, playing the stranger in my uncle's house--something like the
+real wife in 'East Lynne,' you know."
+
+"I never saw 'East Lynne.'"
+
+"Dear me, I cried quarts and bucketsful over it.  It's the most tragic
+play!  If I had time I could show you how it goes.  I always act things
+out over and over after I've seen them, making up words where I don't
+remember them.  But, alas! we haven't any time to spare with what we've
+got ahead of us, have we, honey?  Now we must arrange for meeting
+Uncle--no, _I_ must call him _Mr._ Middleton."
+
+On a sudden the girl clasped her hands in apparent distress.
+
+"Oh, I never thought!" she cried.  "It won't even be safe for Uncle
+John to see me at the station in Boston.  Well, I shall have to drop
+behind and keep perfectly sober.  I'll just watch out to see that
+everything's all right with you, and then I'll skidoo.  Dear me, I hope
+I don't look so awfully unlike the Marleys as to frighten Cousin Julia?"
+
+Had she said the _Pritchards_, Elsie would have been in a quandary; as
+it was, her face brightened.
+
+"She never knew the Marleys, and there aren't any now," she said.  "She
+knows only the Pritchards."
+
+"Hooray!  I shall harp on the Marleys morning, noon, and night!"
+
+"She'll like you," observed Elsie wistfully.  "You know she spoke in
+her letter of young life."
+
+"I shall adore her, dear old thing!" cried the warm-hearted girl.  "And
+Uncle John will adore you.  He adored my mother, who was quiet and deep
+like you.  He was always sending her rare things, and pitying her
+because she was poor and longing to send her money, though dad wouldn't
+have that."
+
+The appearance of an expressman warned them that they were nearing
+Boston.
+
+"You're perfectly sure that you're willing to exchange New York for
+Enderby?" demanded Elsie Moss suddenly.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed, Elsie."
+
+"And you don't yearn for Cousin Julia?"
+
+Elsie Marley half smiled.  "Oh, no," she declared.
+
+But the other was determined not to take any undue advantage.
+
+"Now listen," she said; "if after you see Uncle John you don't fancy
+him, just say the word or nudge me or wink and I'll swap back without a
+word.  I'll simply step up and say, 'Oh, Uncle John, you've kissed the
+wrong girl!' though, of course, he may be too dignified to kiss at a
+train.  And then I'll introduce you properly."
+
+They sped on.  Soon a trainman entered to say that the next station was
+Boston and request them not to leave any articles in the car.  They
+said good-by to each other before the train stopped, kissing warmly
+like real friends.  Then Elsie Moss tied a large, dark veil over her
+hat and well down over her forehead and eyes.  It looked as
+inappropriate for the hot day as the scowling expression she assumed to
+cloak the dimples was ill suited to her charming little face.
+
+As they alighted, and a handsome, distinguished-looking gentleman in
+grey clerical garb advanced to meet them, she fell behind.  Raising his
+hat, he took the hand of the girl who was not his niece.
+
+"And this is Elsie?" he said in a fine, kindly voice.
+
+She murmured a weak affirmative.  He kissed her affectionately, took
+her portmanteau from the porter, and turned to the girl who had come
+from the car with her.
+
+"And this is your friend, Elsie?" he inquired.
+
+Elsie Moss came forward, scowling so fiercely that the other, despite
+her blunted sense of humor, could scarcely keep from laughing out.
+
+"My friend, Miss M-Marley," she stammered.
+
+Mr. Middleton shook hands with his sister's daughter, took her satchel,
+and asked how he could serve her.  The girl replied in a thin falsetto
+voice, which she realized immediately didn't go with the scowl so well
+as a gruff tone would have done, that she had only twenty-five minutes
+to get the train for New York and must say good-by at once and take a
+cab for the other station.
+
+However, he didn't let her go so easily.  Assuming charge in a simple,
+offhand manner, he found a taxicab which took them to the South
+Station, led her to the ticket-office, secured a chair, and put her on
+the train.
+
+She kissed Elsie Marley again, squeezing her hand meaningly.  And she
+nearly forgot and showed her dimples, looking out of the window as her
+train pulled out, to see them together, her uncle with his hat in his
+hand, Elsie waving her pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"He's a darling," she said to herself as they moved toward the Trinity
+Place Station, "and it's mighty lucky for my career that I didn't see
+more of him.  But he'll be far happier with that lovely honey-princess,
+and I'm glad she's drawn a prize.  As for me, hooray for Cousin Julia
+and the footlights!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"I hope, Elsie, your friend wasn't in pain?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+with concern shortly after they were established in the train for
+Enderby.
+
+"Oh, no," the girl assured him, trying, but vainly, to add "Uncle John."
+
+"I thought she might be suffering from toothache or neuralgia, wearing
+that scarf about her face on such a warm day--particularly as she
+frowned and screwed her mouth in a rather distressed way," he explained.
+
+Elsie smiled.  Indeed she almost laughed, partly because she was
+herself struck by the humor of it, partly because it would so amuse
+Elsie Moss when she wrote her about it.
+
+"Oh, no," she repeated.  "Oh, no, Uncle John"--resolutely--"she was
+just--well--she was acting, I suppose.  She wants very much to go on
+the stage."
+
+"And doesn't lose any opportunity for practice?" He smiled, but rather
+ruefully.  "Poor child!  Somehow, of all ambitions, there seems to be
+more tragedy, more pitifulness, underlying that than any other.  Where
+one succeeds, so many fail--go down into darkness and obscurity.  Your
+mother had the fever at one time as a very young girl, Elsie.  As a
+matter of fact, she had some little talent in that direction, but
+fortunately we were able to persuade her to give up the idea entirely."
+He sighed.  "She was so tender-hearted and affectionate that she could
+have been induced to give up far more precious things than an ambition
+of that sort."
+
+Elsie was gazing out of the window.  He pointed out a country club and
+several fine estates at a distance, then asked:
+
+"What is your friend going in for, Elsie, comedy or tragedy?"
+
+Elsie didn't know.  She explained that while Miss M-Marley seemed like
+an old friend, she had only met her on the train as they had left
+Chicago.
+
+"Ah, that's just like your mother!" he exclaimed.  "She was just that
+way, quick to make friends, and yet as loyal and true as any slower and
+more cautious person could be."
+
+Again he sighed; then added in a lighter tone: "_She_ wanted to play
+tragic parts--youth is apt to--but of course with those dimples she
+would have been doomed to comedy, if not farce."
+
+He gazed reminiscently at her.
+
+"Your baby pictures had her dimples in small, but I see that as you
+have grown thin you have lost them.  You scarcely resemble her at all,
+and yet already I see how very like her you are."
+
+Elsie could think of no response, and fearing that he was awaking
+painful feelings, Mr. Middleton changed the subject by inquiring kindly
+after her stepmother.  Elsie replied according to instructions that she
+was quite well and much gratified to have secured her former position
+in one of the San Francisco high schools for the coming year.
+
+As he went on to ask about her journey and to exhibit points of
+interest along the way, he was so chivalrous and thoughtful that the
+girl realized that she would be considered and cared for as she never
+would have been with Cousin Julia, and was genuinely relieved.  Then
+her thoughts flew back to those hours with Elsie Moss between Chicago
+and Boston, which seemed to her the happiest she had ever known.  It
+came to her that if she could have the other girl's companionship,
+could see her every day, she didn't know that she would greatly care
+where she was.  Perhaps she could even endure hardship.  How serious
+Elsie Moss had been about her motto, "Per aspera ad astra."  For all
+her gayety, she felt she could go through hardship bravely.  Ah, she
+was a rare person!  For the first time in her life Elsie Marley was
+homesick--and for a stranger!
+
+Happily, there was that about Mr. Middleton which reminded her of his
+niece.  She glanced at him from under her long, pale lashes.  A man of
+fifty, he was tall and thin, with a fine florid face set off by a mass
+of thick, white hair.  His eyes were brown and youthful, full of
+serenity and kindliness, with a shadow of the idealism that
+characterized his whole face.  His voice was good, his speech elegant,
+appealing particularly to one accustomed to the tones and inflections
+of the West.  Looking forward to meeting his wife, who would probably
+be equally pleasing, Elsie felt that in any event she should be as
+happy between visits as it would be possible to be anywhere without
+Elsie Moss.
+
+A short drive through the quiet, shady streets of what seemed to be an
+old, historic town brought them to the parsonage, one of a group of
+handsome, rather stately buildings near and about a green common.  Of
+colonial style, built of brick, it had a portico with great Corinthian
+pillars, window-frames and cornices of wood painted white, and stood
+far back from the street with a beautiful lawn studded by great elms
+and a glimpse of a garden in the rear.
+
+The driveway led to a side entrance under a porte-cochère.  As the
+carriage drew up, Mr. Middleton glanced eagerly toward the door.  His
+face fell.
+
+"Your Aunt Milly will be here directly," he said and ushered her in.
+As she entered the beautiful hall, Elsie couldn't help feeling how
+fortunate she was to escape the boarding-house.
+
+There was no one in sight.  Mr. Middleton looked about, then led her
+into one of the great front rooms on either side of the wide hall and
+asked her to make herself comfortable while he went to see if her aunt
+were ill.
+
+"She is not very strong, as you know, Elsie, and the excitement may
+have been too much for her," he explained.  "She has looked forward so
+eagerly to your arrival."
+
+Fortunately he did not await any reply.  Elsie felt suddenly stunned as
+by a blow.  Left alone, she gazed about her in amazement that was
+almost horror.  The large, square, corner room lighted by four great
+windows that reached from the floor to the heavy cornice was
+comfortably, even luxuriously, furnished, but--the girl could scarcely
+believe her eyes--it was the most untidy-looking place she had ever
+been in!  The heavy crimson hangings, faded by the strong summer
+sunlight, lost further color by their layer of dust, quite visible even
+at this distance and at first sight.  There were ashes on the hearth,
+though the heap of waste-paper, dust, and miscellaneous rubbish in the
+fireplace showed that it hadn't been used for some time.  The piano, a
+baby-grand, stood open, with dust on its dingy keys and more dust on
+its shining case.  The centre-table held a handsome reading-lamp and
+some books, but was littered with piles of old newspapers and magazines
+without covers.  A kitchen-apron was flung across an armchair; a dirty,
+paper-covered book lay on a little table with a plate beside it covered
+with cake-crumbs, and there were crumbs on the richly colored Turkish
+rug and on the arm of the tapestry-covered chair on the edge of which
+Elsie perched.
+
+Surely there was some mistake, some monstrous mistake!  She had somehow
+been brought to the wrong house.  It wasn't possible that a gentleman
+like Mr. Middleton could belong to a household such as this, she was
+saying incredulously to herself, when a shadow fell athwart the
+threshold and she looked up to see Mrs. Middleton entering on her
+husband's arm.
+
+Mrs. Middleton was the key to the enigma, though Elsie's mind wasn't
+sufficiently alert to grasp the fact at the moment.  She stood beside
+her tall, immaculate husband, a short, rather stout, flabby-looking
+woman with a sallow face wherein keener eyes than Elsie's might have
+detected traces of former prettiness, and frowsy, ginger-colored hair
+that had been curled on an iron.  She wore a dingy pink tea-gown
+bordered with swan's-down, cut rather low and revealing a yellow,
+scrawny neck.  A large cameo brooch took the place of a missing frog,
+and a pin in the hem disclosed missing stitches.  Her hands were
+covered with rings, her feet thrust into shapeless knitted boots.
+
+She smiled, cried, "Elsie!" in a weak, sentimental manner, and opened
+her arms wide as if expecting the girl to fly into them.
+
+Elsie, who had risen, advanced stiffly and reached out her hand in
+gingerly fashion.  But Mrs. Middleton gathered her, willy-nilly, into a
+warm embrace, holding her close against the dingy pink flannel.
+
+Elsie could not struggle against it, as she was moved to do; she could
+not burst into tears at the indignity; she could not rush out of the
+house and back to the train, as she longed to do, with the sense of
+outrage goading her.  She was forced to sit down weakly with the others.
+
+Mrs. Middleton gazed at her fondly.
+
+"Dear child!  Little orphan stranger!" she cried.  "How I have longed
+for this hour!  Indeed, I so longed for it that at the last moment my
+strength failed me, and when the train whistled I had to drop on my bed
+in exhaustion.  But enough of that.  Welcome to our home and hearts!"
+
+Murmuring some chill, indistinct monosyllable, Elsie glanced dumbly at
+Mr. Middleton, who was looking at his wife as tenderly as if she had
+been all that Elsie had expected her to be.  Were they both mad?
+
+"Jack, dear, you have never asked Elsie to take off her things--your
+own niece!" exclaimed Mrs. Middleton reproachfully.  And she turned to
+Elsie with her sentimental smile.
+
+"These men, my dear!" she said, and coming to her side begged the girl
+to let her have her wraps.
+
+Elsie wanted to cry out that she wasn't going to stay, that she was no
+kin of theirs, and was going away on the next train.  But she couldn't
+utter a word.  She removed her hat and jacket dumbly, wondering which
+dusty surface they would occupy.  As Mr. Middleton carried them into
+the hall, she could only guess.
+
+On his return, he noticed the kitchen-apron, picked it up and held it a
+moment irresolutely.  Then opening a door in the wainscot near the
+fireplace he flung it in.  Before the door went to, Elsie had a glimpse
+of worse disorder--of the sort that is supposed to pertain to a
+junk-shop.
+
+"That's Katy's apron," remarked Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  "Do you
+know, Jack, I feel sure she sits in here when there's no one around.
+Now that book on the table by the window must be hers."
+
+"It's no harm for her to sit here when the room is not in use,"
+returned Mr. Middleton kindly, "but when she goes, I wish she would
+take her things along."  And he picked up the novel and was about to
+consign it to the same dump when his wife held out her hand for it.
+
+"What mush!" she cried as she fingered the greasy pages, while Elsie
+flinched inwardly.  And unobservant as the girl naturally was, she
+could not help noticing that Mrs. Middleton retained the book.
+
+"Don't think, dear Elsie, that we're unkind to our poor but worthy
+Kate," the latter remarked, sitting down next to Elsie and taking the
+girl's limp hand in hers.  "As a matter of fact, she has a sitting-room
+of her own.  This house, you know, is very old.  It matches the other,
+newer buildings only because they were built to suit its style.  The
+original owners, the Enderbys, for whom the town was renamed, had many
+servants and provided a parlor for them.  Of course your uncle and I
+can afford to keep only one, but we gave her the parlor, hoping she
+would appreciate it.  But it doesn't look out front, so she doesn't
+care for it and uses it as a sort of store-room."
+
+"I wonder if Elsie wouldn't like to go to her chamber now," Mr.
+Middleton suggested, remarking suddenly how tired the girl looked.  He
+had thought her surprisingly fresh after the long journey, but
+apparently only excitement had kept her up.
+
+Elsie looked at him gratefully.  She was longing to be by herself in
+order to determine what she was to do.
+
+"Yes, Jack, that's exactly what the poor dear wants; I've been trying
+to get a word in to ask her," agreed Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  Elsie
+rose.
+
+"Where did you decide to put her, Milly?  In the blue room?"
+
+"Yes, dear, but I'm not perfectly sure whether Katy got it ready.  Do
+you mind calling her?"
+
+He fetched the handsome, slatternly maid servant, who drew up the lower
+corner of her apron crosswise to disguise its dirt, but openly and
+unashamed, and only to uncover a dress underneath that was quite as
+untidy.
+
+"Katy, this is our niece, Miss Moss, who has come to live with us,"
+Mrs. Middleton announced.  "Have you got the blue room ready for her?"
+
+Katy bowed low to Elsie before she replied.
+
+"No'm, not yet," she said.
+
+"Oh, Katy, when I told you to be sure?"
+
+"No'm, you didn't," responded the woman pleasantly.
+
+"Dear me!  Well, I meant to; I suppose it slipped my mind."
+
+She turned to Elsie.  "I've been particularly wretched all day,
+scarcely able, with all my will-power at full strain, to hold up my
+head."
+
+"It seems to me," she addressed Kate reproachfully, "you might have
+done it anyhow.  You knew what Mr. Middleton was going in town for."
+
+"I'll get a place ready for her right now in no time, ma'am," Katy
+assured her cheerfully.  As she was leaving the room with an admiring
+look at Elsie, she glanced suspiciously at Mrs. Middleton, whose hand
+was hidden in a fold of her wrapper.
+
+"Is that my story-book you've got, ma'am?" she inquired.
+
+Mrs. Middleton drew forth the book, looked at it as if in great
+surprise, and gave it to Kate, who disappeared at once.  Mr. Middleton
+followed with Elsie's luggage.
+
+Elsie, who did not resume her seat, walked to the window and gazed out,
+without, however, seeing anything.  Mrs. Middleton began to rhapsodize
+over the elms and oaks and some rooks in the distance that were really
+crows.  But before she had gone far, Katy appeared to say that the room
+was ready.  If she had not done it in no time, as she had proposed, she
+had certainly spent as little time as one could and accomplish
+anything.  Mrs. Middleton led Elsie up-stairs, threw open the door of
+the room with a dramatic gesture, kissed and fondled her, and finally
+left her to get a good rest.
+
+Elsie closed the door after her, dropped into a chair and, burying her
+face in her hands, sat motionless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+For some time Elsie could not think.  She could only sit there in a
+sort of dumb horror.  Presently she raised her head, opened her eyes,
+and deliberately surveyed the room.
+
+Like the others she had seen, it was large and handsomely furnished.
+There was a great brass bed and heavy mahogany furniture.  The walls
+were hung with blue, the large rug was blue-and-gold, and the chintz
+hangings and covers blue-and-white.  There was a great pier-glass, a
+writing-desk, and a bookcase.  In spite of the fact that everything
+bore the appearance of having been hastily dusted, it was fairly neat
+and very attractive.
+
+Still confused, with a stunned sensation that precluded decisive
+action, Elsie decided that she might as well remove the dust of travel,
+and rising, slipped off her blouse.
+
+As she turned on both faucets in the bowl in the small dressing-room
+adjoining, a thick scum rose to the surface of the water, and she
+realized the bowl had not been washed for some time.  At first she
+gazed at the dust helplessly.  Utterly unused to doing anything for
+herself, she looked about anxiously.  Two towels, clean but not ironed,
+lay on the rack.  She hesitated, then grasping one of them as if it
+were the proverbial nettle, she attacked the bowl, gingerly at first,
+then with some vigor; and presently, with the aid of some dirty
+fragments of soap she found in the receptacle, using the second towel
+to dry it, she had the enamelled surface clean and shining.  With an
+odd sense of satisfaction, she threw the towels to the floor, opened
+her portmanteau, took out her own toilet-case, and proceeded to wash.
+
+Refreshed physically and even a trifle in spirit, she slipped on her
+dressing-gown and sat down by the window to consider.  She knew now
+that she should have spoken immediately upon seeing Mrs. Middleton,
+thus avoiding more unpleasantness than the caresses.  Having delayed
+her explanation of the masquerade, she had made it the more difficult.
+Even now she dreaded shocking or even hurting Mr. Middleton.
+
+She rose and moved about irresolutely.  The dress she had taken off lay
+on the couch against the foot of the bed, and though she had never been
+accustomed to caring for her clothes, she started instinctively to hang
+it away.  Opening the door into the clothes-press, she shrank back.
+
+A commodious closet with shelves and drawers, it was as much worse in
+its confusion and disorder than the cupboard down-stairs as it was
+larger.  Each hook bulged and overflowed with clothing: tawdry finery,
+evening-gowns, old skirts, wrappers, sacks, bath-robes, knitted jackets
+and shawls and miscellaneous underclothes.  The drawers were so crammed
+that none would shut.  The shelves were piled high with blankets,
+comfortables, old hats, a pair of snow-shoes, pasteboard boxes, and
+bottles without number; while on the floor were boots, shoes, and
+slippers in all stages of wear, overshoes, a broken umbrella, a
+walking-stick, a folding-table, and more boxes.  And everywhere the
+dust lay thick.
+
+Shutting the door hastily, Elsie flung herself upon the couch, covering
+her face and pressing her fingers upon her closed eyes.  What
+a--_heathenish_ place!  She really didn't possess the sort of
+vocabulary to express the enormity of it.  How should she get away?
+Suppose there were no train to-night?  Suppose she should have to
+remain until morning?
+
+If only it were a hotel!  If only Mr. Middleton weren't so fine, or if
+Mrs. Middleton had gone into Boston!  One look at her would have been
+enough: she would have known she could never endure her.  Better Cousin
+Julia with all her oddities.  She would have made the sign agreed upon
+and gone straight on to New York.  And then--poor Elsie Moss!  After
+all, Mrs. Middleton wasn't any real relative of hers, either.  She only
+hoped that the other girl might find Cousin Julia so very disagreeable
+that she wouldn't too painfully mind being dragged back here.
+
+Some one knocked at the door.  Feeling that she couldn't possibly
+encounter Mrs. Middleton at this juncture, the girl remained silent.
+
+"It's only Katy," said a pleasant voice, and Elsie bade her come in.
+
+The warm-hearted Irishwoman knew in an instant that something was
+wrong, and suspected homesickness.  She spoke fondly, as to a child,
+saying that tea was nearly ready, and added: "Have you got everything
+that you want, miss?"
+
+Elsie could have laughed at the unconscious irony.
+
+"The clothes-press is full of mussy things, and the wash-bowl was
+dirty, and there weren't any clean towels," the girl almost wailed.
+
+"Bless my soul, I guess that wash-bowl was forgot for a matter of a few
+days!" Katy exclaimed.  "Dear me, I'm so sorry.  But them towels was
+clean, only not ironed.  I hadn't got round to 'em yet, and I didn't
+know where to lay my hands on any that was put away.  There's a lot
+somewheres, for we keep a-buyin' and a-buyin'.  And I'll just go at
+this room the first thing after breakfast in the mornin' and make
+everything clean and shinin'.  I meant to 'a' done it to-day, but I
+didn't get a minute, and I thought one night wouldn't make much matter."
+
+While Elsie was endeavoring to frame some sentence to inform Katy that
+she needn't take the trouble, the latter suddenly remembered something
+in the oven and disappeared.  Elsie rose and dressed.  She couldn't eat
+in such a place, but she couldn't get away without explaining and,
+perhaps, the tea-table would be a suitable occasion for that.
+
+Mr. Middleton met her at the foot of the stair and led her to the
+dining-room.  Another surprise!  The room was not only large, pleasant,
+and airy, overlooking a beautiful garden, but it was neat and tidy, and
+the table was spotless, with fine damask, delicate china, and beautiful
+silver.  The food was delicious--Elsie had taken her place
+perforce--and was particularly appetizing after five days on the train.
+
+Mrs. Middleton still wore the pink wrapper, but she had little to say,
+and her husband was so elegant and attractive, was in such good spirits
+and talked so entertainingly, that Elsie almost forgot.  In any event,
+before the meal was over she had decided to remain overnight, and to
+postpone her confession until morning.
+
+The evening passed pleasantly.  Mrs. Middleton excused herself directly
+after tea, and Mr. Middleton took Elsie out to show her the garden,
+which he tended himself, an old-fashioned garden with formal beds
+radiating from a sun-dial.  Thence they went to his study, an
+attractive room lined with books, which, though untidy, was not
+startlingly so, not, perhaps, far beyond that peculiar limit of
+disorder allowed to a student's sanctum.
+
+Here the Reverend John Middleton, unmistakably and infectiously happy,
+talked with his supposed niece for an hour.  Full of enthusiasm,
+quieter but almost as youthful as that of Elsie Moss, of ideas and
+ideals, he had not realized his want of companionship and sympathy, nor
+understood why he had looked forward so eagerly to the coming of the
+daughter of the sister who had been the companion and intimate friend
+of his youth and young manhood.  Believing he saw already much of the
+mother in the girl, he seemed to feel no need of preliminaries, of
+getting acquainted.  He strove only to make her feel at home, hoping
+there might be no strangeness even on the first night.
+
+His powers being by no means inconsiderable, he succeeded so well that
+Elsie Marley went to her room in a state of real exhilaration that was
+almost tumult.  The door of her inner nature, set ajar by Elsie Moss,
+had opened wide.  She had never in all her sixteen years been really
+roused out of herself until she met the former; and she had never come
+in contact with a nature so rich and fine as that of the clergyman.
+Further than this, something else stirred in the girl's
+heart--something better than the desire to hold this friend for her
+own.  Unawares, dimly, she felt his reaching out for sympathy, realized
+dimly that there was something that even a young girl could do for him.
+And suddenly a feeling of depression that was like regret or even
+remorse took possession of her.  The confession she had to make would
+hurt him deeply, even now.
+
+Her trunk had been brought in and the straps unfastened.  For an
+instant Elsie wavered.  Finally she got her key from her pocketbook.
+But even as she crossed the room, she thought of Mrs. Middleton, the
+dingy swan's-down and the caresses, and decided not to unlock the trunk.
+
+She stood by the window looking out absently over the soft, starlit
+landscape.  She felt sorry for Mr. Middleton and sorry for Elsie Moss;
+and curiously enough those two were the two persons in the world in
+whom she had any real interest!  Perhaps the latter wouldn't mind her
+aunt as she did; and of course she would be, to use her own expression,
+"crazy over" her uncle.  Then, too, with all her charm and vivacity,
+she could do much more to brighten the monotony and squalor of his
+life.  And yet, her heart was set upon becoming an actress, and it
+would be much harder now to give it up than if she hadn't seemed to
+have a fair chance to pursue her studies.  Elsie remembered dimly tales
+she had heard of people dying from broken hearts.  Somehow, it seemed
+almost as if that vivid, sparkling Elsie Moss would be of the sort to
+take things so hard that----
+
+She broke off, turned from the window, and began to undress.  So far as
+Mr. Middleton was concerned, it occurred to her that possibly some one
+who hadn't any ambition might learn to do even better toward helping
+him than one whose heart was divided.  She said to herself that she
+wouldn't decide definitely against opening her trunk until morning.  If
+she should find, for instance, that Mrs. Middleton kept her room the
+greater part of the time, it might make some difference.
+
+Ready to put out the light, she noticed that the covers of the bed had
+not been turned down--an omission unparalleled in her experience.  With
+a sigh, she drew down the counterpane, only to discover, with actual
+horror, the bare mattress underneath.  The bed had not been made!
+
+Such was Elsie Marley's consternation that had she been a person of
+resource, she would have dressed and left the house at once; but if she
+possessed any such quality, it was wholly undeveloped.  As it was,
+however, she said to herself she could not even stay for breakfast.
+She would go at daybreak!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Kate came to the door next morning just as Elsie had finished dressing,
+and, being admitted, asked if Miss Moss wouldn't come down and pour her
+uncle's coffee and eat breakfast with him.
+
+"He's sort o' hangin' off as if, perhaps, he was hopin' you might," she
+added, eying the girl admiringly.
+
+Elsie's purpose to go immediately had been with her as she awoke, but
+it didn't seem worth while to hold out at the moment: possibly she
+might have a favorable opportunity to explain at the table.
+
+But she resented Kate's beaming face, and looked reproachfully toward
+the bed, which told its own shocking story of having no linen nor
+blankets.  Still Kate was oblivious.  Elsie really hardly knew how to
+complain, but perhaps to learn that is easier than to learn to praise;
+and there was a certain amount of indignation in her voice as she told
+how she had been obliged to sleep on the couch in her dressing-gown.
+
+Kate was quite as shocked as the mistress of a well-regulated household
+would have been.  As she accompanied Elsie down-stairs she was voluble
+in her sympathy, and promised all sorts of improvements for a future
+Elsie knew was not to be hers.  And yet the girl, who had always been
+on the most distant terms with her grandmother's servants who had been
+in the house for years, found herself confessing to this good-natured
+slattern that she had nevertheless slept soundly and felt refreshed.
+
+Breakfast was so pleasant as to cause visions of an unlocked trunk to
+float through Elsie's mind.  The dining-room was yet more attractive
+with the morning sun on the garden.  Mrs. Middleton did not appear.
+The girl found a curious pleasure in pouring out the coffee, which was
+curiously intensified when Mr. Middleton asked for three lumps of
+sugar.  And when he passed his cup the second time she was elated.
+
+While he seemed fully to appreciate the novelty of her company, he
+seemed also to take it for granted, as if they were to go on so,
+breakfasting together, indefinitely.  He chatted in his easy way,
+glanced at the paper, reading bits of it to her, commenting on the
+situation here and across the border.  Fortunately, her mind had seemed
+to quicken with her sensibility, so that she grasped, or partly
+grasped, ideas that might well have meant nothing to her.
+
+He proposed to take her out to see the town after he had spent an hour
+in his study.  Though it would again postpone her explanation, Elsie
+decided she might as well go a step further and get a better idea of
+the place for which Elsie Moss was to exchange New York and her
+ambition.  The day promised heat; the girl was so tired of her
+travelling-suit that she was tempted to open her trunk and get out a
+linen frock and her Panama hat, but she wouldn't allow herself to yield.
+
+They were out nearly two hours, strolling leisurely through the quiet
+old streets.  The church and parish-house and a large hall were across
+the common, the library and museum nearer the centre of the town--all
+dignified, rather stately, very attractive buildings in harmonizing
+styles of architecture, whose low and rambling character, with the ivy
+that well-nigh covered them, and the wonderful green of their lawns,
+gave them an air of age, particularly appealing to one whose home had
+been in the West.  Handsome houses and charming cottages bespoke their
+attention as they walked through the wide avenue with double rows of
+elms on either side, and grass-plots separating the walks from the
+highway.  Just to wander under that leafy arch of a June morning, with
+glimpses of blue sky and white cloud, was a sensation that made the
+thought of New York appalling.  Cousin Julia had, indeed, spoken once
+of going to the shore; but who wanted to go to the shore!  For herself,
+nothing seemed so attractive as tall old trees, abundance of green
+turf, New England, and--_Enderby_!
+
+And all the while she became more aware of the unconscious appeal on
+the part of Mr. Middleton.  As they went on, more and more the girl
+felt how eagerly he had looked forward to the coming of his niece, how
+he had anticipated her companionship.  And she understood dimly that
+his eagerness to show her the finer points of everything was not only
+the desire to make her share his enthusiasm, but a desire to begin at
+once--to start out friends and companions.
+
+She returned only the more oppressed by the sense of remissness--of
+remorse.  Kate met her at the door of the chamber she had occupied and
+proudly ushered her in.  A real transformation had taken place.  Kate
+could accomplish wonders when she set out, and the great handsome room
+had been so thoroughly swept and garnished that everything was like
+new, only with the sense of the dignity of age.  The clothes-press,
+too, had been cleared out (at the expense of the corresponding one in
+the chamber opposite!); the little wash-room shone; there was abundance
+of towels and fresh bed-linen, and a vase of sweet peas stood on the
+freshly laundered cover of the dresser.
+
+Elsie turned gratefully to Kate, but spoke regretfully.
+
+"Oh, Katy, thank you, but I'm sorry you have taken so much trouble.
+I----"
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, dear, I love to do it, and I'll keep it so all the time
+if you'll only stay," urged Kate.  "Now don't tell _me_, I've seen it
+in your eyes that you're homesick and don't like the look o' things,
+and then you ain't opened your trunk, and your dresses all packed in
+wrinkles like as not.  Do try it a bit longer, please, miss.  I promise
+you things'll be better all over the house.  You know there'd be more
+satisfaction keepin' things up for a pretty girl like you as would
+appreciate than for a woman as lays round all the time and don't take
+no interest, though believe _me_, she eats as good as any one, and I
+can't keep my story-books long enough to find out how they come out at
+the end if she gets her eye on 'em.  All she does is to throw things
+round for me to pick up, though I will say for her she's pleasant and
+good-natured, and always a born lady.  And Mr. Middleton don't hardly
+know whether things is upside down or right side up; but he's good as
+gold and lonesome, though he don't never let on.  You can be such a
+comfort to him; all he hears at home now is about her aches and pains.
+You couldn't guess how he's blossomed out since you come.  He ain't
+talked so much for years, and he was a-singin' to hisself this mornin'
+as he hung round wonderin' if you was coming to breakfast--_she_ never
+does.  Now Miss Elsie, you jest stand by him.  Let me tell you, you'll
+run up against lots worse things if you set out to earn your own
+livin'."
+
+Elsie was tempted, but again the thought of Mrs. Middleton arrested
+her.  And by the time Kate shouted inelegantly up the stair that lunch
+was ready, the girl had decided to explain everything directly
+afterward and go to Boston to catch the same train Elsie Moss had taken
+yesterday.  And if Mrs. Middleton should appear and attempt to embrace
+her, she would say: "Wait, please, I have something to tell you that
+will change everything!"
+
+That lady stood at the newel-post awaiting her.  She wore a wrapper of
+lavender cassimere to-day, elaborately trimmed with lace and knots of
+pink ribbon.  Somewhat fresher than the pink one, it was not
+conspicuously so, and her hair was truly a "sight."  Elsie was dumb:
+she couldn't make the prepared speech nor any other.  She tried to keep
+at a distance by reaching out her hand formally.  But it proved
+useless, and again she was gathered to her hostess's heart.
+
+The strangest feature was Mr. Middleton's behavior.  He seemed as
+surprised and delighted to see his wife appear at lunch, as fearful
+lest she overtax herself, as if she were her own very opposite.  The
+girl couldn't comprehend how one so intelligent, so refined, of such
+exquisite taste, apparently, could be so blunt in this one particular.
+She couldn't understand how he could endure, much less care for, this
+ugly, withered, yellow, untidy woman.  However, it made her own
+position somewhat easier.  If he were really aware how impossibly
+vulgar she was, and took it seriously to heart, Elsie wasn't sure if
+even thus early she should be able to leave him to bear such misery
+alone.  His unconscious loneliness was appealing enough; conscious
+unhappiness might have proved more than she could have withstood.
+
+He was called from the table to the telephone.  Elsie hoped he wouldn't
+make any engagement for directly after lunch.  If he should, she
+couldn't risk missing her train.  She would speak out at once.  She
+would say: "Oh, Mr. Middleton, I'll say good-by, for I shan't be here
+when you return."  And then she would explain briefly and he wouldn't
+have time to take it hard while she was there to witness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Returning to the table, Mr. Middleton announced with troubled face that
+Miss Stewart, the librarian, was ill, and he must find some one before
+three o'clock to take her place.  He glanced at Elsie hesitatingly.
+
+"I suppose you are tired, Elsie, dear?"
+
+"Oh, no," she returned and added, almost unconsciously, "Uncle John."
+
+"Then I wonder if I can't work you in at the library for a day or so?
+It isn't at all taxing, indeed, it's really very pleasant.  It's open
+every day from three to six, and except on Saturday, when there's apt
+to be a crowd, people drop in in a leisurely way.  I could go over with
+you and get you started and stay until nearly four, when I have a
+committee meeting.  Would you be willing to try, dear?"
+
+"Oh, I'd like it ever so much," she returned, really captivated by the
+idea.  He looked relieved and smiled gratefully.
+
+"There, Jack, it's just as I told you it would be," exclaimed Mrs.
+Middleton, patting a pink satin bow complacently.  "I said to your
+uncle, Elsie love, that a girl of sixteen is almost a woman--I was only
+seventeen when I was married--and that he could make an assistant of
+you right away."
+
+Her smile faded and her hand went to her heart in an affected way.
+
+"My being such a sad invalid is a terrible drag on your uncle, though
+he won't confess it," she added feebly.  "I often and often drop a
+secret tear over it, I own; but now that there'll be some one to help
+with the little services that would naturally fall to a pastor's wife,
+I shall be quite content.  You know how the poet says that others shall
+sing the song and right the wrong?  'What matter I or they?'  That is
+how it seems to me."
+
+Mr. Middleton gazed at his wife tenderly, but Elsie's youthful scorn
+increased.  She was not sufficiently mature to understand that it shows
+something of character to look on kindly while another younger, fairer
+person steps in to fulfil duties that should have been one's own, even
+though one may have repudiated them.
+
+Directly lunch was over, Elsie ran up-stairs--something she seldom had
+done--unfastened her trunk, took out an embroidered white linen suit
+and dressed quickly.  She could scarcely wait until time to go to the
+library.  She was ready to lose the train to-day, and even to-morrow if
+need be.
+
+At the library, she found the procedure simple and easily acquired.  It
+was fascinating, also, as was the great airy room; and she wandered
+about through the stacks, and gazed at the books, magazines, pictures,
+maps and bulletin-board in a sort of dream.  It was a warm day and no
+one came in during the first half-hour.
+
+Mr. Middleton had scarcely left, however, when a little girl in a
+scant, faded frock that was clean, however, and freshly starched, came
+shyly in with a book--a child of nine or ten with an anxious expression
+on her old, refined little face which hadn't yet lost all its baby
+curves.
+
+"Why, where's Miss Rachel?" she asked, the look of anxiety fading and a
+shy little smile appearing in its stead.
+
+Elsie explained.
+
+"Well, I think you're ever 'n' ever so much nicer, and so pretty!" said
+the child.  Then her face clouded again as she opened the book that she
+held in thin little hands that were like claws.
+
+"The baby did it," she said sorrowfully as she exhibited a picture torn
+across.  "He isn't a year old yet and don't understand.  He isn't the
+least naughty, only _mischeevious_, you know.  Ma says I ought not to
+have been reading it while I was minding him, but you see I'm _always_
+minding him except when he's asleep--and then he wakes right up,
+mostly."
+
+She sighed.  "Do you s'pose you can mend it?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes, indeed," returned Elsie promptly, and smiled involuntarily.
+
+The child fingered her frock.  "Miss Rachel would scold," she faltered,
+
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Neither did she understand why tears
+should come to her eyes, except that the little girl was so small, so
+thin, so clean and sweet, and so very childish in spite of her
+responsibility.
+
+She found some gummed paper, cut a strip, brought the torn edges
+carefully together and mended the picture as neatly as if she had not
+been a week ago as helpless an able-bodied girl of her age as there was
+anywhere to be found.  Her sense of satisfaction was certainly
+commensurate, perhaps extravagant.
+
+"There!  Miss Stewart will never know," she said.  "Do you want another
+book now?"
+
+"Yes, please; but--is it right for Miss Rachel not to know?"
+
+Elsie considered.  "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but at any rate she
+won't mind since it looks as well as before."
+
+"And I'll be very careful after this," added the child.
+
+She selected another volume from the children's shelf, and having had
+it charged, turned to go.  But somehow Elsie was loath to have her.
+
+"Why don't you sit down at the table and look at the picture papers?"
+she suggested.
+
+"Oh, I've got to mind the baby," said Mattie--Mattie Howe was the name
+on her card.  "I must be home when he wakes up.  Good-by."
+
+She started--came back--stood irresolute.
+
+"Thank you for mending the book so good--so _goodly_," she said shyly,
+"and--I'd like to kiss you."
+
+With a curious sensation that had no admixture of reluctance, Elsie
+bent over and received the kiss.
+
+"You're prettier than the princess," the little girl declared, and ran
+away with her book.
+
+Elsie Marley hardly knew what would have happened if an elderly lady
+hadn't come in at that moment and asked for "Cruden's Concordance."
+She had some difficulty in finding it, but the lady was very pleasant
+and grateful, and after that there was a constant succession of
+visitors.  Many children came in, all attractive, to Elsie's surprise,
+though none so appealing as Mattie Howe; and older people in surprising
+numbers, considering Mr. Middleton's prophecy.
+
+But word had somehow gone round that the minister's niece was "tending
+library," and things being rather dull in the midsummer pause of most
+of the activities of the place, no doubt more than one came out of
+curiosity.
+
+It was a very friendly curiosity, however, expressed in the pleasantest
+manner, and Elsie found herself responding to their advances without
+knowing how.  She wondered at herself.  The girl did not realize that
+being in the library made a difference.  It was her first experience of
+work, or of doing anything whatever for any one else, so that even the
+service of getting out books for another established a sort of
+relationship between them.  At the close of the afternoon, though
+tired, she was strangely happy.
+
+But she couldn't understand it--didn't know herself.  She found herself
+wondering who the stranger was who had worn her frock and occupied the
+chair of the librarian that afternoon.  Grandmother Pritchard wouldn't
+have recognized her, nor Aunt Ellen.  Had she, in assuming another
+name, changed her nature also?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Shortly before the death of her aunt in California, Miss Julia
+Pritchard had made up her mind to give up her position at the city desk
+on her fiftieth birthday, and retire to some pleasant country town to
+pass the remainder of her life quietly, in friendly intercourse with
+her neighbors.  She felt that she had more than enough to "see her
+through," as the phrase is, very comfortably.  She had worked for over
+thirty years, her responsibilities and salary increasing periodically;
+and though she had lived and dressed well and given liberally, she had
+added each year to a small inheritance that had come to her through her
+grandfather, and had gained further by judicious investment.
+
+But when both her aunt and cousin died, and she was left guardian of
+the sixteen-year-old Elsie Marley, whose inheritance was small, Miss
+Pritchard decided to remain where she was a few years longer.  It
+wasn't imperative, indeed, yet she felt that the last little Pritchard
+should have the best chance she could give her, and until she should
+have put her on her feet, the woman of fifty, who was strong and well
+and at the height of her powers, would gladly remain in harness.  Her
+announcement to this effect was hailed with delight at the office, and
+another increase made in her salary so substantial that she declared
+she ought to adopt a whole family.
+
+Though the sacrifice was greater than any one dreamed, nevertheless she
+made it quietly and cheerfully, expecting no reward nor desiring any.
+She didn't expect much of Elsie Marley, indeed, recollecting the
+atmosphere of the household in which the girl had been reared, which
+she had herself found impossibly stifling during a short visit there
+fifteen years before.
+
+At that time her Cousin Augusta had been living with her husband and
+baby in Portland, Oregon.  What with her knowledge of the Pritchards in
+general, however, her observation of that stereotyped family after a
+long interval of years, and their intense anxiety lest the one
+descendant of that branch become in any way a Marley rather than a
+Pritchard, she was able to gather a very fair idea of what Elsie's
+upbringing must have been.  Unless she might have inherited a sense of
+humor from the Marley side (which was unlikely, since no one possessing
+a sense of humor would have married Augusta Pritchard), the girl could
+hardly have escaped becoming a prig at the mildest.  Cold, colorless,
+correct, self-sufficient, Elsie Pritchard would doubtless make her
+mother's cousin feel keenly her fifty years, her lack of grace, and her
+general and utter lack of claim to the royal name she bore.
+
+On the other hand, she was also, willy-nilly, Elsie _Marley_, and she
+was only sixteen.  She couldn't have, at that age, completely compassed
+the woodenness of her adult relations.  She might still be amenable to
+change, to development.  In any event, as Miss Pritchard remarked to a
+friend in the office, any sort of young female connection cannot but be
+welcome to the heart of a lonely spinster who reaches her half-century
+milestone on midsummer's day.
+
+Miss Pritchard occupied two large, handsome rooms on the second floor
+of a boarding-house near Fifth Avenue, a few blocks from the lower end
+of Central Park.  In preparation for the young girl, she had the large
+alcove of the parlor shut off by curtains and her bed and
+dressing-table moved into it, and gave over her bedroom to Elsie.  She
+spent much time and thought and not a little money in making it an
+inviting and attractive place for a girl, and would have felt quite
+satisfied had it not been for her remembrance of the rather heavy but
+stately elegance of the mansion in San Francisco.
+
+On the June day on which Elsie was expected, Miss Pritchard confessed
+to the friend at the office to whom she had spoken before, that she was
+beginning to feel nervous.
+
+"I almost wish she weren't coming until a week later," she said.  "Do
+you know, I think if I had actually passed my fiftieth birthday, I
+might feel somehow more solid and fortified.  It's really an ordeal for
+an old-fashioned woman like myself to encounter the modern girl of
+sixteen.  Fifty might pull through, but oh, dear, what of forty-nine
+plus?"
+
+She was interrupted by the telephone.  A telegram which had come to the
+boarding-house for her was read to her.  She was smiling as she hung up
+the receiver.
+
+"Well, what do you think!" she cried.  "My young relative has decided
+for some reason to take a later train and has telegraphed me to that
+effect.  Now there's something rather alert and self-reliant about
+that.  That girl must have something in her, after all.  I can no more
+imagine her mother or any of the family getting off at any stage of a
+through journey than I could fancy myself not getting off for a fire or
+an earthquake or, perhaps, for a wild West show.  At the very least,
+there's a sort of suppleness of mind indicated."
+
+She stood that evening in the station watching the throng emerging from
+the coaches of the train her cousin had given as hers.  A tall,
+straight woman, large without being stout, her plain face, with large,
+irregular features, framed in plainly parted iron-grey hair, was
+singularly strong and fine, and her grey eyes betokened experience
+bravely met.  As she scanned the face of every young girl in the
+procession, there was something so staunch and true in her appearance
+as to make it almost striking.
+
+Then on a sudden, right in the midst of it, for a moment she forgot all
+about Elsie Marley, and what she was standing there for, in the vision
+that confronted her and surprisingly and instantaneously took her
+romantic heart by storm.  A young girl came straight toward her--such a
+piquant, sparkling, buoyant young thing as she had never seen before--a
+small, slender, dark-eyed creature with short brown hair cut square
+like a little boy's and a charming mouth flanked by dimples that were
+almost like pockets.
+
+So much she took in in that one long glance.  Then, recovering herself,
+fearful lest she had been lost to all else about her longer than she
+knew, 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 satisfied to have it so.
+
+"I'm certainly no Pritchard," returned Elsie coolly, and not without
+enjoyment, "begging your pardon, Cousin Julia."
+
+"Well, of course, I ought to regret it, you being the last of the
+family; but I'm afraid I don't," returned Miss Pritchard.  "You see I
+rather dreaded your coming as that of a double-dyed Pritchard.  The
+Pritchards of my father's generation were pretty stiff, I confess,
+heavy and solemn and rather pompous.  My mother who was a Moore, as no
+doubt you have heard, had a strong sense of humor, and didn't bring me
+up in very great awe of the family.  She was thankful I didn't take
+after them, and so have I always been.  I often think, what a
+misfortune had I had to have a Pritchard as a bedfellow and roommate
+all these years, as I must have had if I had taken after my father--who
+was, I believe, however, the mildest of the Pritchards, and very much
+altered by my mother's influence.  And girls are usually like papa--as
+you are--and boys like mamma, they say.  Surely, no girl could be less
+like her mother than you, dear."
+
+Elsie sobered.  One of the facts she most cherished was the knowledge
+that she resembled her adored mother in nature as well as in manner and
+personal appearance.  It would be hard, nay, impossible, to give over
+that solace.  But she told herself she must think _Augusta Pritchard_
+(what a name!) whenever Cousin Julia said _mother_ to her.
+
+"Of course, you don't remember your father, Elsie, but do you remember
+any other of the Marleys or know anything of them?"
+
+"Just one member of the family," said Elsie, getting down from the
+window-seat.  "I've heard about her ever since I can remember."  And
+bowing low, she began to sing:
+
+  "Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+
+  Elsie Marley has grown so fine
+  She won't get up to serve the swine,
+  But lies in bed till eight or nine,
+  And surely she does take her time.
+
+  Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+The wonder and admiration in Miss Pritchard's eyes couldn't be hidden.
+Elsie threw herself down on the settee by her side.
+
+"That's the only Marley I've ever known, Cousin Julia, but she's rather
+a dear old body," she said and squeezed Miss Pritchard's arm
+affectionately.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"How very difficult it's going to be to explain now," Elsie Marley said
+to herself as she dressed on Friday morning.  "How I wish I had done it
+that very first hour.  Mr. Middleton would have understood, then, for I
+had just told him Elsie liked to act; and he wouldn't have cared.  He
+couldn't have been really hurt as I am afraid he will be now.  And yet,
+how can I help feeling glad I was here to take the library for him?
+And I did so enjoy doing it, too."
+
+She decided that if Miss Stewart were able to go back this afternoon,
+she would leave directly after lunch and get the only train for New
+York that she knew--the one Elsie Moss had taken.  And if she couldn't
+possibly explain in any other manner, she would have to write a note
+and steal quietly away.  It wasn't a nice thing to do; yet she couldn't
+afford to let the difficulty of explaining the situation keep her here
+until Elsie Moss should have become so firmly established that it would
+be cruel to drag her back to Enderby.
+
+On the other hand, as long as she had started in with the library work,
+if Miss Stewart wasn't well enough to attend this afternoon, she would
+remain one day more.  And if she found that that was to be the case,
+she would spend her morning writing the note to Mr. Middleton to fall
+back upon in case of need, and a letter to Elsie Moss warning her of
+the change.
+
+When she went down to the dining-room, Mr. Middleton had that same air
+of eagerness mingled with what seemed to Elsie assurance of the
+permanency of their relationship.  After a little he inquired whether
+her unfamiliar work of the day before had tired her overmuch.
+
+"Oh, no--Uncle John, not at all," she replied, consciously hampered by
+lack of vocabulary or of tone to express enthusiasm that was new to her.
+
+"Well, then, what should you say to giving Miss Rachel another day of
+rest?" he suggested.  "I have been afraid for some time that she's
+rather letting people get on her nerves, and possibly a few days off
+would be a benefit for all concerned.  She has lived alone for years,
+and, good as she is, has grown narrow and notional as one inevitably
+will who hasn't other personalities in a household to rub against.  I
+dare say if she had her way she wouldn't allow a boy under fifteen in
+the library."
+
+"She's afraid they'll soil the books?" Elsie remarked lamely, striving
+to be adequate to the occasion.  But somehow, he seemed rich enough to
+lend her something unawares.
+
+"Yes, dear, that's it, of course, and perfectly natural and legitimate
+in its place such caution is.  But the trouble is, she puts it first
+and foremost.  We want certainly to keep the books as neat as is
+consistent with constant use, and it's always safe to ask to see a
+lad's hands; but there are different ways of going about the business.
+The main thing about a library is, of course, its usefulness to the
+people; perhaps, most of all to the younger among them.  You agree with
+me, dear, that that consideration comes before everything?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Uncle John," she said primly.
+
+He smiled suddenly and very charmingly.
+
+"Elsie dear, if I hadn't known that your step-mother was a
+schoolmistress, I should have guessed it," he declared.  "Externally,
+her influence upon you has almost blotted out your mother's.  I'm
+thankful you didn't stay with her long enough for it to go deeper,
+excellent woman as I know her to be.  As it is, your speech and manner
+conceal rather than reveal your likeness to your mother, but it
+struggles through for all that."
+
+He paused and his face grew grave.
+
+"I hope--I trust, dear, you didn't feel--_repressed_?" he asked
+anxiously.  "You are so quiet and reserved and docile for a young
+girl--especially for your mother's daughter.  Your stepmother was--kind
+to you, surely?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," she faltered, distressed at the dilemma.  Vaguely aware
+that she had an opening for her confession, she made no attempt to use
+it.  "I know I am--everything is"--she faltered.
+
+"You're just right, Elsie dear," he said kindly.  "Just be yourself.
+And if you have learned not to be spontaneous, try to forget it.  In
+any event, never repress any desire for gayety or romping or what-not
+in this house.  You don't at all need to be quiet oh your Aunt Milly's
+account.  She isn't strong and she is excitable, and yet she isn't
+somehow what is called nervous at all.  She doesn't mind noise or even
+tumult; indeed, she likes to feel that things are going on in the house
+even if she cannot share them."
+
+Even now, Elsie understood that this was quite true in regard to Mrs.
+Middleton.  There was, in spite of what the girl called her falsity,
+something generous about her.  Elsie wasn't herself any the more drawn
+to her--or any the less repelled--but now she first had a slight
+inkling of any foundation for Mr. Middleton's strange infatuation.
+There was, somehow, in the midst of all that sentimentality, some
+genuine feeling which for him transmuted the whole into pure gold.
+
+Well, for her part, she could stand it another day for the sake of
+going to the library.
+
+"What are you going to do this morning, Elsie?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+as they returned to the house after a few minutes spent in the garden.
+
+Elsie colored faintly.
+
+"Write some letters," she said.
+
+Indeed, she spent the whole morning in the attempt, though she
+accomplished nothing.  She made half a dozen beginnings of the letter
+which was to set forth the scheme Elsie Moss had concocted and she had
+entered into; but none went further than three sentences, and it began
+to seem that that expedient were the more difficult.  In any event,
+before she made a seventh trial she turned to the note that was to
+acquaint Elsie Moss with the situation.  Here, she only failed the more
+dismally.  When it was time to dress for lunch, she seemed to be forced
+to explain to Mr. Middleton just as she was leaving, and to come upon
+poor Elsie Moss quite unexpectedly.  It seemed as if it would almost
+kill her to do either.
+
+Mrs. Middleton did not appear at lunch and everything was so pleasant
+that Elsie's spirits rose until she was almost gay.  She talked more
+than she had done since she came--almost more than she had ever done
+before until she met Elsie Moss--and she was at once gratified and
+appalled to perceive that she was reminding Mr. Middleton of his
+sister.  Of course, his real niece would remind him still more, but
+Elsie knew that the wrench to his feelings before she should be
+established in the parsonage would be severe, even terrible.  If only
+Mrs. Middleton kept her room continually!  And yet, he might not like
+that.
+
+The library was only the more engaging that day.  Mattie Howe came in
+early and they went through a number of shelves in the children's
+department together in selecting her book.  Then Elsie took the little
+girl in her lap--in a curiously easy fashion--and they looked at the
+colored pictures in a large book that did not circulate until some one
+else came in and claimed the librarian's attention.
+
+A roguish-looking boy with a tousled head entered, stared at Elsie in
+amazement, and went abruptly out.  Returning a little later with
+shining face and wet, parted hair, as he asked at the desk for a book,
+he spread out a pair of very clean hands in a manner intended to be
+nonchalant.  He was ready and eager to talk and very amusing.  Before
+Elsie got through with him, she had assured him that she meant to read
+"Robinson Crusoe" within the next fortnight.
+
+Then a lad apparently of about her own age, a high-school boy, shy, but
+with very gentle manners, who started as if to retreat as he saw her,
+gathered his courage, returned his book, and stood there undecided.
+
+"Do you want another book?" Elsie asked.
+
+"Have you got anything about Edison?" he asked.  "I've got to write a
+composition about electricity, and I thought I might start with him."
+
+Elsie consulted the catalogue, but greatly to her disappointment was
+unable to find anything.  The boy had such nice manners and such
+honest, deep-set eyes that she wanted to help him.
+
+"You might start with Benjamin Franklin," she suggested, not very
+confidently.
+
+"Sure!" he returned, smiling frankly.  She got him a biography of
+Franklin, and he sat down at one of the tables with note-book and
+pencil and was soon deep in it.
+
+There were a number of references to Franklin in the catalogue, and as
+Elsie went back to it to see if she might have made a better choice,
+she saw that one referred to the proper volume of a "Dictionary of
+American Scientists."  It came to her that she might discover Edison in
+the same place.  She was pleased to find several pages of a recent
+volume of the work devoted to that inventor.  She carried it to the boy
+and pointed out the pages with a feeling of satisfaction almost like
+triumph.
+
+The afternoon flew.  She closed the library regretfully, for she never
+expected to enter it again.  For to-morrow was Saturday, and if she
+should stay beyond the afternoon, it would mean she could not get away
+until Monday.  And that she could never stand.  For she had gathered
+somehow that Mrs. Middleton made a special effort to sit up all Sunday
+except during the time her husband was at church.  If it was mostly a
+case of nerves, Miss Stewart might as well come back one day as another.
+
+But again at dinner Mrs. Middleton was absent from her place.  She sent
+a special request to Elsie to occupy it, and Elsie spent a very happy
+half-hour telling Mr. Middleton about the happenings of the afternoon,
+hearing his explanatory comment on persons and things, and serving the
+pudding.  And when he told her he had seen Miss Stewart, who thought
+she would hardly feel like coming back until Monday, and had assured
+her that his niece would be glad to take her place another day, Elsie
+was quite undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Elsie Marley was very tired as she locked the door of the library
+Saturday night and started for _home_, as she caught herself calling
+the parsonage.  She had been there the greater part of the day.  She
+had spoken to Mr. Middleton at breakfast of going over to familiarize
+herself somewhat with the encyclopaedias and reference-books, and he
+had asked her to look up certain passages and verify one or two
+quotations for him.  The latter proved a more difficult task for the
+girl than the clergyman would have dreamed; but she was very happy in
+doing it, gratified, too, to realize that her handwriting was very
+clear as well as pretty.  And the single cause of her dismay when he
+thanked and praised her and referred to her mother--or his sister--was
+that she should not be on hand to help him another Saturday.
+
+The afternoon had been a very busy one, every one in town, seemingly,
+old, young, and middle-aged, desiring a book for Sunday.  A goodly
+number of girls of near her age came in, sweet-faced girls who, though
+they couldn't compare with Elsie Moss (who was, however, in a class by
+herself), seemed more attractive than those she had seen at home.  The
+tall boy who was interested in electricity came again and greeted her
+shyly, though rather as if they were old friends.  Later, older girls
+and young men who worked in Boston during the week dropped into the
+library to inquire for the latest novel or to spend part of their
+half-holiday looking over the picture papers and magazines.  All were
+extremely cordial and friendly.  Without actually overhearing anything,
+Elsie, who wasn't at all quick in regard to matters of that sort,
+understood, somehow, that there was more or less comparison between
+herself and the regular librarian, which was not altogether
+complimentary to Miss Stewart.
+
+As she went up the walk shortly after six o'clock, the girl saw some
+one gazing out of the window of the room she had first entered four
+days ago, and recalled her first view, which seemed now far back in the
+past.  There was no one there when she went in, however, and as she
+realized that the place had not been touched since her arrival,
+suddenly the glow of satisfaction that had cloaked her weariness
+changed to wrath.  She flew to her room for refuge.
+
+And now real wrath descended upon her.  For she found it as she had
+left it that morning.  The bed was not made; her nightgown was on the
+floor, and the clothes she had worn yesterday scattered about on the
+chairs.  Her brown eyes looked darker and there was a hint of color in
+her cheeks as she ran down to the kitchen and confronted Kate amid the
+chaos and confusion of her own domain.
+
+"Katy, my bed hasn't been made, nor my room done to-day," she cried.
+
+"Bless my soul, I clean forgot it," said Kate in real consternation.
+"I'll go right up this very minute as soon as I've cast my eyes on the
+oven, though, to tell you the truth, my feet ache like the toothache."
+
+Elsie's feet ached, too, for the first time in her life.  Wherefore she
+partly understood.  Her indignation died out.
+
+"Oh, don't bother then, Katy," she said kindly, "I can sleep on the
+couch to-night.  And to-morrow, perhaps, you'll do it early before your
+feet get tired?"
+
+Kate insisted upon going.  "No, you don't sleep on no sofy; not while I
+can crawl about," she declared, and Elsie followed her up-stairs.
+
+Watching her from her chair by the window, the girl saw that she looked
+tired, indeed.
+
+"I could have slept on the couch, Katy," she protested.
+
+Kate looked at her--frowned--then smiled.
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, a body'd know you lost your mother young.  Now if I'd
+'a' forgot your uncle's bed, he'd 'a' made it hisself and said nothing.
+There's many young ladies as makes their own beds, and does all but the
+heavy sweepin'.  I don't suppose you ever did such a thing in your
+life?"
+
+Elsie confessed that she hadn't.  She didn't say that it seemed a
+burden to turn down the covers.  Again Kate frowned and smiled.
+Clearly Miss Moss wasn't one to take a hint.
+
+"How would you like to _learn_?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh, I never thought," said Elsie.  "Why, yes, of course, if you'll
+teach me some time, I'll do it every day after I get so that I can."
+
+For the moment she had forgotten her stay was to be so limited.
+
+"Bless you, you'll learn in no time; it's nothing to do," Kate assured
+her beamingly.  "Come here, right now."
+
+Somewhat taken aback, Elsie complied.  She was surprised to find that
+it wasn't difficult nor even unpleasant.
+
+"You see, Miss Elsie, I can't never go about my work and finish one
+thing before I take up another," Kate explained.  "I'm up and down
+these stairs, up and down, up and down, from mornin' till night,
+a-waitin' on the missus.  When it ain't eggnog, it's beef-tea or gruel,
+and then again it'll be frosted cake, icing that thick, upon my word
+and honor!  And once she gets hold of me, I have to stay and tell her
+all the news I get from the grocer and the butcher's boy, and who goes
+by and what they has on.  Not that I don't admire bein' sociable, and I
+can't help havin' a motherly feelin' for one old enough to be my
+mother; but I don't get no chance to redd up nowhere except the
+dinin'-room and his study.  And then you know, I ain't no general
+housework girl, anyways, I've always cooked before; but here I have to
+do everything, besides waitin' on a woman as isn't any sicker than what
+I be.  If you knew the money she spends on choc'late creams and
+headache powders and the trashy novels she reads, you'd wonder she
+ain't even yellower than what she is."
+
+The next morning Elsie set about trying to do her own room.  Before she
+had reached the point of attacking the bed, she had decided that she
+could save herself a great deal of work by putting things away when she
+took them off or used them, instead of dropping them, as she had always
+done, for some one else to pick up.  Kate came in and insisted upon
+helping with the bed.
+
+"But, Katy, don't you want to get ready for church?" Elsie suddenly
+thought to inquire.
+
+"I went to early mass this mornin', miss.  I declare to goodness, I'm
+that shabby that I don't like to appear out in broad daylight."
+
+"Why, Katy, what do you do with all your money?  Do you have parents to
+support?"
+
+"No'm, I'm an orphan.  But I don't have any ready money, and I don't
+like to take what little I have out of the savings-bank.  I ain't been
+paid my wages sence Christmas."
+
+Elsie was aghast.  "But why don't you ask for them?" she cried.
+
+"I do.  And she keeps a-promisin', but money slips right through her
+fingers.  I don't like to go to himself about it, because I hate to
+upset him, and then she's good to me, and I know them headache powders
+makes her forgetful.  I don't know where the money goes: she has a
+fistful the first of every month, but she owes bills to everybody in
+town except the undertaker.  What I'm afraid of is as some of 'em'll go
+to himself.  The ice man is gettin' as sassy as he can live."
+
+Elsie was shocked beyond expression.  The situation would have seemed
+inconceivable except that anything was conceivable in connection with
+Mrs. Middleton.  The girl had almost forgotten that she was departing
+shortly, but realizing it, she was the more relieved.  Only it would be
+all the harder for Elsie Moss.
+
+Still, even so, she found she couldn't dismiss the matter thus.
+Somehow her heart went out to that careless, slipshod, kindly, Irish
+Kate.  Before she went to church, she slipped into the kitchen and
+insisted upon her accepting fifteen dollars to get herself some clothes
+before the next Sunday.  And when Kate flatly refused to take the
+money, she developed a curious resourcefulness.  She declared that
+unless she took it, she should go to her uncle and ask him to inquire
+into the question of her unpaid wages.  And Kate succumbed.
+
+After service, Elsie sat down to write to Elsie Moss.  She didn't say
+anything she had meant to say.  She knew she ought at least to give her
+some intimation of the situation, lest the other should be wholly
+unprepared and enter perhaps upon some course that must be rudely
+interrupted by the end of another week.  But she wasn't clever enough
+for that.
+
+She spoke of the place and the people and how much she liked them.  She
+told of the three afternoons in the library, and remembering how the
+other had taken to the children on the train, tried, in her stiff,
+constrained way, to describe little Mattie Howe, who minded the baby
+all his waking hours and read a Prudy book a day.
+
+She couldn't even mention Mrs. Middleton.  She spoke freely of Elsie's
+uncle--almost enthusiastically, indeed--told how he had asked if she
+had toothache, and signed herself, rather abruptly, "Your loving
+friend, Elsie M----."
+
+The following morning she found a letter on her plate.  She had gone by
+the name of Moss nearly a week, yet it gave her a start to see the
+address and to break open the envelope.
+
+It was a bright, amusing letter, as informal as her own had been stiff.
+Elsie Moss found Cousin Julia no end jolly, a perfect brick.  The
+boarding-house was the most interesting place she had ever known, and
+the people just right; and though New York was stifling she loved it,
+and wasn't the least in a hurry to get to the shore.  She expected very
+soon to confide her ambition to Miss Pritchard--honestly, she was so
+dear and splendid, that it was the greatest wonder that she hadn't told
+her she wanted to be an actress before they left the Grand Central
+Station. . . .
+
+"I'm simply perishing to hear from you, Elsie-Honey," the letter
+concluded.  "Uncle's a darling saint, I know, but you must tell me
+about Aunt Milly so I can describe her to my stepmother.  I sort of
+glossed her over in this letter I enclose for you to forward so that it
+will have the Enderby postmark.  I came out strong on Uncle John and
+the station at Boston, however.  And tell me about the servants.  I
+know there's a servants' hall like in English books, so I suppose they
+have a lot.  If there's a butler, I almost envy you, for that would be
+good practice for me, because most plays have a butler and a French
+maid.  I shall probably be French-maided to the limit if I ever get a
+start, though I'd rather be a slavey or a chimney-sweep!
+
+"Do you leave your shoes outside the door at night?  I should never
+remember.  The first day I was here I made my own bed!  The chambermaid
+nearly fell over.
+
+"Do tell me a lot to write to auntie (that's my stepmother); I have
+always told her everything I'm thinking about, and now it will be
+rather difficult for I only think now about the stage and Cousin Julia
+and you, Elsie-Honey.  I hope you think of me?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I think I can come earlier to-morrow afternoon and stay
+longer," said little Mattie Howe eagerly.  "It's been such a good week
+for drying clothes that mother's way ahead on her work, and she'll mind
+the baby herself.  Charles Augustus is going to take back the last load
+this afternoon with his cart."
+
+"That's nice for you, Mattie, but I shan't be here.  Miss Stewart's
+coming back to-morrow," replied Elsie.
+
+The child's bright, thin little face clouded.
+
+"Oh, dear, oh, dear, these changes are most too much for me, I
+declare!" she cried.  "I mean changes-_back_ is.  The change that
+brought you here, Miss Moss, was just sweet.  Only I wish it had turned
+into a _stay_."
+
+Elsie drew the little thing close to her.  At the moment she herself
+almost wished it had been a _stay_.
+
+"I wonder if that's my _hard_," prattled the child.  "Mother says
+everybody, even rich people, have hard things to bear.  Do you bleeve
+so, Miss Moss?"
+
+Elsie looked startled.
+
+"Why, Mattie, I hardly know," she faltered.  "Ye-es, I suppose every
+one does, really."
+
+"Even you, Miss Moss?"
+
+Elsie couldn't answer.  On a sudden that first day she and Elsie Moss
+had been together came back to her.  She recalled Elsie's fresh grief
+for the death of her mother and her own sense of remissness, and the
+class motto that signified through hardships to the stars.  Since she
+had been at Enderby, things had been disagreeable enough almost to make
+up for her former immunity.  And yet, she hadn't been here ten days,
+and she didn't really have to endure it.  Furthermore, she was to
+escape from it very shortly.
+
+"No, Mattie, I don't believe I have had so much that is hard as most
+people have," she owned.
+
+"You are like the princess, you see," murmured the child.  "But I
+s'pose you feel awfully sorry about your auntie being so poorly?  When
+mother was sick once I felt as bad _here_ as if I had the stomachache
+hard."
+
+Elsie evaded the issue by hoping politely that the little girl's mother
+was quite well now.
+
+"Oh, yes, Miss Moss, and does four peopleses' washings besides our
+own," Mattie declared.  "Father works steady most of the time, but
+there's five of us, counting the baby, and--sometimes he gets drunk.
+Not so very often, he doesn't, but nobody can ever tell when he will
+and when he won't, so mother has to help out.  Well, I must go now.
+When will I see you?"
+
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Miss Stewart's return had been delayed
+from day to day and she had postponed making her decision as to her
+course until that matter was settled.  Only to-day had she learned that
+the librarian would resume her work to-morrow, Saturday, and she
+expected to give up her evening to forming her own plans.  Until this
+moment, she hadn't thought of Mattie as a complication.  It didn't seem
+possible that one could become so attached to a child of ten years
+in--it wasn't yet ten days--that one not only hated to leave her, but
+even felt remiss, almost conscience-stricken, in so doing.
+
+"Won't you come to see us, mother and me and the baby--you'll just love
+him, Miss Moss, he can pat-a-cake and by-by and almost talk and lots
+else, too.  Won't you please come?" the child begged.
+
+Even with her arm about the child's shoulders, the incongruity of
+calling upon a woman who took in washing came to Elsie Marley--likewise
+the fact that she wasn't likely to be in Enderby beyond Monday at the
+latest.  But she surprised herself and delighted Mattie by suddenly
+agreeing to come the next day.
+
+When she spoke of it to Mr. Middleton that night at dinner, expecting
+him to be surprised and, perhaps, to protest, she found him interested
+and eager.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, that's capital!" he exclaimed.  "She's the nicest sort of
+woman, Mrs. Howe is.  She's hardly more than a girl in spite of that
+little brood of five.  She gets out very little, and if you would go
+around once in a while it would mean a lot to her.  Besides, I'm sure
+you'll enjoy her."
+
+As Elsie sat in her room by the window that evening, she wondered
+whether one visit from a person one is never to see again would mean
+anything to Mattie's mother?  Well, for that matter, whether it would
+or not, she had promised to make it and must keep her word.  And she
+mustn't allow her thoughts to be diverted by that.
+
+For the opportunity she had sought to complete her plans was hers.  Mr.
+Middleton had gone out to attend a committee meeting directly after
+dinner.  Mrs. Middleton she hadn't seen all day.  The matter of the
+library had settled itself, and her way was clear.
+
+But somehow her thoughts didn't proceed as she had expected them to do.
+She had rather looked for marshalled ranks of reasons standing at
+either hand--those saying _go_, of course, largely predominating--which
+she would only have to review.  Instead her mind wandered, roving back
+to the conversation with Mattie, and the little girl's quoting her
+mother that every one has a hard to bear.
+
+Was it really true?  She supposed it must be.  Mr. Middleton, despite
+his serenity, looked as if he had undergone all sorts of things.  So
+had Elsie Moss.  Even poor old Kate had had her share.  On the other
+hand, there was Mrs. Middleton, there was Elsie's own grandmother and
+her mother.  And there was Elsie herself.  She had never had anything
+hard in her life until within a fortnight.
+
+How curious it was that Mattie should have put her finger upon Mrs.
+Middleton as being her particular difficulty, mistaken though her sense
+of the situation was.  Mrs. Middleton was truly the only _hard_ Elsie
+had ever known.  Undergoing a certain amount of her society and
+submitting to her caresses, sometimes once a day, often less
+frequently, was the only ordeal she had ever undergone.  And severe
+though it was, there were wide spaces between, and those spaces were
+the happiest moments she had ever known.
+
+Now she was planning to throw away all the happiness, the delight,
+because of the discomfort.  It came to her rather vaguely that perhaps
+that was the way with people who seemed never to have had hardships.
+They evaded them somehow.  And she wondered if some one else had to
+shoulder them as so much extra burden?  It almost seemed so.
+
+And yet, why should she remain and endure that dreadful Mrs. Middleton?
+What good would it do?  Mightn't it, on the contrary, do real harm?
+The girl couldn't imagine it as being any easier as the days went by,
+but in case it should, what would it mean but that she herself was
+becoming coarse--even vulgar?
+
+In a sense, there wasn't any one now to care whether she was coarse or
+not.  Elsie Moss might, and Mr. Middleton.  He liked her as she was.
+He wouldn't like her to be different.  And yet, he not only endured
+Mrs. Middleton but actually cared for her, and he was as refined as any
+one she had ever known, besides being so much more interesting than any
+one except Elsie Moss.  Possibly he would rather have her altered
+somewhat than have the shock of learning the truth of the matter, and
+of having a reluctant, and perhaps unwilling, Elsie Moss in the house.
+
+Elsie Moss, too, liked her as she was.  She had called her a princess.
+Surely she wouldn't endure any change.  And yet again--what if enduring
+Mrs. Middleton would mean actually doing something for the other Elsie?
+What if not enduring her--flying from difficulty--would mean
+disappointment--breaking her ardent heart?
+
+The clock struck nine, and immediately she heard Mr. Middleton enter
+the house.  He called to her and Elsie went down.
+
+He wanted to tell her of a plan they had been discussing at the meeting
+in regard to a course of lectures for the coming winter.  All
+eagerness, he reviewed the whole situation for her benefit, then went
+on to tell her of the lectures they had had in other years, and to
+compare those in prospect.  Elsie, who was already learning to talk, to
+express some of the interest she felt, enjoyed it the more that she was
+able to respond in a measure--quite enough to satisfy him completely.
+
+When she went to her room again, it was only to postpone the decision.
+To-morrow she would go to see Mattie Howe without knowing whether it
+was a farewell call or not.  The next day, Sunday, she would decide.
+She promised herself solemnly that she would do so.  She would shut
+herself up in her room directly after dinner, and would not emerge
+until she had made up her mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Had Elsie Marley been possessed of more imagination, or had she been
+accustomed to use what she had, she might have been better prepared to
+meet little Mattie's mother.  The child was unusual and showed the
+influence of careful upbringing.  Further, Mr. Middleton had spoken of
+her as looking like a girl and as worth seeking out; and already Elsie
+had had a chance to discern that, broad and tolerant as he was, he saw
+things as they were (except in the case of his wife), never misstated
+and rarely overstated.  For all that, she set out on Saturday afternoon
+prepared to meet the typical washerwoman of fiction--worn, bedraggled,
+shapeless, and forlorn.  She was prepared to go into a steaming kitchen
+with puddles on the floor and dirty children all about, and have this
+red-faced personage take a scarlet hand out of the tub, dry it on a
+dirty apron, and hold it out to her.  And for her part she was prepared
+to take it, damp or clammy as it might be, without a squirm.
+
+Wherefore, when Mattie ushered her proudly into a pretty, tidy
+living-room with a square piano in the corner, and she saw a tall,
+slender person with a plain, sweet, girlish face advancing to meet her,
+in spite of her resemblance to Mattie, Elsie had no idea who she might
+be.  She had a confused sense of some neighbor having been brought in
+to receive her, and a vague idea of asking to be taken into the kitchen.
+
+"Oh, mother, here's Miss Moss!" cried Mattie, then dropped her hand and
+exclaiming, "My goodness, there's that baby already!" fled into the
+entry.
+
+"I'm so pleased to see you, Miss Moss," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "Sit
+there by the window where you get a view of the hill.  It's more than
+good of you to come.  I hope Mattie didn't tease you too much?"
+
+"No, indeed, she asked me very prettily," said Elsie.  "She's a sweet
+child."
+
+"She's good as gold," said her mother.  "And she's perfectly wild about
+you.  She calls you the Princess Moss-rose and makes up stories about
+you after she goes to bed."
+
+Elsie smiled and colored.
+
+"Don't tell her I told you," warned Mrs. Howe, "she'll be right back.
+She had the baby's clean dress ready to pop over his head the moment he
+woke up."
+
+Elsie looked up quickly as if she were about to speak.  But though she
+said nothing, Mrs. Howe seemed to reply.
+
+"She takes most all the care of him when she isn't in school," she
+admitted.  "Some people think she's too young and that it's too hard
+for her.  But I hardly think so.  She's naturally thin, just as I am,
+but she's never sick, and she likes it, though, of course, like any
+child, she'd like more time to herself.  But she's a born mother.  And
+she really seems to make better use of her spare time than most of the
+little girls she plays with.  And though I suppose I ought not to say
+it, she and Charles Augustus are ever so much better-behaved and
+better-mannered than most children who have nothing to do but play--and
+sometimes it seems they're happier.  You see I taught school three
+years up in the State of Maine, which is my home, and I understand
+children pretty well, by and large."
+
+Mattie came in at that moment with the baby, a fair, rosy, fat little
+fellow in a starched white dress and petticoats.  She put him through
+all his tricks to please the visitor, and then asked Elsie if she
+wished to hold him.  Elsie accepted the honor, though she felt rather
+apprehensive.  It wasn't bad, however; indeed, the confidence with
+which the baby nestled into the arms that didn't know how to enfold him
+was rather sweet to the girl.  And when he made a sudden dash for the
+pink rose in her leghorn hat, she didn't mind it at all.
+
+Watchful little Mattie minded, however, and took him away quickly lest
+he injure any of the princess's royal finery.  Then the mother took him
+from her, that the little girl might have the major part of Miss Moss's
+attention.  For the same reason she forbore to call in the other two
+children, little girls of five and seven, who were playing with dolls
+in the yard.
+
+But when Charles Augustus came home, his mother proudly summoned him
+into the parlor.  Elsie had seen him at the library--a solemn, big-eyed
+little fellow with a prominent forehead and spectacles.
+
+When he had shaken hands, his mother told Elsie how much she relied
+upon his help.  He fetched and carried all the clothes she laundered,
+and had recently made a new body for his old cart which would carry a
+good-sized clothes-basket.
+
+"I don't see how you do it--other people's washing," said Elsie
+suddenly.
+
+"I couldn't if Mattie and Charles Augustus didn't help me so much,"
+replied Mrs. Howe.
+
+The girl glanced about the pretty room, at the attractive mother in her
+neat, faded muslin gown, at the thoughtful children, and the rosy baby.
+How dreadful it seemed to wash soiled clothing for four strange
+families!
+
+"Don't you hate it?" she asked with a directness rare to her.
+
+"Oh, no," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "I love to iron, especially pretty
+things, and I don't mind washing, now that I've got set tubs.  You
+wouldn't believe, would you, that your uncle is responsible for my
+having them?  He thought of it himself.  The first I knew of it was
+that the men came to put them in.  Isn't that just like him?"
+
+Elsie agreed.
+
+"But don't you get awfully tired?" she demanded.
+
+"Well, yes, Miss Moss, I do.  But so does almost every mother of a
+little family.  You come to take it for granted, you know.  A mother
+rather sinks her life in that of her children, and--after all, she
+doesn't lose half so much as she gains.  And getting tired--why, I know
+just from what Mattie has told me about the way you do at the library
+that you understand the satisfaction of doing for others, and that
+getting tired's a part of it."
+
+
+Reaching the parsonage, Elsie didn't go in, but sat on a bench in the
+garden for an hour, not thinking, hardly musing, but in a sort of spell
+as it were.  As she rose at the stroke of six, she was saying to
+herself: "I never knew life was like that!"  And she repeated it as she
+entered the house.
+
+On the hall-table was a letter from the Elsie in New York.  Taking it
+to her room, she perused it eagerly.  One paragraph she read over
+twice, and yet twice again at bedtime.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey," the passage ran, "I was so relieved and thankful to
+get your letter and feel convinced that you like Uncle John and Aunt
+Milly just as well as I do Cousin Julia--though I don't see how you
+can--quite.  It came to me the night before I got your letter--suppose
+you should want to swap back?  The cold shivers chased one another up
+and down my spine and nearly splintered it.  Of course, I should have
+done it without a word, but oh, Elsie-Honey, I don't mind telling you
+now that it would have broken my heart for sure.  For I'm simply mad
+about Cousin Julia--so dotty over her that I believe if she'd told me I
+couldn't on any account study for the stage, I should have kissed her
+hand like a meek lamb.  Instead of which she knows and approves--that
+is, she is willing.  Only an angel from heaven would really
+approve--and I suppose he (or she) wouldn't.  At any rate, my present
+job is trying to keep from bursting with happiness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"Elsie, I rather want to hear that Elsie-Marley-Honey-thing again,"
+remarked Miss Pritchard.  "Would you mind doing it now?"
+
+The two sat alone on the veranda of the hotel at an hour when other
+guests were resting after the midday meal.  Before them, beyond a
+stretch of mosslike lawn and a broad sandy beach, rolled the sea,
+brilliantly blue, with the waves curling dazzlingly white.  Miss
+Pritchard, comfortably dressed in a plain pongee-silk suit with a long
+jacket, was ensconced on a willow settee with some recent English
+reviews.  Elsie, perched on the railing, her back against a pillar,
+gazed at the far-away sky-line.  She wore a pale-pink linen frock.  Her
+small face with its dark eyes and big dimples, her bobbed hair, and her
+exceeding slenderness of form gave her such an appearance of
+youthfulness that she seemed a very tall child, rather than the small
+girl she was.
+
+"I like your manner of speaking of my specialty, Cousin Julia," she
+remarked.  "Pray tell me why you want to hear it again, if you have
+such scant respect for it?"
+
+Miss Pritchard smiled.  "If you must know, child, I want to listen more
+critically this time.  I'm quite sure I must have praised it far above
+its deserts.  And now that I understand the situation I ought to be a
+better judge."
+
+Despite her lightness of tone, Miss Pritchard was really desirous of
+applying the test.  Less than a fortnight after the girl's arrival, she
+had learned of Elsie's desire to be an actress.  The knowledge came
+like a blow, it must be confessed.  Broad as she was, she couldn't help
+regretting that the girl's desires--and apparently her talent--seemed
+to lie in the direction of the stage.  Though she had declared she had
+no patience with Pritchard notions and pretensions, she couldn't help
+feeling that it was hardly decorous for the last of the Pritchards to
+become an actress.  Moreover, she feared that Elsie's capability did
+not point to what is called the legitimate drama; it looked from the
+first as if she would make straight for vaudeville and, perhaps, never
+go further.  After her training she might fill a soubrette's part
+acceptably for a few years, but Miss Pritchard sighed when she tried to
+look beyond that.  To her it seemed like a limited outlook with a
+closed door blocking the way at a point long before the age when one's
+career should have reached the apex.
+
+But Elsie's heart was set on it, and Miss Pritchard, despite her
+misgivings, was full of sympathy and entered cordially into plans and
+ways and means.  Her newspaper work had given her friends among
+critics, managers, and various theatrical people, and she helped Elsie
+select a school wherein to begin her studies.  That accomplished, Elsie
+reluctantly agreed to accompany Miss Pritchard to the shore to spend
+her six weeks' vacation.
+
+"What I cannot understand," said Miss Pritchard at this time, repeating
+very much what she had said before, "is, how you ever did it--how you
+could possibly get any such idea into your head with your bringing-up.
+For the life of me, I can't imagine your family countenancing any such
+thing!"
+
+"They didn't take to the idea with any enthusiasm," Elsie replied truly.
+
+"You certainly are the strangest Pritchard ever.  You're less Pritchard
+than I, and that's saying a great deal," said Miss Pritchard with a
+sigh.  "Dear me, when I was at Aunt Ellen's when you were a baby, they
+were so worried for fear you should have any Marley traits whatever, so
+anxious for you to be all Pritchard!"
+
+"Are you siding with them now?" the girl asked soberly.  "Are you
+disappointed in me, Cousin Julia?"
+
+"Bless your heart, dear, I'm so satisfied that I'm frightened, and I
+think I'll throw my precious ruby ring into the sea.  I wish I could
+say that I'd like you to be just so far Pritchard as not to have any
+desire for the stage; but I somehow don't dare even say that.  You see,
+I couldn't risk losing any particle of Marley other than the
+stage-madness."
+
+Elsie came to her side and kissed her warmly.
+
+"Then suppose we chuck the Pritchards for good," she proposed.
+
+Miss Pritchard fairly gasped.  Such temerity took her breath.  But she
+didn't give expression to her amazement.  Already she had come to the
+conclusion that Elsie had not been happy at home; she who was so frank
+in all else was so brief and guarded in all her references to the
+family or her home life.  Now it seemed as if she must have been
+exceedingly unhappy, to be ready to renounce the Pritchards in that
+wholesale way.  And yet, how could any girl whose life had not been
+happy--nay, brimming with sunshine--be so gay and blithe and girlish
+and care-free as she?  Could the reaction from strict repression
+possibly have that effect?  Could the opportunity to realize her
+ambition work such a miracle?  Miss Pritchard shook her head.  It was
+beyond her, she confessed.
+
+"Now you're down, you may as well do your stunt and have it over,
+Elsie," she remarked.  And Elsie, standing back a little, repeated the
+performance in a manner that was only the more captivating.
+
+Then, resuming her seat on the railing, she looked eagerly toward Miss
+Pritchard.  The face of the latter was a study.  With every line, every
+word, indeed, of the simple song, the actress in the girl had come out
+strongly.  Admiration of the grace and skill and charm of it all, and
+wonder at the extraordinary sweetness of the girl's voice, mingled with
+regret at the significance of it.
+
+"Do you know what you look like, Cousin Julia?" Elsie asked.
+
+"No, my saucy Marley, I do not."
+
+"Like 'Heaven only knows'"--the girl heaved a tremendous
+sigh--"'whatever will become of the naughty Brier-Rose.'"
+
+"My dear, if you exhibit that sort of keenness," said Miss Pritchard,
+laughing, "I'll make a newspaper reporter of you, willy-nilly.  Then
+you'll be sorry for poking fun at your elderly relative."
+
+"It's only that I'm so used to discouragement from my elders and
+betters that I'm familiar with the signs," returned Elsie.  "Like as
+not, if any one were to say, 'Hooray!  Bully for you!  Go in and win!'
+I shouldn't understand.  I should think they were kidding me."
+
+"Poor child!" laughed Miss Pritchard, but she was really secretly
+touched.
+
+At this moment an artist Miss Pritchard had known for years, who always
+spent his summers at this hotel, appeared before them.  A man between
+fifty and sixty, it was said of him that he had never succeeded;
+younger, struggling artists said it was because of his handicap of a
+fortune.
+
+"Oh, Miss Marley, I wish I could persuade you to sing that again," he
+said.  "I caught a bit and a glimpse at a distance--just enough to
+tantalize me."
+
+Elsie, who admired Mr. Graham immensely, was seized with sudden
+diffidence.  He was a connoisseur in all matters of art.  Suppose he
+should say right before Miss Pritchard, that she was only a silly
+tomboy, or whatever such a gentleman would say to express that idea?
+She glanced irresolutely at Miss Pritchard.
+
+"Go ahead, dear," said Miss Pritchard cheerfully, and turning to her
+friend: "My little cousin thought I was scolding her, Mr. Graham.  The
+truth is, I'm the one who should be scolded.  I chose the work I cared
+for at about Elsie's age and went in for it; and yet when she chooses
+hers, which happens to be the stage, I act the hen-with-the-duckling."
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, you're the only one that has ever let me even speak
+of it!" cried Elsie.  Tears suddenly filled her eyes, and smiling
+through them, she stepped back and began the song.  And this time she
+put in all the _frills_, as she expressed it.  She danced and acted and
+sang, and, as always, she was quite irresistible.  The artist was
+charmed.
+
+"It's good enough for the vaudeville stage just as it is," he declared.
+"There's only one fault."
+
+"Oh, what is that?" the girl cried eagerly, with the artist's desire
+for criticism, even though destructive.
+
+"Your voice is too good--altogether too good.  You could do it as well
+and perhaps better with a voice far inferior to yours in range,
+sweetness, and tone."
+
+The girl gazed at him reproachfully.  She had always had that to
+contend with.  People had always tried to "buy her off," as she
+expressed it, by proposing that she become a singer instead of an
+actress.  Now, as always, she rebelled at the idea, and again her
+vision of a public singer came to her--a very stout blonde lady in a
+very low-cut gown with a very small waist (the picture had not adapted
+itself to more modern fashions), placing a fat, squat hand on her
+capacious bosom, and uttering meaningless syllables that rose to
+shrieks.  Anything but that, she said to herself!
+
+Mr. Graham had fallen into a reverie.  His hand shaded his brow.  He
+frowned as he endeavored to recollect something.
+
+"Just where did you get hold of that song?" he inquired.
+
+"My mother used to sing it," replied Elsie, and Miss Pritchard
+wondered.  So far as she had known, none of the Pritchards had sung,
+and it was difficult to fancy Elsie's mother warbling a ditty of that
+sort.  The birth of her child must have altered Augusta greatly.
+
+"It's an old nursery rhyme, I believe," the artist went on, still half
+in his perplexity.  "Isn't it singular about the name--or perhaps you
+were named for it?"
+
+"I was named _after_ it," responded Elsie demurely.
+
+He smiled, but he was only half attending.  He was reaching for
+something in the depths of his mind which he did not find, and
+presently he sauntered on with bent head.  Miss Pritchard took up the
+_Spectator_, and Elsie produced the "First Violin," and presently was
+lost in that.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The next day as the artist met Elsie on the beach on her way to the
+bath-house, his face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, Miss Marley, it all came back to me, after twenty years," he
+exclaimed.  "Something about you has haunted my memory ever since I
+first saw you last week, and the song yesterday made it more definite
+and more perplexing.  I woke in the night and it all came back.  I
+heard that very same song on the train going South as a young
+man--comparatively young, though you wouldn't call it so.  Do you want
+to sit down a moment and let me tell you?
+
+"I haven't even thought of it for a dozen years," he said when they had
+found a convenient bench.  "As I said, we were bound southward, and it
+was toward night.  The seat in front of me was occupied by an
+exceedingly pretty young lady and a gentleman who must have been her
+brother or her husband--girls married younger in those days--for their
+name, which escapes me, was the same.  Farther ahead, on the opposite
+side of the car, was a woman with an infant in her arms and a boy baby
+of under two years at her side.  As it grew late, the older baby grew
+tired and cross.  He wanted his mother, was jealous of the tiny one,
+and finally he just howled.  The young lady before me said a word to
+her companion and went directly over.
+
+"That kid, Miss Marley, was dirty and sticky beyond words, and she was
+the daintiest, freshest, sweetest girl imaginable.  But she smiled and
+held out her arms and he just tumbled into them.  She hugged the little
+beggar close, never minding her pretty gown, and brought him back to
+her seat.  She seemed to know just what to do--took off his shoes,
+loosened the neck of his dress and all that, then cuddled him down and
+sang to him until he went to sleep and after.  Her voice was as sweet
+as yours, and she sang the very same thing, 'And Do You Ken Elsie
+Marley'--I think she sang it twice or thrice."
+
+Perhaps it was Elsie's fondness for children; perhaps it was because he
+told the story so well; in any event, the girl was touched.  And as
+usual, to cover her feeling, she tried to smile, her dimples rather at
+variance with the tears in her eyes.
+
+He gazed at her curiously.  "Wait, Miss Marley, that isn't all," he
+exclaimed.  "As I recalled the young lady, I saw her face only dimly.
+Now do you know it suddenly comes to me that she had the largest,
+deepest dimples I had ever seen, one in either cheek.  And I remember
+vowing then and there, in my youthful enthusiasm, that if ever I
+attempted to paint Madonna she should have just such dimples; they
+struck me as somehow significant, perhaps symbolic."
+
+Elsie's heart was beating wildly.
+
+"I wonder--could that have been your mother, Miss Marley?"
+
+The girl could not speak for the tumult within her.
+
+"It seems as if their name began with M, though it couldn't have been
+Marley, else I should have noticed on account of the song," he went on
+kindly, realizing her emotion.  "May I ask what was your mother's
+maiden name, Miss Marley?"
+
+Quite upset, Elsie started to tell the truth; said Mi--and stopped
+short.
+
+"Middleton!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
+
+"Pritchard," she said as quickly as she could get it out.
+
+"_Pritchard?_" he repeated as if he must have heard wrong.
+
+"Augusta Pritchard," the girl reiterated, her heart like a stone.
+
+The artist was puzzled.  But realizing that the loss of her mother
+might have been so recent as to be still a painful subject, he
+tactfully spoke of other things, cloaking his disappointment at not
+being able to work out his problem to final solution.  He feared lest
+he might somehow have blundered upon some sad family secret.  Even with
+twenty years between them, he couldn't believe that his senses had so
+deceived him, couldn't but feel that that young girl had been connected
+with this girl of the big dimples.  And he couldn't but believe that
+the girl knew it.  Only there was something that prevented her
+acknowledging it.  It might be tragedy; perhaps it was disgrace?
+Though, somehow, he couldn't think it.  Poor little thing!  He let her
+go on her way to her bath.
+
+But Elsie returned to the hotel and went straight to her room.  She
+knew she would be undisturbed there, for Miss Pritchard had gone
+driving with old friends while she was to have had her swim.  The girl
+flung herself upon her bed and, burying her face in her pillow, shed
+the bitterest tears of her life.
+
+She had denied her mother--that darling, adorable mother who had taken
+the sticky baby to her heart, and sung "Elsie Marley" to him, just as
+she had later sung it to her own little girl.  She had cast off her
+mother and taken on--_Augusta Pritchard_!  What a name to exchange for
+Elizabeth Middleton!  For even though the former were the mother of the
+lovely Elsie Marley who had gone to Enderby, she couldn't be compared
+with her beautiful mother.  And, of course, her denial was far worse in
+that she was dead.
+
+How proud, how happy, how humble, she should have been to say: "Why, of
+course, that was my mother!  I knew it without the dimples!"  What a
+wretch she must be!  To have had such a mother as to have so impressed
+a chance stranger that he should wish to paint the Madonna in her
+likeness, and should have remembered her twenty years, and to have
+repudiated her utterly!
+
+She felt that she could not bear it, could not endure such a weight on
+her heart.  But what could she do?  Say to Mr. Graham that it _was_ her
+mother and her name _was_ Middleton?  Then she would have to tell
+Cousin Julia everything, and she would send her away, send her off to
+poke and fret in Enderby, and serve tea in a conventional parsonage
+drawing-room.  And she would never be an actress, and the true Elsie
+Marley would be dragged on to New York.
+
+It would be hard on Elsie-Honey, for already she seemed just to love
+that poky parsonage, and was apparently quite as attached to Uncle John
+as she herself was to Cousin Julia.  And even Cousin Julia--already
+Elsie couldn't but realize that Cousin Julia had given her her whole
+heart; she wouldn't have liked the other girl so well in the first
+place, and now any such overturn would--it would just break her heart!
+
+No, that couldn't be.  After all, she couldn't have done otherwise.
+She _had_ to say what she did on account of the game.  Being cast for a
+part, she had to play it, even though it might be disagreeable at
+times.  And it _wasn't_ worse because her mother was dead; being in
+heaven, her mother would understand and condone.  How did that hymn go?
+
+She sat erect and sang, very sweetly, the stanza that applied:
+
+  "There is no place where earth's sorrows
+    Are so felt as up in heaven,
+  There is no place where earth's failings
+    Have such kindly judgment given."
+
+
+That comforted her strangely.  "Uncle John couldn't have administered
+first aid himself more successfully," she said to herself humorously as
+she dried her eyes.
+
+She bathed her face and, standing before the mirror, addressed the
+charming reflection in the pink frock.  She mustn't expect plain
+sailing all the time she warned her.  She must expect to be _up against
+it_ frequently.  She must keep her class motto in mind and not expect
+everything to be dead easy.  It was hard not to be able to claim one's
+beautiful mother; but she was playing a part; she was on the stage in
+costume, and the part-she-was-playing's mother's name wasn't Middleton
+nor Moss and was Augusta Pritchard.  She must keep her motto in mind
+and say continually to herself: "Act well your part, there all the
+honor lies."
+
+That very evening at dinner some one asked her where she got her
+dimples--whether they were inherited?
+
+"Or, perhaps, Miss Marley's a freak like the white peacock at the
+gardens?" broke in a callow youth whom Elsie disliked.
+
+"From my mother," she said quickly, and Miss Pritchard, sensitive to
+the least sound of hurt in Elsie's voice, introduced another subject.
+
+Nevertheless, she wondered.  She hadn't seen Augusta Pritchard since
+the latter was a girl of nineteen, but she couldn't recollect that she
+had any dimples or shadows of dimples.  She couldn't even imagine the
+combination of dimples with her white, cold, rather expressionless
+face, nor reconcile them with the true Pritchard temperament.  It
+seemed inconceivable that Elsie could have inherited them except
+through the Marleys; and yet, of course, Elsie remembered her mother
+who had died only three years ago.
+
+She had to consider that the girl didn't like that fresh Jerrold boy
+and had been nettled by his remark.  Possibly in her indignation she
+had said what first came into her mind, though it didn't seem like her.
+Miss Pritchard sighed, for she had worshipped at the shrine of truth
+all her life, and strive as she would, she couldn't but feel a
+deviation from Elsie's wonted frankness here.
+
+She pondered much upon the subject and later in the summer--on the
+evening preceding their return to New York, it was--as they were
+talking about Elsie's studying, Miss Pritchard suddenly became serious.
+
+"Elsie, there's something I want to say to you as an older woman to a
+young girl," she began.  "You will have one difficulty to contend with
+that I had in newspaper work, only in your case the temptation will be
+greater, and your task correspondingly harder.  There's a poem of a
+child-actor of Queen Elizabeth's time, little Salathiel Pavy, who
+constantly played the part of an old man.  The verses relate that he
+acted the part so naturally that the fates mistook him for an old man
+and cut off his thread of life in his tender years.  Now you, Elsie
+dear, concerned with make-believe--fiction--as you will constantly be
+in your study for the stage, eager, of course, to use every moment and
+occasion, with one subject dominating your thoughts, will need to be
+very, very careful with regard to your separate, personal life.  In
+other words, in good old-fashioned terms, you'll have to guard your
+soul.  Keep that good and pure and true.  Keep that sacred, above and
+apart from your work, and then whether you are ever a great actress or
+not, you will be a good woman."
+
+And then half shyly, but beautifully, she repeated Matthew Arnold's
+"Palladium":
+
+  "Set where the upper streams of Simois flow,
+  Was the Palladium, high 'mid rock and wood;
+  And Hector was in Ilium far below,
+  And fought and saw it not, but there it stood.
+
+  It stood and sun and moonshine rained their light
+  On the pure columns of its glen-built hall.
+  Backward and forward rolled the waves of fight
+  Round Troy; but while this stood, Troy could not fall.
+
+  So in its lovely moonlight lives the soul.
+  Mountains surround it and sweet virgin air;
+  Cold plashing, past it, crystal waters roll:
+  We visit it by moments, ah, too rare!
+
+  Men will renew the battle on the plain
+  To-morrow; red with blood will Xanthus be;
+  Hector and Ajax will be there again,
+  Helen will come upon the wall to see.
+
+  Then we shall rust in shade or shine in strife,
+  And fluctuate 'twixt blind hopes and blind despairs,
+  And fancy that we put forth all our life,
+  And never know how with the soul it fares.
+
+  Still doth the soul from its lone fastness high,
+  Upon our life a ruling effluence send:
+  And when it fails, fight as we will, we die;
+  And, while it lasts, we cannot wholly end."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"I suppose," observed the real Elsie Marley thoughtfully, drawing one
+of her long curls over her shoulder, "that if I'm going to be at the
+library regularly, I'd better put up my hair?"
+
+She addressed Mr. Middleton, but his wife, who had of late fallen into
+the habit of sitting downstairs in the evening, replied.  She had
+conceived a strong fancy to the girl, who secretly shrank from her, and
+bore herself toward her in a cold and distant manner.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, love, it would be sweet to do it sort of _Grecian_," she
+cried in her sentimental fashion, "with a classic knot at the nape of
+your neck, and little curls hanging down behind your ears."
+
+"Let her leave it as it is a little longer, Milly," her husband
+pleaded, "for it's just as her mother wore hers."
+
+This was not the fact, even though Elsie had been truly his niece.  His
+sister had worn her hair in curls, but they had been many and riotous,
+and caught at the top of her head with a ribbon; while Elsie's two were
+fastened at her neck by a neat clasp, and hung as demurely as a braid
+would have done.
+
+"Of course," assented Mrs. Middleton.  "Elsie's the picture of her
+mother, I suppose?"
+
+"She reminds me of her mother more and more every day," he said, "but
+she doesn't look like her at all.  You remember I told you that
+Elizabeth had enormous dimples?  They were so large that I'm not sure
+that they wouldn't have disfigured another face; but they added the
+last touch to hers--made it irresistible."
+
+He gazed at the fire.  It was late September and a chill rain beat
+against the windows.
+
+"I suppose if Elizabeth had had a son, _he_ would have inherited the
+dimples," he remarked.  "I believe they say girls take traits from
+their fathers and sons from the mother.  Curious, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if Elsie had had dimples when she came, she would have
+lost them ere this," said Mrs. Middleton with unusual energy.  "She's
+been put right into a treadmill, Jack.  Only sixteen, sweet sixteen,
+and she hasn't had any of the gayety a young girl wants and needs, but
+has just slaved from morning until night ever since she came to us.  At
+her age, she ought to be going to dances and lying late in the morning
+to make up sleep, and shopping and having beaux and all that sort of
+thing, just as her Aunt Milly did."
+
+She sighed deeply, clasping her ringed hands.  Elsie was indignant,
+even angry; but before she could protest, Mrs. Middleton went on.
+
+"Instead of which, she started work at the library the first thing and
+has been off and on ever since, and is now going to do it permanently,
+besides teaching a class in the Sunday-school, looking after the
+choir-boys, running errands for you, and what not."
+
+"My dear Milly!" cried her husband, really distressed; and went on to
+explain that when they decided to open the library in the evening as
+well as the afternoon, some one had to relieve Miss Stewart for two of
+the afternoon hours, and every one had clamored for Elsie.
+
+"And I love to do it," added Elsie, "and I'm so pleased that I am to
+have the hours when the children are out of school."
+
+"Of course," agreed Mrs. Middleton, smiling; "dear lambs!  I should
+have felt just the same.  Indeed, you're so like I was at your age,
+Elsie, dearest, that I feel as if it were to _me_ that you are really
+related."
+
+Elsie murmured a silent word of deprecation, forgetting, as she often
+did, that she wasn't related to Mr. Middleton, either.
+
+The rain beat furiously.  The minister rose and put another stick on
+the fire.  He did not return to his seat but stood with his elbow on
+the mantel gazing at his wife.  Though thin, John Middleton looked
+strong and well, in part, perhaps, because of his florid complexion,
+partly because of his serenity.  But in moments of stress he had a way
+of seeming to grow worn and older under one's very eyes.
+
+He felt the cogency of his wife's words.  He had, indeed, he said to
+himself, taken possession of his sister's orphan child immediately upon
+her arrival, and had made a sort of drudge of her: he kept her
+constantly occupied, performing miscellaneous services for him--he
+wasn't sure that he could have demanded so much of a paid secretary.
+And she, like her mother, unselfish and devoted, had made no complaint.
+
+He spoke before Elsie, who was slow of speech and was regretting that
+she didn't share the real Elsie Moss's gift of expression, was able to
+put her feeling into words that would convince him.
+
+"No wonder you felt like putting up your curls and saying farewell to
+youth, Elsie," he said whimsically yet ruefully.  "Your aunt is just
+right, dear, and we'll make a change at once.  What should you say to
+going on to New York to make your little actress friend a visit, and
+then starting anew after you come back?"
+
+Now the color flew to Elsie's cheeks and words came.
+
+"Oh, Uncle John, I wouldn't go now for the world!" she cried in genuine
+dismay.  "I'm just longing to go to the library every day--I think it's
+just--splendid!  And I like it all--everything--so very much.  It isn't
+the least a treadmill, and I'm so happy doing it.  Please, please,
+don't take anything away; only give me more."
+
+He felt the sincerity of her words, and again said to himself that the
+girl was her mother over again.  His wife went over to Elsie, and
+stroking back her hair, kissed her brow fondly.  And the color died out
+of the girl's cheeks and the glow from her heart as she shuddered
+within herself.  And presently when Mr. Middleton went to his study to
+work, she bade Mrs. Middleton a cool good night and fled to her room.
+
+She sat by the window some time, then went to bed; but though the sound
+of the rain was soothing, she could not get to sleep.  It came to her
+that it was very thoughtful of Uncle John to wish to send her to visit
+Elsie; and how she would have liked to go if it didn't entail leaving
+the library and all the fascinating round of her daily life, and
+leaving him to his wife's cold comfort.  How she would like to see
+Elsie Moss at this moment, to confide her troubles and her happiness to
+that sympathetic ear.  If they could talk together, she could make the
+other understand that even with Mrs. Middleton as a drawback, she was
+more content, happier, than she had ever been before.  And she couldn't
+help feeling that she was useful, too, in a measure--that she would be
+missed if she were to go to New York.
+
+Still she could not sleep, and presently she found herself puzzling
+over a problem that had been growing upon her and now bulked big.  The
+truth was that already the weight of the top-heavy household had fallen
+upon the girl's shoulders.  Utterly unprepared and ignorant, she had
+been thrust into a tangled labyrinth of domestic affairs.  The more
+familiar she had become with the internal working of the household, the
+more was she baffled and daunted.  And presently it seemed to her
+youthful inexperience as if it stood upon the brink of ruin.
+
+Though the minister was unaware that the bills were not paid promptly
+at the beginning of each month, Mrs. Middleton owed practically every
+establishment in the place accounts that dated far back.  At this time
+the small sums she could pay on account when her funds came in were
+insufficient to satisfy any one, and one and another began to threaten
+Kate with going to Mr. Middleton and demanding a settlement.  They
+declared it wasn't respectable for him to be giving away so much money
+when he owed probably more than a year's salary.
+
+Kate's only recourse was to her mistress, who would be temporarily
+depressed, now and then to the point of tears.  But shortly she either
+forgot all about it or postponed consideration until another month; and
+meantime she never parted with her last penny: she always kept enough
+on hand for an ample supply of novels, chocolate drops, and
+headache-powders, the latter being especially expensive, according to
+Kate.
+
+Ignorant as Elsie was, it did not take her long to understand that the
+household was managed--or allowed to run on--with the utmost
+extravagance and waste.  She had prevailed upon Kate to set the greater
+part of the big house in order and to keep it tidy, and she tried to
+induce her to be less wasteful and reckless.  But the girl was
+developing a certain sense of justice, and she rather doubted her right
+to insist.  Devoted as Kate was to Mr. Middleton, and attached, in an
+apologetic, shame-faced way, to her mistress, overworked and unpaid,
+save for the sums Elsie forced upon her, how could she demand that Kate
+be more scrupulous about details?  It would seem that she had all she
+could carry without that.
+
+The girl fell asleep at last, and woke next morning with the pleasant
+reflection that she was to begin to-day at the library as a regular
+salaried assistant.  Second thought was still more cheering.  As soon
+as the minister was out of the house, and she heard Kate go down-stairs
+from Mrs. Middleton's room, she betook herself to the disorderly
+kitchen.  At her entrance Kate rose suddenly and went and peered
+anxiously into the oven--which was empty.  Elsie would have liked to
+tell her that she didn't begrudge her those stolen moments for resting
+her tired feet, but she hadn't yet learned to express her new
+sensations.  It was sufficiently difficult to explain her errand.
+
+"Katy, here are your wages for last week," she said rather brusquely,
+trying to press the money into her hands.  "Mrs. Middleton will--I hope
+she'll pay you in full very soon, but at any rate she--that is, you're
+going to get your wages regularly every week, and I'm going to see to
+it so that it shan't be neglected.  And always come to me if there's
+anything to ask.  Please don't go to her unless about the back pay."
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, you're so good!" cried Kate warmly, believing she had
+arranged it with Mr. Middleton.  "I'm sorry I complained.  You must 'a'
+known I didn't mean half what I said.  I wouldn't really 'a' gone to
+himself about it.  But honest, I ain't got a whole pair o' stockin's,
+and can't wear them pumps I got last summer on account o' the holes,
+and her a-growin' yellower every day and a-layin' round and eatin'
+chocolate drops and headache-powders that cost good money and ain't no
+benefit."
+
+She stuffed the money into a drawer of the table with a miscellaneous
+assortment of less valuable things.  While Elsie was wondering if she
+could speak about the condition of the kitchen, which Elsie Moss would
+have pronounced unspeakable, Kate drew near to her with real appeal in
+her blue eyes.
+
+"And, Miss Elsie, I wish you hadn't let what I've confided to you sort
+o' set you against your aunt.  Everybody has their failin's, they do
+say, and after all if she don't do worse than eat choc'late-creams and
+munch headache-tablets, why, she's pretty harmless as ladies go.  Mis'
+Jonathan Metcalf as goes to his church is just as yellow and I don't
+know but what yellower, and bedizened as well, and a regular shrew in
+her own house."
+
+"Katy, I don't know what you mean," Elsie returned with dignity.
+
+"Well, you call her Mis' Middleton, when you speak of her, with your
+voice like a buzz-saw, and it ain't because you're high and mighty with
+me, 'cause you ain't.  You're like a sister to me, and I ain't once
+thought of up and leavin' sence you come as I did frequent before.  And
+besides, when you talk of himself, you always say Uncle John.  And
+she's good at heart, Miss Elsie; honest, she is.  She'd be just as good
+as himself if she knew as much.  Her heart's in the right place, and
+she takes to you and don't mistrust you don't to her."
+
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,
+as you call it," said Elsie, rather neatly as she believed.
+
+[Illustration: "Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding'
+up your kitchen, as you call it."]
+
+"Oh, there's plenty of time for that," Kate assured her cheerfully; "if
+not to-day, why there's another comin'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The kitchen wasn't _redd up_ that day nor the next.  It remained,
+indeed, a sight to make a good housekeeper weep, and closets,
+cupboards, clothes-presses, and the celebrated servants' parlor
+remained untidy conglomerations of rubbish; but the general appearance
+of the place continued to improve.  Kate's gratitude for the regular
+receipt of her wages was continual and practical.  A chance visitor now
+could enter any room in the front of the house at any hour, and there
+was much comment among the people upon the change.
+
+It was generally agreed that Elsie Moss must have been very carefully
+trained by her stepmother to bring about such a marvel.  And presently
+some of the creditors of the household began to wonder if her influence
+couldn't be extended.  One and another began to drop hints to Elsie
+which became so broad that even one quite unaccustomed to any such
+thing could not fail to understand.  The butcher's wife, the grocer's
+sister, and the draper's head bookkeeper had all but informed her in so
+many words that unless their respective relatives or patrons were paid
+in full by the 1st of November, they would present their bills to Mr.
+Middleton, if they had to do so in the vestibule of the church.
+
+And they were only three out of a number that seemed legion.  Others
+spoke more plainly to Kate, and Elsie began to dread seeing certain
+people enter the library during her hours there.  The days being
+shorter, the Howe baby went to bed at five o'clock, and little Mattie,
+who had taken a violent fancy to Elsie, used to run to the library the
+moment he was off her hands, remaining until six to walk home with her.
+And Elsie, who was devoted to the child and never tired of her company,
+was also relieved because her presence protected her from any but
+veiled hints.
+
+The situation wore upon her, and finally she decided to have a frank
+talk with Mrs. Middleton.  She wasn't, it is true, on terms of
+frankness with her, and in a sense it wasn't her place to interfere.
+But she knew that Mrs. Middleton wouldn't want the bills presented to
+her husband any more than Kate did--nor, indeed, than Elsie herself.
+Not that she would have cared, except for Mr. Middleton's sake.  It
+would serve Mrs. Middleton right to be brought up short, but she
+dreaded the thought of his being so distressed; she didn't want him to
+give up the few little comforts he allowed himself, and she knew it
+would hurt him cruelly to have to retrench in his giving.
+
+She wrote to Mr. Bliss, her lawyer, asking him to send her five hundred
+dollars, mailing the letter to the other Elsie to be forwarded from New
+York.  That seemed to her inexperience a large sum and able to work
+wonders.  But before her letter had reached New York she began to feel
+as if it wouldn't be sufficient to make everything straight for a new
+start; and before there was time for an answer from San Francisco, she
+was sadly convinced that it would be only a drop in the bucket.
+Whereupon she decided that if Mr. Bliss sent it to her without comment,
+and didn't evidently consider it a very large sum, she would ask him to
+duplicate it.
+
+With a certain relief, she put off the frank talk with Mrs. Middleton
+until she should have received the money.  It did not arrive so soon as
+she expected it, and she was still waiting when Kate came to her in
+excitement one morning saying that the iceman wouldn't leave any ice
+unless he were paid cash.  Elsie produced her portemonnaie.
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, I hate to take your money," protested Kate with tears
+in her eyes.  "I wouldn't 'a' come to you only I'm strapped myself,
+what with buyin' the hat with all them plumes, and the missus after
+borrowin' my last five-dollar bill."
+
+"Katy Flanagan, what made you let her have it?" cried the girl almost
+fiercely.
+
+"Well, Miss Elsie, the truth is, I couldn't resist her.  There's
+something about her, you know--a-askin' so airy like, and forgettin'
+how--goodness, the man'll clear out with his ice if I don't fly."
+
+Thereafter, Elsie paid also for the ice and the milk, leaving, out of
+her allowance and the money she received for the library work, barely
+enough for postage.  But she didn't mind that; it was really a slight
+sacrifice.  She cared so much for the work at the library that she
+would have paid for the privilege of doing it; and she had come so well
+provided with all the accessories of clothing that she hadn't even to
+buy gloves for another year.
+
+Looking forward, she began to speculate on the possibility of starting
+anew after finances were once straightened out.  It appeared doubtful,
+she being herself more ignorant than Kate, but presently a happy
+suggestion presents itself to her.  One afternoon she asked Mrs. King,
+a kind, motherly, grey-haired lady who taught domestic science at the
+high school and came to the library frequently, whether there were any
+book to teach one how much to spend each week on different articles for
+a household.
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I'm so glad you spoke, for I've been wanting to tell
+you about our seniors in domestic science this year at the high school.
+I think I have the nicest class I've ever had.  We meet three times a
+week at eleven o'clock, and I have wondered if you might not like to
+join?  Knowing that your aunt is an invalid, I thought you might want
+to take the care off her shoulders, and I feel sure our course would
+help you.  You know all the girls, I think, and I should be more than
+pleased to help you make up what they have been over already."
+
+Elsie could scarcely express her delight.  She spoke to Mr. Middleton
+that evening.  He had no idea of her ultimate purpose; indeed, he did
+not realize the confusion in which he lived, and was rather amused at
+the idea, but considered it an excellent method of getting better
+acquainted with the young people, and was pleased at her eagerness.
+
+She entered the class at once, found the study delightful and very
+helpful, and the days fairly flew by.  She was, after all, only
+sixteen, and extraordinarily immature in many ways; and it was not
+perhaps remarkable that after a few lessons, with extra help from Mrs.
+King, she began to feel quite capable of shouldering the housekeeping
+at the parsonage.  But the more ready she felt, the less did she desire
+to propose it to Mrs. Middleton.
+
+Such a step was not made easier by the fact that the latter took a keen
+interest in her lessons at the school.  She endeavored, not always
+successfully, to draw the girl out upon the subject, questioning her
+with some felicity, praising her ambition, and taking it for granted
+that she was an unusual pupil and a great addition to the class.  And
+she constantly bemoaned the fact that it had been necessary for Elsie
+to go outside for the instruction that she would herself have delighted
+to give her, had her strength permitted.  Nothing could have gratified
+her more, she declared, clasping her hands and raising her eyes to the
+ceiling, but she didn't even dare allow herself to dwell upon it.  For
+she had just enough strength to manage her own household (as every lady
+should do), and she hadn't the moral right to use it for other purposes.
+
+Meantime, three weeks had passed since Elsie had written to ask her
+lawyer for the five hundred dollars, and she began to feel troubled.
+Of course, she had to allow for letter and answer going through Elsie
+Moss's hands, but three weeks should have covered that.  She watched
+the mails anxiously.  As she returned from the library on the
+twenty-fourth day since she had sent her request, she decided that
+unless she should hear that night, she would have Elsie Moss telegraph
+from New York.  For the end of October approached, and she felt she
+couldn't face the crisis of the 1st of November, without the aid and
+the moral support of the money.
+
+She was surprised to see the doctor's motor-car standing at the door,
+and startled when Kate, wild-eyed and dishevelled, met her at the
+threshold.
+
+"Uncle John?  Has anything happened?" she faltered.
+
+"No, it ain't him.  He's in the city, pore lamb, and it's myself is
+thankful you'll be here to tell him.  It's her.  Riggs was here
+a-dunnin' me for his money soon after you left, and nothin' would do
+but that I should go up to her whiles he waits in the kitchen.  And a
+lucky thing it was, too, for there he was to go for the doctor--we both
+forgot clean about the telephone."
+
+"But what is it?" cried Elsie.
+
+"I found her on the floor like a log, Miss Elsie.  She ain't dead at
+all, but she ain't come to, and maybe won't from taking of too many of
+them headache-powders as I knew was no good but didn't think no harm
+of."
+
+On a sudden, without warning, Kate dropped her head upon Elsie's
+shoulder and began to sob wildly.
+
+"Oh, Katy, don't," begged Elsie, truly distressed.  "You and I must
+keep up for the sake of----"
+
+"Of himself, miss, I know," sobbed Kate, "but, oh, I feel as if it was
+my own mother--or my own baby, I don't know which."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Elsie Moss's school was quite unlike her expectations, and her
+companions not at all like those of her eager dreams.  Just as at art
+school one begins, she knew, with the study and copying of the antique,
+so the girl had supposed that in studying for the stage, one would
+approach it through the masterpieces of the drama.  On the contrary,
+she didn't so much as hear the name of Shakespeare or of any other dead
+or classic dramatist during the first two months; and though she had to
+work as hard as she had expected to do, it sometimes seemed as if it
+were practice that didn't really count.  The drill seemed to be all in
+the way of suppleness of limb and facility of facial expression without
+intellectual stimulus; indeed, it almost seemed as if the whole
+tendency of the school was rather narcotic than stimulating.
+
+Further, the girls with whom she came in contact shared her ideals as
+little as their pasts had anything in common with hers.  Many of them
+were not older in years, but one and all were incomparably older in
+other ways and painfully sophisticated.  Pretty in a coarse way,
+painted and powdered, bold and often vulgar, they were almost without
+exception girls whose whole lives had been spent in the atmosphere of
+the stage, and that in its cheaper and poorer aspects.  One or both
+parents, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle had figured in shows or
+exhibitions of some sort, and they had fallen into the profession in
+that manner.  None had, like Elsie, chosen it as a calling.
+
+Disappointed as she was, disheartened utterly at moments, the girl
+hugged her class motto to her breast and struggled on.  So deep was her
+purpose, so strong her interest, that she not only pressed doggedly on,
+but forced a certain amount of satisfaction out of the struggle.  How
+it might have been had she not possessed in Miss Pritchard a solace and
+refuge, it would be difficult to say.  Elsie herself hardly knew how
+much courage and strength she gained during the evenings and other
+fragments of time spent with her.  Looking forward to that
+companionship gave her patience to endure many a difficult hour which
+perchance she had not endured otherwise.  But with that always before
+her, despite the hardships that were so different from those for which
+she had been prepared, she was nevertheless wonderfully happy--perhaps,
+happier than she had ever been before.
+
+Sometimes, when the day had been unusually trying, she would greet Miss
+Pritchard at night with a warmth that almost frightened the latter,
+clinging to her as if she would never let her go.  But she never
+confessed any of her troubles connected with the school.  She talked
+much of it, but it was always of the most interesting occurrences and
+of amusing incidents.  For her heart was in the matter as much as ever,
+and Miss Pritchard wasn't so favorably inclined toward it as to make it
+prudent to let her know of the disadvantages.
+
+But it was terribly hard for one of her nature to have no one in whom
+to confide, and she longed for Elsie Marley.  If she could have talked
+things over with Elsie Marley it would have made it easier.  Simply to
+unburden her heart would mean much.  Ever since she had been in New
+York she had longed to see Elsie again; and with this added reason, and
+a desire to learn more of her life in Enderby than she could gather
+from her stiff and rather non-committal letters, she began to feel,
+about the time that she forwarded a letter to Elsie's lawyer in San
+Francisco, that she must induce her to come to New York for a visit.
+
+A letter from her stepmother seemed to render it almost imperative.
+Mrs. Moss, who was devoted to Elsie and missed her sadly, was greatly
+troubled by the irregularity of the girl's letters and hurt by their
+want of frankness.  Knowing that John Middleton had not approved of
+Elsie's father marrying her, she began to fear lest he be trying to
+turn his niece against her.  Now she had written to protest against the
+perfunctory letters, which, instead of allowing her to share in any way
+in Elsie's life, shut her out.
+
+Elsie was deeply moved and full of compunction.  She loved her
+stepmother dearly and thought of her constantly, faithful soul that she
+really was.  She was always wondering how _auntie_ would take this or
+view that; but the very topics she was moved to enlarge upon in her
+letters were those which circumstances forbade her to mention.  All her
+interests were connected with Miss Pritchard, of whose very existence
+Mrs. Moss was unaware, with the school, and less directly with Elsie
+Marley, whose name she was masquerading under.  Leaving all these out
+of consideration, and depending almost wholly upon the fragments she
+received concerning life in the parsonage at Enderby, a brief letter
+once in three or four weeks was the utmost the girl could compass.
+
+Immediately upon receipt of her stepmother's letter, she determined to
+ask Miss Pritchard if she might invite her friend Elsie Moss to come on
+for a week or a fortnight.  As she waited for Miss Pritchard to come
+from the office that night, however, it suddenly occurred to her to
+wonder if it would be quite safe.  Despite her enthusiastic admiration
+of Elsie Marley, which had not in the least abated, and despite the
+unfavorable impression she had of the Pritchards, which only deepened
+as the days passed, she had come to feel that in personal appearance
+and somewhat in manner her friend must resemble her kinsfolk.
+
+In which case it would be as dangerous for the well-being of the one as
+of the other for her to be brought in contact with Miss Pritchard.
+For, stiff as were her letters and non-committal, Elsie knew that there
+was little difference in the strength of attachment that held the wrong
+Elsie to the place she had usurped in either instance.  Whatever she
+might do, therefore, she mustn't bungle or err in that respect.
+
+The Pritchard estate was not yet settled.  The house had been sold and
+such personal effects and heirlooms as were to be kept for Elsie Marley
+put in storage for the time in San Francisco.  Elsie Moss understood
+this, and knew that Miss Pritchard did so; but she felt that the latter
+wondered that she had no relics or keepsakes with her.  She had had to
+confess one day that she had no photographs of her family she would be
+willing to show, leaving Miss Pritchard to make such inference as she
+would.
+
+That evening at the dinner-table--she felt it would be easier to
+approach the matter in semi-public--Elsie asked her if she happened to
+have any old Pritchard photographs.
+
+"Yes, dear, I have an old album in the chest by the window that has
+pictures of Aunt Ellen, Cousin Ellen, and Cousin Augusta.  There are
+half a dozen, I think, of Cousin Ellen, and three or four of your
+mother, but no baby picture of you, nor any other, if that's what
+you're looking for.  After my father died we began to lose connection
+with one another, and after that visit I made when you were a baby, all
+communication ceased.  So I got no photographs after that."
+
+"No, I wasn't thinking of my kid pictures, Cousin Julia.  I was
+just--wondering," the girl returned.  "Would it be an awful bother to
+get out the album?"
+
+"No bother at all, child.  To tell the truth, I love to get it out, for
+there are a lot of other pictures besides the Pritchards that I like to
+look over.  There's a picture of my Cousin Arthur Moore, who fell in
+the battle of Lookout Mountain, that I'd like you to see."
+
+When the old-fashioned, velvet-bound, nickel-clasped book was produced,
+Elsie almost forgot her immediate purpose in her interest in the
+likenesses.  But one of Ellen Pritchard at fourteen, Miss Pritchard's
+cousin and supposedly _her_ aunt, brought her up sharply.  For Elsie
+Marley was the very image of it.  Rearrange her hair, put her into the
+beruffled skirt and polonaise, and she might have sat for it.  Or part
+this girl's hair and gather it loosely back, dress her in a tailored
+suit and correct blouse, and she would be Elsie Marley.  What a
+frightful thing this family resemblance was!  Elsie stifled a sigh.
+Her cake was dough, sure enough!
+
+Partly to ease her dismay and postpone considering her problem until
+she should be alone, the girl gave herself up to the study of the other
+pictures.  It wasn't difficult to lose herself, for she found them of
+absorbing interest.
+
+Among the Pritchards, Elsie's grandmother was the most striking
+personage.  The strength and sagacity of her handsome face, which the
+expression of pride could not conceal, related her to Miss Pritchard
+unmistakably.  Pride, mingled with frailty and general lack of other
+expression, characterized the invalid daughter; and pride that was
+arrogance, the bored face of Augusta Pritchard, who was supposed to be
+her mother.
+
+It was late when the girl finally closed the album.
+
+"Many thanks, Cousin Julia," she murmured rather absently, a far-away
+look in her dark eyes.
+
+After a little she rose and began to wander about the room.
+
+"Cousin Julia," she said presently, "I can't help wondering--honestly,
+don't you ever wish I looked more--I mean that I looked any like them?
+They're mighty aristocratic-looking guys after all."
+
+"My dear, when you talk like that you know as well as I that you're
+fishing," insisted Miss Pritchard.  "I have told you that I'm too
+well-satisfied.  I have to watch out for flaws."
+
+"Well, don't you ever think, anyhow, that such _whopping_ dimples
+are--almost vulgar?"
+
+"I adore them," responded Miss Pritchard calmly.  "But anyhow, you
+know, they are supposed to be Pritchard.  Didn't you tell that
+what's-his-name boy you got them from your mother?"
+
+Elsie colored.
+
+"I loathed that gump," she said.
+
+Miss Pritchard did not press the matter, though she wished very much
+Elsie had explained or made other amends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, how perfectly gorgeous!" cried Elsie, "but oh, I
+don't need it, and--oh, please take it back.  You just shower things on
+me, and I feel so wicked to have you spend so much on me."
+
+"Elsie, child, don't you understand yet how happy I am to have you to
+spend it on?" returned Miss Pritchard.
+
+It was quite true that the latter was constantly bestowing not only
+small, but rich and costly gifts upon the girl who had come to live
+with her and for whom she had come to live.  In this instance it was an
+opera-cloak of rose-colored broadcloth, wadded, and lined with white
+brocaded satin, soft and light and warm.  The two went often to the
+theatre, and it would be useful, though Miss Pritchard herself had
+never owned such a garment, and it was certainly rather elegant for a
+girl of sixteen.
+
+"Now, Elsie," Miss Pritchard went on, "I want to ask you something--I
+have more money than I know what to do with.  Whom should I spend it on
+if not on you?"
+
+Elsie winced.  Her little face grew wistful.  "Then it's because I'm a
+Pritchard you do it?" she demanded.
+
+Miss Pritchard laughed.  "My dear, how you pin one to cold facts.  If
+you must know, then, it's because you aren't a Pritchard.  It's because
+you're yourself, through and through, and haven't a trace nor a look of
+the Pritchards that I love you so and long to have you happy here with
+me, who am not a Pritchard either.  No doubt your family rubbed that
+fact in sufficiently, so you didn't expect me to be.  To tell the
+truth, I could never abide the Pritchards.  I was such a misfit when I
+visited Aunt Ellen's years ago, that I rather dreaded your coming,
+though I did feel that being so young you might not be inveterate, and
+that we might manage to hit it off, as they say."
+
+Immensely cheered, Elsie kissed her warmly.  Miss Pritchard threw the
+cloak over her shoulders, produced a rosy silk scarf to tie over her
+bobbed hair, and they were off.
+
+The conversation came back to Miss Pritchard next day as she sat at her
+desk near a great window whence the streets below were like canyons.
+
+"Dear me, how little Elsie must have had in her life to be so absurdly
+grateful as she is," she said to herself.  "And what a life those women
+must have led her to make her so ready to refuse what meant so much to
+her if it came to her as to a Pritchard."
+
+Which suddenly reminded her of the Pritchard family lawyer and a letter
+she had found on her plate that morning with the name of the firm Bliss
+& Waterman on the envelope.  Not caring to open it before Elsie, she
+had brought it to the office.
+
+Breaking the seal, she was amazed to learn that the lawyer wished to
+consult her in regard to a request for five hundred dollars Elsie
+Marley had recently made.  He would not, of course, hand over a
+comparatively large sum like that without her guardian's sanction, and
+he felt constrained to add that certain outstanding obligations against
+the residue of the property had recently come to light which might
+curtail the income for a year.  He still felt that if Miss Pritchard
+remained willing to pay Elsie's general expenses, that the allowance
+which they had agreed upon and which he had sent regularly ought to
+cover pin-money and something more.  Elsie had made no explanations.
+Of course, if the money were for educational purposes, he would arrange
+to send it.  If Miss Pritchard would kindly make the situation clear to
+him, he would follow her instructions, but he awaited her reply before
+acting upon her ward's request.
+
+Miss Pritchard felt absolutely at sea.  She was as puzzled as she was
+troubled.  Elsie had seemed so frank and open, and, despite her
+generous nature, had seemed so frugal in her expenditure, making a
+little go much further than Miss Pritchard herself could do, that she
+couldn't imagine her demanding this sum without consulting her in
+regard to it.  She knew exactly what Elsie paid at the school--she had
+insisted upon paying her own expenses out of five hundred dollars she
+had brought with her and deposited.  She knew, too, practically every
+penny she spent in other ways, the total of which was always far below
+the amount of her allowance; she knew her associates, and could have
+accounted for every hour of her time.  She could almost believe that
+Mr. Bliss had made a blunder.
+
+After pondering upon the subject all day, she telegraphed him not to
+send the money, and decided to question Elsie that night.
+
+She had no opportunity that evening, however.  A certain Madame
+Valentini, a former prima donna who had been a famous soprano in the
+early days of "Pinafore," and who came to Miss Peacock's each year for
+opera, had arrived during the day, and she and Miss Pritchard being old
+friends, the evening was devoted to her.  Madame Valentini was
+white-haired now, and very stout, with chin upon chin; and the real
+Elsie Marley would have thought her vulgar, for she rouged her cheeks,
+laughed out heartily and frequently, and wore colors and fashions
+ill-suited to her age and size, with jewels enough for a court-ball.
+But she was full of life and spirit, warm-hearted, invariably cheerful,
+an amusing and fluent talker, and musical to the ends of her be-ringed
+fingers and the satin tips of her shoes.
+
+Like every one else at Miss Peacock's, she took to Elsie at once.  She
+understood that the girl was studying for the stage, but recognized in
+a twinkling that she had a singing voice, and finally prevailed upon
+her to try it.  She herself played the accompaniment with a skill that
+was a revelation to Elsie, who had never enjoyed singing as she enjoyed
+it that night.
+
+When she had done, the prima donna threw her arms about the girl and
+drew her to her bosom.  Elsie Marley must have shuddered, but her
+namesake, thrilled with singing to the sympathetic accompaniment,
+kissed her warmly on her unnaturally pink cheek.
+
+"Oh, my angel, what a voice, what a voice!" cried madame.  "Entrancing!
+marvellous!  It's simply perfect in tone and quality, and correct
+practice would increase its range.  And when you put on a little more
+flesh (here, even Elsie Moss groaned silently) you'll get volume, too.
+Stop everything, child, and cultivate it.  It's worth millions."
+
+Elsie flushed.  She couldn't help being pleased by the extravagant
+praise, but she couldn't bear to be advised to give up the dramatic
+stage.
+
+The older singer turned to Miss Pritchard.  "My dear Miss Pritchard,
+why do you let this charming child waste her time learning to do
+vaudeville stunts that any limber-jointed, pretty-faced chit could do,
+with a glorious voice like that?"
+
+"It seemed wonderful to me, and Charley Graham confirmed me in the
+belief," Miss Pritchard owned, "and Elsie herself confesses that people
+have always advised her to study singing rather than acting."
+
+"Only because they thought it was more respectable," protested Elsie,
+pouting.
+
+"But, foolish child, wouldn't you far and away rather be a singer--a
+famous singer?" demanded madame.  "You'd get into grand opera, you
+know.  You'd be lovely as Juliet or Butterfly even now."
+
+"I'd rather be an actress," pleaded the girl so sweetly deprecating
+that Madame Valentini hardly wondered that Julia Pritchard should give
+her her way.
+
+So long as she remained at Miss Peacock's, madame devoted much time,
+very happily, to Elsie's musical education.  She made the girl sing for
+her every day, giving her assistance that was really invaluable.  She
+took her to the opera twice a week, where she was a wonderful
+companion, calling attention to fine points that all but a connoisseur
+must have missed, and discussing all sorts of pertinent musical topics
+between the acts.  And she rejoiced with Miss Pritchard because of
+Elsie's obvious enjoyment.
+
+Meantime, Miss Pritchard found occasion to speak to Elsie on the
+subject of Mr. Bliss's letter.  She handed it to her; the girl read it
+quietly and passed it back without speaking, yet meeting her eyes
+frankly.
+
+"I confess, Elsie, I can't conceive how you should want so large a sum
+at this time," Miss Pritchard began.  "I trust you so thoroughly that I
+believe it must be for something worth while--at least you think it is,
+child.  And I feel that you so trust me that you will explain to me if
+you can.  In any event, I have decided to give it to you out of my own
+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 seemed a great pity that
+there should be any concealment between herself and the other Elsie.
+As things stood, she was sufficiently involved in concealment, to give
+it no worse name, without that.  It had been understood that she should
+read all the letters that came before sending them on to Enderby; but
+to keep one and never mention it, necessary though it was, and demanded
+by circumstances, seemed somehow almost like stealing.
+
+And the worst was that circumstances might go on making demands, and
+she might have to do yet more reprehensible things--things that weren't
+merely _almost_ like wrong-doing.  Some day she might have to lie right
+out.
+
+Well, as to that, what had it been when she said that her mother's name
+was Pritchard?  That had been acting--a part of her rôle.  And then, of
+course she constantly deceived Miss Pritchard, in a way, though not
+dishonestly.  That was acting, too.  She and Elsie Marley had entered
+into a contract, indeed, each to act the part of the other.  They
+weren't hurting any one: each fitted into the wrong place as she
+couldn't have into the right.  And yet in very truth it was very much
+like plain lying!
+
+Elsie Moss flinched.  Then she recollected how once at home some of the
+girls of her class at school had been discussing a subject given in the
+rhetoric they studied under "Argumentation"--"Is a lie ever
+justifiable?"  These girls of the "Per aspera ad astra" motto had
+decided the question in the affirmative.  They had agreed that lying to
+a burglar wasn't wrong--it might prevent him from robbing a widow or
+one's own mother--the same with regard to a murderer, an insane person,
+or one sick unto death.  And one and all had declared with spirit that
+if they lived in England and a hunting-party should come along with
+their cruel hounds and ask which way the fox or hare had gone, they
+would point in exactly the wrong direction.  Elsie herself had declared
+that she would have said that the little creature hadn't come this way
+at all.
+
+Not that that was exactly similar.  The girl owned that however she
+might please Miss Pritchard, and Elsie Marley might gratify Uncle John,
+in each case it was the girl herself who benefited chiefly by the
+scheme, and for whom it had been arranged and carried through.
+Pleasing Uncle John and Cousin Julia was what is called in chemistry a
+by-product.
+
+Furthermore, there was the question as to whether Cousin Julia, in any
+event, would value satisfaction secured thus by indirection?
+Absolutely straight-forward, as she was, mightn't she judge their
+action severely, label it plain deceit, and--oh, no! she couldn't
+refuse to have anything further to do with her!  It began to seem as if
+even failure in what she had always considered her life-work wouldn't
+be so terrible as that.  The girl didn't put it into so many words, but
+as the days passed she seemed to have a vague sense of another
+life-work which might consist in growing up toward Miss Pritchard's
+standards of what is fine and good and worth while.  But Elsie wouldn't
+dwell upon it, for she couldn't, of course, begin to approach any such
+goal--she couldn't even make a start--without confession.  And
+confession wouldn't mean only the loss of her chance to realize her
+ambition; it would mean the loss of Cousin Julia herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Meantime, when the sum of money reached Enderby, Mrs. Middleton still
+lay unconscious--at death's door, it was said.  And one whispered to
+another that it was, perhaps, better so, that it would be a blessing to
+the minister if she were to be taken away.  She had been worse than a
+drag upon him all these years.  Foolish, idle, lazy, extravagant, she
+had exaggerated her physical delicacy and given herself up to indolence
+and self-indulgence, running the household into debt until it was a
+disgrace to the minister and to the church.  Mr. Middleton, dear saint,
+hadn't known order nor comfort nor companionship for years until his
+niece had come.  And when all was said, she could do better for him
+without her aunt.
+
+However that might be, the minister himself took his wife's sudden and
+terrifying illness sadly to heart.  He hung over her bed and haunted
+her room, watching and praying for the return of consciousness and
+life.  Not, perhaps, his peer in the first place, Mildred Middleton had
+not grown, had not kept pace with her husband, and she had truly of
+late fallen into deplorable habits for the head of a household.
+Nevertheless, he believed in her; loved her for her real warmth of
+heart, which her veil of sentimentality did not in any degree alter for
+him, for her optimism, her absolutely unfailing good nature, and for an
+intuitive womanliness he believed to be eminently her gift.
+
+And presently when she rallied, his heart grew light, indeed.  The
+doctor said it might be long before she would get her strength back,
+but he believed it possible that when she had regained it, she would be
+better than she had been for years.  He told the minister quietly that
+it was fortunate she had been stricken as she had.  The
+headache-powders she had been taking constantly contained a drug that
+had been slowly poisoning her.  A little longer and her heart would
+have been permanently affected.
+
+Meantime, before this, while she lay unconscious, the bills had begun
+to pour in.  Along with the domestic science, Elsie had taken up
+bookkeeping at the high school, and fortified by that knowledge and the
+possession of the five hundred dollars, she summoned her courage, went
+to Mr. Middleton and asked if she might take the accounts in hand this
+month in Aunt Milly's place.
+
+Pleased by her thoughtfulness, he proposed that they should do them
+together.  Elsie begged to be allowed to try them alone, just for once,
+but he insisted upon sharing the task, though he confessed that she
+would find him very rusty about such things, his wife having taken them
+off his hands for so many years.
+
+Elsie's heart sank.  She knew that practically every tradesman had sent
+a bill in full, and apprehended that the totals would be appalling.
+She feared, too, that it would be awkward about the five hundred
+dollars.  But there was nothing to do but to comply with his desire.
+
+At his bidding, she brought the collection into the study that evening.
+He got out a check-book and they sat down, Elsie at the desk, and he by
+the side with one of the sliding shelves drawn out.
+
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none of them," he remarked, and took up the pile of envelopes.
+
+[Illustration: "You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though
+Aunt Milly will have none of them," he remarked.]
+
+"We'll begin with the top one--Mason," he said.  "Fill in the date and
+name--James S.--and now, let's see the sum."
+
+He drew out the bill, glanced at it, then looked sharply as if it were
+hard to decipher.
+
+"A hundred and seventy-five dollars!" he exclaimed.  "Of course that
+can't be.  It should be a dollar and seventy-five cents, I suppose, and
+yet--it's quite plain--see--one hundred seventy-five and two ciphers.
+There's some mistake.  I'll just put it aside and telephone in the
+morning.  Leave that and start another, dear.  Andrew White's the
+next--no middle letter."
+
+He opened the next with the same confidence.  Eighty-six dollars was
+large for a milk bill.  He glanced at it doubtfully.  _Bill rendered_
+indicated that it wasn't all for this month.  It must have slipped by,
+somehow.  And of course Mrs. Middleton had to have egg-nog and cream
+and all that.  He bade Elsie draw the check, feeling that they must
+have paid the largest first.  But Elsie's heart sank as he took up the
+next envelope with Berry's name in the corner.  Berry was the grocer.
+
+"Four hundred ninety-two dollars!" he gasped.  "Wait, Elsie, we'll look
+them all through before we do any more.  There's something wrong.  Now
+this goes back--let me see.  Bill rendered--bill rendered--it seems to
+go back a year or more.  I wonder if perhaps your aunt has asked for
+statements for a year in order to see what her expenditures amount
+to?"--He shook his head--"No, here's a credit.  And this is plain
+enough 'Amount due November 1.'"
+
+He opened the others one by one.  None was so large as the grocery
+bill, though that of the market was above four hundred dollars, and the
+others large, the sum total being, as Elsie had foreseen, appalling.
+It did not take long to discover that Mrs. Middleton was behind in her
+accounts for a year or more.
+
+It must have been hard for her husband to understand what had become of
+the monthly household allowance she had had in cash regularly.  Credit
+was given here and there, indeed, but always in small sums.  It must,
+too, have been hard for John Middleton to face the facts, but he stood
+the test.  He looked weary and worn--he certainly grew haggard and
+seemed to grow old; but no word of impatience escaped him.  Indeed, he
+did not appear to have an impatient thought.
+
+"This has all been too much for your aunt, Elsie," he said finally.
+"She wanted to spare me, and when the task got beyond her strength she
+wouldn't give in.  She has been a greater sufferer than any of us
+dreamed.  Apparently she has had those terrible headaches almost
+constantly, hiding the pain from every one and trying to get relief by
+taking those strong tablets.  And no doubt these accounts gave her no
+end of pain and worry, and got into confusion in spite of her."
+
+He bowed his head in his hand and sat thus some little time, aware of
+Elsie's silent sympathy.  He smiled wearily when he raised it.
+
+"We'll give it over for to-night, Elsie.  I'll see what I can do
+to-morrow and then we'll tackle them again.  I think I shall be able to
+do something, but we may have to go carefully for a time."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Kate's the most faithful soul in the world, but I doubt if she gives
+her orders carefully," he remarked.
+
+"I've started in giving them since Aunt Milly's illness," said Elsie
+shyly.  "Katy doesn't mind.  I learned how at school, and I keep them
+in a little book so as to compare them with the bills at the end of the
+month."
+
+"Elsie Moss, you are certainly a trump!" he cried.  "Do let me see your
+book, dear."
+
+She produced it and he examined the neat items with interest, praising
+her warmly and seeming greatly cheered already.  And then the girl made
+an effort and mentioned a sum of five hundred dollars which she had on
+hand and wished he would use.
+
+"My dear child!" he cried, smiling tenderly, "I wouldn't touch your
+money for the world.  The truth is, I ought to pay you a salary as
+housekeeper and pastor's assistant, though I couldn't begin to
+compensate you for the better part.  You have been like the daughter of
+the household, or such a sister as your mother was."
+
+The following day Mrs. Middleton regained consciousness, and the next
+day the minister went into Boston and made arrangements to secure the
+money to meet his obligations by reducing his life-insurance policy
+one-half and disposing of some bonds.  That evening they drew checks
+and settled everything in full.  Thereafter Elsie gave the orders,
+checked the accounts at the end of the month, and made out the checks
+for Mr. Middleton to sign.  On the whole she did remarkably well and
+reduced the general expenses considerably.  She made mistakes, but they
+were few; for her mind was of the type that takes to figures and
+details, and she was naturally methodical and accurate.  Mr. Middleton
+smiled at the neat little packets of receipted bills, docketed and
+filed, but he was extravagantly grateful to her for all that.
+
+Mrs. Middleton gained slowly.  One day, a fortnight or more after she
+was convalescent, the minister came to Elsie with a good-sized check in
+his hand made out to her.  The girl looked at him in amazement, filled
+with vague dismay.
+
+"For your winter clothes, Elsie," he explained.  "Aunt Milly reminded
+me.  In fact, she rather scolded me for not thinking of it earlier.
+And she suggests that you get one of the schoolgirls and go into Boston
+for a day's shopping on Saturday."
+
+Elsie paled--she had begun to show a pretty color of late.  This was
+her first realization of the discomfort of a false position.  Long
+since, Mr. Middleton had come to seem her real uncle, and her affection
+for him was as deep as if he had truly been; indeed, nowadays she
+seldom realized that the relationship was not real.  But to accept
+money from him--from that she shrank instinctively.  And that proved
+the difference.  For though not in the least drawn toward Cousin Julia,
+for all the other Elsie's enthusiasm, she could have accepted a larger
+sum from her without a qualm.
+
+"Oh, Uncle John, I really don't need a thing!" she cried beseechingly,
+and he had to smile.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear, I have the word of your aunt that you will need
+everything.  Kate has told her that during the summer all the fashions
+have flopped completely over, so that last year's clothes wouldn't even
+keep one warm.  Biases and bulges that formerly came at the top of the
+gown now come at the bottom; sleeves are big where they were little,
+and vice versa, and collars the same.  As for hats--there the
+transformation is so great that I pause before it."
+
+Elsie laughed.  "Well, if it's so bad as that, I'll spend my five
+hundred dollars--blow it in, as--as my friend in New York would say."
+
+"Ah, Elsie, I see through you now!" he exclaimed.  "You think I can't
+afford it, because of those big bills.  As a matter of fact, I could do
+it easily even if you weren't managing things so economically.  And,
+besides, Aunt Milly has set her heart on it.  And oh, Elsie, I'm so
+thankful to keep her with us that I should like to do something
+extraordinary, something really rash and extravagant.  Please head me
+off by letting me do this simple, natural thing which is less than
+just, and which will please Aunt Milly more than anything I could do
+for her.  Why, my dear Elsie, pray why shouldn't I do it?  Wasn't your
+mother my only sister and dearest friend?"
+
+On a sudden Elsie buried her face and wept--the only tears she had shed
+since her coming to Enderby.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Touched and perplexed, Mr. Middleton gave over for the moment; but
+presently he had his opportunity to be extravagant.  As soon as his
+wife was able to leave her room, the doctor ordered her to pass a
+portion of every day out-of-doors.  This was partly to strengthen her
+lungs and partly for the moral effect.  Doctor Fenwick feared that if
+she should revert to the long days upon her couch or bed with the
+novels and chocolates, the headache-powders or a substitute would
+follow, soon or late, with more perilous results.  She submitted to his
+dictum with resignation, being, indeed, rather captivated by the idea.
+
+Her husband and Elsie went into Boston and selected a rich and warm fur
+coat, fur-lined gloves and overshoes, and three warm, dark-colored
+serge dresses which were a great improvement upon the wrappers.  On the
+day after she received them, Mrs. Middleton spent two hours on the
+porch with ill-concealed delight.  And, thereafter, rising and
+breakfasting with the others, she passed the whole of every forenoon
+out-of-doors, not only with beneficial results but with continued
+enjoyment.
+
+The sentimental aspect, of course, appealed to her strongly.  Sometimes
+she pleased herself by fancying that the doctor had discovered that one
+of her lungs was quite gone and the other a mere fragment, and feared
+to tell her.  On such days her voice was feeble but breathed the same
+sweet patience that her face wore.  Again, it was her heart "outwearing
+its sheath," as she put it.  Always, however, she felt herself an
+interesting and picturesque invalid, and her martyr-like expression
+scarcely disguised her enjoyment of the rôle.
+
+Unconsciously, her somewhat torpid mental powers quickened.  The house
+being on the main highway, there was always something to look at
+against the background of the beautiful common, and she conceived a
+vivid interest in the passing show.  An active in lieu of a passive
+mind did its part in the improvement of her health.  The tables were
+turned.  Now it was she who told Kate that the Berrys had a fine new
+motor-truck, and had apparently disposed of their dappled greys to the
+grain-man--she only wished _they_ traded with the grain-man--couldn't
+one buy oatmeal of him?  And Rachel Stewart actually had a new dress in
+which she looked very trim, though it was too long right in the back.
+Perhaps Elsie could speak to her about it at the library?  Little
+Robbie Caldwell had begun to go to school alone since the new baby had
+come.  And they had a new perambulator and had given the old one to the
+Howes, which would make it easier for little Mattie.
+
+People passing began to run up and ask the minister's wife how she did.
+She was never very well; but she was so sweetly patient and so truly
+grateful that they lingered and their visits became frequent; children
+came on Saturdays and made children's long flattering stays; and
+presently there was never a morning when she did not have some one, and
+often she was not alone at all.  And thus it came about that for the
+first time she came to know many of her husband's parishioners with
+some familiarity.
+
+More than one reversed their judgment, and almost every one revised it.
+Mrs. Middleton was sentimental--there was no gainsaying that; she was
+rather gushing.  Yet she was truly kind-hearted, generous to a fault,
+thoughtful in many ways, with really keen intuition in certain
+directions.  As people came again and again, she guessed many a hidden
+trouble or vexation, and her sympathy was warm and very grateful; while
+now and again she had a flash of inspiration that was marvellously
+helpful.
+
+No one's revision of judgment was more sweeping, perhaps, than that of
+Elsie Marley.  Somehow her former shrinking had quite disappeared
+during the long illness, and the change in Mrs. Middleton's appearance
+helped bridge the way to a better understanding.  The old wrappers and
+tea-gowns had gone to the ragman.  The new afternoon gowns Elsie had
+selected were yet prettier than the morning ones and very becoming.
+The out-of-door air had already almost made over her complexion: her
+skin looked healthy, her color was good; and with the new fashion of
+wearing her hair, she began to look attractive and almost pretty.
+
+She had not curled her hair since her illness, and now it was soft and
+smooth and seemed warmer in color.  The nurse having parted it one day
+when Mrs. Middleton was convalescent, and coiled it upon her head
+simply, had declared it made her look like a Raphael madonna.  The
+allusion was far-fetched, but it touched Mrs. Middleton's sentimental
+fancy, and she adopted that style of hair-dressing permanently.
+
+In the morning, Elsie attended to her household duties and helped the
+minister.  She fell now into the habit of spending the early part of
+the afternoon with Mrs. Middleton, going over to the library just
+before four.  Doctor Fenwick having suggested knitting as a soothing
+indoor occupation, his patient sent for an immense quantity of
+wool--enough to keep half a dozen pairs of hands busy all winter--and
+began to make red-white-and-blue afghans for the Labrador Mission.
+Whereupon Elsie proposed reading to her while she worked.  Mrs.
+Middleton was delighted, but when Elsie got "Adam Bede" from the
+shelves, she confessed that it tired her head.  "Henry Esmond" was
+likewise too heavy, and Elsie groaned inwardly, expecting to be asked
+to read some of the paper-covered novels she was addicted to.  She said
+to herself she simply couldn't: she had never in her life read any such
+trash and she would have to excuse herself.  Then, looking up,
+something made her change her mind and decide to be a martyr.  But
+before she could speak Mrs. Middleton herself had a happy inspiration.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, I know what I'd just love to hear," she cried, "and what my
+poor head could take in as it couldn't Thackeray to-day, though when
+I'm strong I dote on him--I always took naturally to the classics.  But
+now I feel like one of Miss Alcott's books.  I suppose you have read
+them over and over?" she asked rather wistfully.
+
+Elsie confessed that she had never done so, but would be glad to make
+their acquaintance.
+
+Mrs. Middleton was truly amazed--as was the minister, indeed; for his
+sister had known them almost by heart.  They had the whole set in the
+house, and Elsie began with "Little Women" that afternoon.
+
+For the first time she was reluctant to go to the library when the hour
+approached.  It was hard to stop reading.  And they laughed together in
+an easy, natural way that was quite new to their intercourse as each
+exacted a promise from the other not to look at the story again until
+they should go on with it together.
+
+They went through the whole set that winter and sighed when they had
+come to the last volume.  Perhaps no single thing had influenced Elsie
+Marley more than the reading those sweet, wholesome stories at that
+time and in that manner.  She had already changed much, and was perhaps
+just ready for the influence.  Reading them with Mrs. Middleton, she
+was drawn to her as she would never have believed it to be possible, as
+they laughed and cried together over the pranks and trials, joys and
+sorrows of those New England boys and girls of a singularly happy
+generation.  And, unawares, she was strengthened for the hour of trial
+that was to come to her as it comes to every one that tampers with the
+laws that are inherent in the structure of the universe.
+
+Meantime, circumstances were leading on toward that hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Late one afternoon early in December, Miss Pritchard telephoned to
+Elsie to say that she would not be home to dinner as she was going
+directly from the office to see a friend who had been taken suddenly to
+a hospital.  She was to dine in town on her way back and would be late
+home.  Mr. Graham, whom Elsie would remember, had spoken of calling in
+the evening, and Miss Pritchard asked her to explain the circumstance
+to him and keep him until her return.
+
+As she turned away from the telephone, Elsie sighed deeply.  Mr.
+Graham's name stirred up uncomfortable recollections.  In any case,
+much as she had admired and liked him, she would have dreaded meeting
+him again; and to entertain him alone for an indefinite period, with
+his undivided attention focussed upon her, seemed an ordeal not only to
+be dreaded but truly to be shunned.
+
+Suppose he should refer again to her darling mother--as he surely
+would!  Acting or no acting, the girl felt that she couldn't deny her
+again.  Should she do so, it would be like the Palladium ceasing to
+stand and Troy falling.  And yet, what was she to do?  If she didn't
+hold to her statement of the summer, wouldn't she hazard spoiling
+everything, not only for herself, but for the Elsie at Enderby?
+
+Too wretched to allow herself the comfort of the window-seat in the
+bow, Elsie dropped down on the floor before one of the long, low
+windows of the adjacent side of the room, and gazing drearily out into
+the dusky street, tried to prepare herself for an impromptu scene with
+the coming guest wherein the matter of extraordinary dimples or sticky
+babies might come up at any moment and be skilfully parried.  But
+stage-fright, confusion, and tears threatened imminently, like an ugly
+nightmare, and she said to herself there was no use, she simply dared
+not face it.
+
+The temptation came to her to avoid the whole encounter by going to bed
+at once.  She certainly felt queer--almost faint; and when she should
+be missed at the dinner-table and some one came up to see what had
+happened, she could truly say she didn't feel able to see Mr. Graham,
+and send word that he was to wait for Miss Pritchard.
+
+As she considered the suggestion, reaching the point where Cousin Julia
+came in, the girl's heart smote her.  Cousin Julia would be
+startled--yes, frightened.  What a wretch she was deliberately to plan
+to cause her utterly gratuitous anxiety!  And how practised, how
+_grounded_, in deceit she had grown, to turn thereto so readily for
+help out of difficulty!  How very far she was getting from her class
+motto, "Per aspera ad astra"!  And she recollected a word, strange
+hitherto to her, which Cousin Julia had used in the summer.  She had
+mentioned her hope, as she had looked forward to the coming of the real
+Elsie Marley, that she shouldn't have, at sixteen, become _inveterate_
+in the ways of the Pritchard family.  Well, wasn't she fast becoming
+_inveterate_ in the ways of deceit?  Wasn't she, perhaps, already
+inveterate?  Truly, she must be perilously near it.  And oh, wasn't
+this a far, far worse sort of _inveterateness_ than the Pritchard sort?
+And if Cousin Julia had dreaded that, how, pray, would she feel in
+regard to this?
+
+Rising suddenly, Elsie rushed into her own room as if she were running
+away from the visions she had conjured.  As she made herself tidy for
+dinner, her desperation grasped at a third expedient, a middle way.
+Couldn't she get around the difficulty by preventing or forestalling
+the introduction of any doubtful topic into the conversation?  During
+the time that would elapse between Mr. Graham's arrival and Cousin
+Julia's return--three-quarters of an hour at the longest, she
+supposed--she would keep him from bringing up any matter of
+resemblances, of big dimples, of madonnas, or sticky babies.  She would
+monopolize the conversation, so far as she could, and direct it all the
+time.  At the risk of utterly losing the good opinion of one of Cousin
+Julia's most valued friends, of appearing forward, conceited, tiresome,
+she would rattle on like the empty-headed society girl in certain
+modern plays.  She would introduce utterly impersonal subjects, such
+as--at the moment she couldn't think of anything but prohibition, which
+would last about two minutes--and chatter foolishly and fast upon them,
+one after another.  Then, if she exhausted them and all else failed,
+she would make such pointed and brazen references to her own singing
+that he would be obliged to ask her to sing--and once going, she could
+easily keep that up until Cousin Julia came to the rescue.  And she
+certainly wouldn't sing "Elsie Marley" nor anything that would in any
+way remind Mr. Graham of it.  Either she would shock that elegant
+gentleman's taste with the ugliest of ragtime, or she would inflict him
+with a succession of the operatic selections she had taken up with
+Madame Valentini.  The latter choice would probably, upon Miss
+Pritchard's arrival, serve to bring up the unhappy matter of her
+abandoning the stage for music, but that would be a minor evil.
+
+Mr. Graham appeared promptly at the hour Miss Pritchard had predicted,
+and Elsie greeted him in the rôle she had chosen and proceeded to give
+him a gushing account of their journey back to New York at the end of
+the summer.  The artist, who had looked forward to seeing again the
+charming little creature who had been such a vision of grace and
+loveliness as she had sung and danced on the hotel veranda that summer
+day, was surprised and dismayed at the change, the almost distressing
+change, that had come upon the girl meantime.  At first he took it for
+granted that it was the coarsening effect of studying for the stage,
+but very shortly he had decided otherwise.  Whatever his skill in
+reproduction, Charles Graham had the eye, the mind, and the heart of
+the portrait-painter; and now he read the little actress's behavior
+with a good measure of precision.  Her restlessness, her chattering,
+the high, unpleasing pitch of her naturally lovely low voice, her
+assumption of the manner and speech of the blasé young person of the
+stage, he saw to be primarily the cover of nervousness.  He understood
+that the girl was troubled about something, was perhaps suffering, and
+tried to conceal it in this way.  Moreover, he felt that, whatever it
+was, she was bearing it altogether alone, hiding it from everybody.
+
+So far, so good.  But presently he jumped to a false conclusion.  As he
+referred casually to Miss Pritchard as an _inveterate_ optimist,
+suddenly all the color died out of the girl's face, the shadow in her
+eyes became momentarily genuine distress, and the bravado dropped from
+her manner.  It struck him that there was some misunderstanding between
+his friend and her young cousin.  And the pain this realization brought
+him was curiously acute.
+
+"But, my dear child," he exclaimed earnestly, "hers is no cheap
+optimism.  Miss Pritchard's wise, sane outlook upon life is the
+courageous, positive optimism of the seasoned soldier.  She has known
+hardship and suffering, and it is victory over them that makes her
+serenity and strength so impressive."
+
+As the artist paused, he glanced with searching kindness at the girl
+who was such a mere child, after all.  But he seemed to feel a touch of
+hardness or of obstinacy in the way she set her lips.  He couldn't bear
+the idea of her misunderstanding Miss Pritchard.
+
+"I wonder, Miss Marley, if you ever heard about Miss Pritchard's
+love-story?" he asked rather hesitatingly.  "It all happened of course
+before you were born; but your family may have spoken of it to you?"
+
+Elsie raised her eyes quickly, regardless of the fact that there were
+tears in them.
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Graham, I never knew--anything about it," she almost
+gasped.
+
+"Then I believe I will tell you," he said gravely.  "If ever you
+should--well, it makes one understand why Miss Pritchard so impresses
+even a chance stranger with the strength of her personality."
+
+He sighed.  "It was years ago.  Miss Pritchard was a newspaper woman at
+the time--the most brilliant reporter, man or woman, in the city, we
+thought her, in the little coterie of journalists and artists to which
+we both belonged.  More than one of us would have given all he had to
+win her love.  I don't mind saying to you, Miss Marley, that it was
+because I could not win it that I have never married.  She bestowed it,
+however, upon an older man and a more brilliant than any of us.  At
+that time he was city editor of one of the big dailies; he had invested
+a moderate inheritance wisely, and was worth millions when he died.
+Miss Pritchard was in her late twenties, and though she was called
+plain, possessed rare beauty of expression that is of course the
+highest beauty of all; and it was no mere girl's heart that she gave
+that man.  She loved him with the intensity and maturity of a generous,
+noble woman.  He returned the love and he appreciated her fineness; and
+yet he was unworthy of her.  In the course of his business life, at a
+certain stage of his career, he did something which, while it wasn't
+dishonorable, wasn't strictly honorable.  By means of this action,
+which no one else of the few who knew it deemed reprehensible, he
+gained prestige for his paper as well as for himself; but he lost Julia
+Pritchard.  Had he yielded in a moment of temptation, though it would
+still have hurt her cruelly, I believe she would have overlooked his
+fault.  But the act was deliberate; and though he regretted it bitterly
+and to his dying day, it was only because Miss Pritchard looked at it
+as she did.  Of the act itself, he never repented."
+
+
+When Miss Pritchard came in, she noticed at once that Elsie looked very
+pale--almost ill.  After greeting her old friend warmly, she turned
+anxiously to the girl.
+
+"Has it been a hard day, honey?" she asked tenderly.
+
+"Oh, yes, Cousin Julia," Elsie returned mournfully.  And Mr. Graham
+felt not only that his suspicion had been correct but that his relating
+the story had truly had the desired effect.
+
+"I think I'll go now, and--write a letter," the girl faltered.
+
+"Go by all means, dear," Miss Pritchard bade her, "but don't write the
+letter to-night unless it's imperative.  I have tickets for 'The
+Good-Natured Man' for to-morrow night, so if you can put off the
+letter, hop right into bed and get a good rest in order to be fresh for
+it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+It was Sunday afternoon, nearly a week later.  Elsie sat alone by the
+window with a writing-tablet in her lap, gazing out at the row of
+houses across the street.  But though the new-fallen snow on roof,
+cornice, and iron grating transformed the familiar scene, and though
+snow in such profusion and splendor was a new and wonderful experience
+to her, the girl wasn't really seeing the landscape any more than she
+was writing a letter.  Realizing the fact after half an hour of stony
+silence, she rose, dropped her writing materials, and crossing the
+room, threw herself down on the hearth-rug with a gesture of despair.
+
+It wasn't merely because she couldn't write the letter--which, by the
+way, was that which she had given as an excuse for withdrawing on the
+evening of Mr. Graham's call.  It was true that writing to her
+stepmother--something that had been growing increasingly difficult for
+some time--had become practically impossible since that evening.  But
+that was, in a way, a minor detail.  For everything, _everything_ had
+become impossible since the hour she had heard his recital of that
+experience of Cousin Julia's youth.
+
+"There's no use," the girl cried out within herself, "I simply cannot
+stand it.  I can't go on so.  Cousin Julia's gone to a funeral.  I'll
+have one while she's gone and bury everything deep down.  There's
+nothing else to do.  Now that I know for deadly certain that Cousin
+Julia would hate me if she knew, I can't go on being--as I am.  Why,
+what _he_ did wasn't dishonest.  It was only, as Mr. Graham said, less
+than honest.  And look at me!"
+
+It was true that Cousin Julia hadn't _hated_ him, even when he wasn't
+sorry about the wrong itself, Elsie repeated; for this was by no means
+the first or second time she had gone over the matter since that night;
+indeed, she had scarcely thought of anything else since.  Still, she
+wouldn't have anything more to do with him, and must have despised him,
+which was worse.  And it was also true that she would even have
+forgiven him utterly if he had sinned in a moment of temptation.  And
+again the girl lamented bitterly that she hadn't done something even
+worse if it could have been committed in hot blood, and therefore
+followed by repentance, confession, and forgiveness.  Only last evening
+Cousin Julia had read some verses from Browning which had filled her
+heart with a longing that was like remorse--something about a "certain
+moment" which "cuts the deed off, calls the glory from the grey."  Were
+her wrong-doing only of the sort to be neatly cut off in that manner,
+how gladly would she own up.  How certain would she be of obtaining
+full forgiveness, and how blissfully could she go on thence-forward!
+
+But hers wasn't that sort.  Hers was the sort that goes on and on and
+on.  After making the beginning, there was no hope, any more than there
+was of stopping a ball when one starts it to rolling down a steep,
+smooth hill.  And besides, it was of the very nature of that which had
+hurt Cousin Julia so cruelly in the case of her lover of twenty-odd
+years ago.  For it was for Elsie's own advantage that she had entered
+upon the course of deceit, and it was she that was profiting by it,
+daily and hourly.  She had imposed herself upon one whom she had no
+claim whatever upon for the sake of making things easier and pleasanter
+for herself--of gaining her own way.  And wasn't she continuing the
+imposition largely for the same reason?
+
+No, she wasn't doing that--at least not now.  Absolutely selfish as her
+motive may have been in the first place, these last days had shown her
+that another element was now involved.  Her longing to be an actress
+remained the same.  Her distaste for the idea of life at the parsonage
+in Enderby had been increased almost to horror by the glimpses she had
+had through her friend's letters of what seemed to her its dreary and
+complacent domesticity.  Nevertheless, at this moment she felt that she
+would give up the former and accept the latter without a murmur if she
+could thereby measure up to Cousin Julia's standard, and yet, in the
+process, hurt neither her nor Elsie Marley.
+
+But there was no blinking the fact that Cousin Julia's heart was so
+bound up in her that the discovery of her duplicity would wound her
+cruelly; indeed, Elsie couldn't bear to contemplate what it would mean
+to her.  As for Elsie Marley--she was apparently, for her part, equally
+bound up in the Middletons, and the shock and change would be terribly
+painful to her.  Moreover, she was, in a way, almost as innocent as
+Cousin Julia herself.  Her masquerading was only masquerading.  She had
+only accepted, in her sweet, docile manner, her part in the plan that
+Elsie had made to further her own interests.  The wrong was all her
+own, truly; but any attempt to undo it would hurt the innocent Elsie at
+least equally.
+
+What could she do?  Was she really, as it seemed, bound hand and foot?
+The girl wrung her hands, and there was no thought of the dramatic in
+the gesture.  Must her punishment be to keep on and on with her
+wrong-doing, with the consciousness, increasingly more painful, of
+deceiving Cousin Julia, of being, not only _not_ the person she
+believed her to be, but exactly the sort of person she most despised?
+Could that be her fate?
+
+Looking ahead, Elsie said to herself she couldn't stand it--not now.
+Before, she had had her uncomfortable moments; but since that talk with
+Mr. Graham she had had no moment that wasn't agony.  He had roused her
+out of her dream of making things right by calling them so.  And yet,
+less than ever since that knowledge had come to her, was she ready to
+hurt Cousin Julia, as confession or discovery would hurt her.  Could it
+be that it was impossible for her to straighten out her own conscience
+without wounding the hearts of others?  Was there no way whereby she
+could make things right without involving Elsie Marley and Cousin Julia
+in misery?
+
+Staring wretchedly into the fire, the girl was unaware that she was
+grappling with a big moral problem: that her personal perplexity was a
+part of the old problem of evil: that what daunted her was the old
+paradox that has confronted mankind since before the time of Job.  She
+understood dimly that the lines between good and ill do not converge
+any more than unmoral geometrical parallels; but she still felt that it
+must be possible to limit the consequences of wrong-doing to the
+evil-doer so that the innocent should wholly escape.
+
+But what, short of her own death, would bring that about?  In that
+event, indeed, Cousin Julia's natural grief would not be bitterly
+painful; and Elsie Marley would simply go on as she was.  But she
+wasn't likely to die, and besides, wretched as she was, she didn't want
+to.  And even if she did, she wouldn't be so wicked or so cowardly as
+to do anything to hasten her end.
+
+But her consideration of that solution of her problem made way for
+another.  On a sudden a substitute solution presented itself to her
+mind.  Having gone so far, it was but natural that the girl's dramatic
+instinct and her familiarity with romance and melodrama should suggest
+something that would answer the purpose of death without occasioning
+the same measure of pain--namely, her own disappearance.  And the
+suggestion no sooner appeared than it was accepted.  Before Miss
+Pritchard returned the idea was already so familiar as to seem to be of
+long standing.
+
+Her mind was quick and her invention fertile, and before she slept that
+night her plans were well along.  She was to lose herself
+utterly--where and how she would determine later.  She would, at the
+proper moment, disappear absolutely and mysteriously, yet not without
+leaving behind her satisfactory and reassuring explanation for the two
+persons to whom it would mean most--nay, three--she mustn't forget her
+stepmother.  She would write to Elsie Marley that she had felt obliged
+to take the step for the sake of her own future, and would entreat her
+to go on as she was and never to let any one know what had happened.
+And she would leave a long letter for Cousin Julia to discover on her
+return from the office the day of her departure.  She would tell her
+how she loved her--better than any one else she had ever known except
+her mother--and how she had never been so happy in her life as with
+her.  Then she would make the same enigmatical but satisfactory
+reference to her future and how it made the step imperative, adding
+that if Cousin Julia could understand, she would agree that she
+couldn't have done otherwise.
+
+When she had reached this point, Elsie's heart sank.  Disappearance
+might be preferable to death, but it seemed as if it were going to be
+quite as painful.  But only for her, and after all, that was where the
+pain belonged.  The girl cried herself to sleep that night, but she
+woke next morning with a sense of relief so active and positive that it
+seemed like refreshment and almost like joy.  She realized why it was:
+her mind hadn't been wholly at ease before since the day in the summer
+when she had first seen Mr. Graham, and for the past days she had lived
+in torture.  The removal of the burden was almost like unsnapping the
+cover of a Jack-in-the-box.  She was going to be good and straight and
+honest again.  She was going to make amends, so far as in her lay, for
+the wrong she had done.  She was going--_away_!
+
+Here Elsie faltered.  But she sprang from bed before depression could
+swoop down upon her.  And while she was dressing a suggestion came to
+her that sent her to the breakfast-table with a serene and even joyful
+face.  It had come to her that she would better not attempt to carry
+out her resolve until after Christmas, lest she mar Cousin Julia's or
+Elsie Marley's enjoyment of the day.  She would act immediately after
+Christmas, beginning the New Year with a clean slate.  And meantime she
+would devote herself to making every one she knew as happy as possible,
+particularly Cousin Julia.
+
+And she would be happy herself.  There would be sufficient unhappiness
+coming to her later to pay her in full for all the mischief she had
+done; and she saw no harm in putting the matter from her thoughts for
+the interim, and making the most of the eighteen days.  Then, Christmas
+being over, one day, or two at most, would suffice her to decide where
+to go and to make her preparations.  Another day would give her time to
+write the letters with due deliberation, and on the third she would be
+off.
+
+Wherefore, her resolve being fixed and her conscience accordingly
+clear, she adventured the first precious day with a light heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+Elsie Marley had never been happier than as she prepared for her first
+Christmas at Enderby.  But that festival seemed the high-water mark of
+her happiness.  The close of the day found her strangely depressed and
+thereafter she had more frequent periods of being ill at ease.
+
+She had learned to knit and had spent most of her leisure time for
+several weeks in making a soft white woollen shawl for Mrs. Middleton,
+into which went a rather surprising amount of affection.  She went into
+Boston with one of the high-school girls and bought a charming little
+plaid woollen frock for Mattie Howe and a beautiful doll to fill the
+little mother's arms when they were not occupied with a real baby.  For
+Charles Augustus, she selected an harmonicon, and toys for the other
+three Howes.  She wanted to get a warm winter coat for her staunch ally
+Kate, the jacket she wore being short and so thin as to require an
+undergarment that spoiled what little shape it had.  On the day before
+she was to go into town, she consulted Mrs. Middleton.
+
+Thus far Elsie hadn't accepted a penny of pocket-money, and the
+Middletons were filled with dismay to have her spend her own money so
+lavishly.  But Mr. Middleton had told his wife that he meant to give
+Elsie a check for Christmas, which being also her birthday, made a
+large one legitimate.  Consequently, at this time Mrs. Middleton did
+not remonstrate.  She only called herself heartless for not noticing
+poor Katy's need and so forestalling Elsie.
+
+After she had sufficiently exclaimed over it, she asked what the girl
+meant to get.
+
+"I thought of black broadcloth, rather plain.  Should you think that
+would be right, Aunt Milly?"
+
+"Quite right, dear.  It would be, of course, the proper thing," Mrs.
+Middleton returned, "but I can't help wondering whether Katy herself
+wouldn't fancy something not so plain and rather more stylish.  After
+all, we can hardly expect her to share our quiet tastes."
+
+Elsie didn't resent the _our_ nor question the fact.  She was only very
+grateful.
+
+"Oh, Aunt Milly, I'm so glad I spoke to you!" the girl cried with
+unwonted warmth, for she felt immediately the cogency of Mrs.
+Middleton's remark.  "What do you think she would like?  I might have
+her go in with me and pick it out herself, only----"
+
+"Only half the fun would be lost not to have her surprised on Christmas
+morning?  I don't know what she would like, I'm sure, but leave it to
+me and I'll find out from Katy herself and without letting her mistrust
+anything.  Leave it to your Aunt Milly, dear.  She is of so little use
+that she has to seize upon whatever she can discover."
+
+And truly she learned the desire of Katy's heart and reported to Elsie
+that night.  Green was Kate's first choice for color and blue next, and
+she admired especially a long, loose garment with "one of them fur
+collars that folds up like an accordion or a gentleman's opera-hat."
+And Elsie succeeded in finding the very thing--not a difficult task,
+Kate's choice being the latest fashion and very common.
+
+Though her gifts gave extraordinary pleasure in every instance, the
+reaction upon Elsie herself was yet greater.  Her satisfaction was
+increased by the fact that Mr. Middleton told her it was the happiest
+Christmas he remembered, and that her being with them was largely what
+made it so.
+
+"Besides which," he added, "I realize that most of the other factors
+and changes that contribute are really due to you and to your
+influence, Elsie dear."
+
+That was very precious to Elsie, but it couldn't ward off the reaction
+that was to follow.  The lavishness of the Middletons' gifts to her,
+which they justified by reminding her that it was her birthday (she had
+quite forgotten that Elsie Moss celebrated hers on Christmas!), quite
+weighed down her spirits.  On a sudden she seemed to herself to be
+accepting what didn't belong to her, what wasn't meant for her.
+Despite the placid way in which she had gone on acting the part of the
+real niece, she pulled up and shied, so to speak, at this instance of
+extravagant giving and a false birthday.  It seemed as if she could not
+bear it, could not accept the money, the jewelry, furs, books, and
+other gifts showered upon her.
+
+But there was no way out.  She had to accept everything, and she had to
+keep everything but the money.  That she sent directly to Elsie Moss,
+explaining that she couldn't possibly accept it, as it was especially
+for her Christmas birthday.  But Elsie Moss, probably with her friend's
+recent request for the five hundred dollars in mind, sent it directly
+back.  Whereupon she wrote again, saying that she had more money than
+she knew what to do with, and that she would be broken-hearted if Elsie
+returned it a second time.
+
+
+The letter in which Elsie Moss returned the money was written on the
+very day when the girl had planned to write the letter announcing her
+disappearance.  It was only a short note, however, and contained
+nothing of that nature.  Her next letter, in which she reluctantly
+agreed to accept half of the Christmas-birthday gift, was long and
+surprising, but delightfully so rather than mysteriously or painfully.
+
+Her Christmas had been quite as happy as that of the other Elsie.
+Indeed, her greater capacity for blissful and ecstatic joy would have
+rendered it even happier but for the valedictory character all its
+details held secretly for her.  Her youth and temperament, however,
+which had carried her through the days following her momentous
+decision, upheld her spirits even when she approached the brink of the
+crisis.  Her determination to right the wrong she had done at what she
+believed the first possible moment had cleared her conscience so
+completely that in the interim she had been able to enjoy the fruits of
+that wrong-doing as never before since the very first.
+
+She had herself made her gift for Cousin Julia and little things for
+Miss Peacock and nearly everybody in the house.  On Christmas Eve she
+sang in the parlor for Miss Peacock, the servants, and those remaining
+in the boarding-house over the holidays.  First she went through the
+carols.  Then she sang the favorite song or songs of every one present,
+including several of Miss Pritchard's.  And though the programme was
+haphazard it wasn't motley--only simple and old-fashioned and full of
+sweetness and melody.  The girl must have been dull indeed not to have
+guessed something of the exquisite and genuine pleasure she gave.
+
+In truth she lay long awake, thrilled by the remembrance.  It had been
+her swan-song, she told herself, half-tremulously, half-buoyed by the
+excitement of it all.  For she was passing out of their lives, in very
+truth--even out of Cousin Julia's, and--forever.  And Cousin Julia,
+who, Elsie knew had basked in the enjoyment of the others, would have
+it for a happy memory, when----
+
+But she mustn't go further now.  It was hardly safe.  To-morrow was
+Christmas Day.  Until the day after, she wasn't going to think ahead.
+Only on the 26th of December would she begin to make definite, final
+preparations.  She wouldn't spoil tomorrow by looking beyond it.
+
+Christmas was a wonderful day.  Elsie did not realize how delirious her
+enjoyment was nor how painfully she was keyed up because of her
+underlying apprehension of coming agony.  Neither did she understand it
+when she waked suddenly from sleep the following morning, feeling so
+exhausted as to be almost ill, and with a terrible sinking at heart
+which settled into depression the like of which she had never
+experienced before.
+
+It might have seemed that she was in no condition to complete the
+proposed plans.  But as a matter of fact, there was little to do.
+Though the girl hadn't deliberately or consciously looked ahead, the
+matter had been in her mind; and now when she came to consider the
+question as to where she should go, she found it practically settled.
+When she brought up the idea of going to California and trying to get a
+chance as a moving-picture actress, she was ready with the objection
+that the films were most likely to reach New York and that her dimples
+would give her away at once.  Her wisest move would be to take refuge
+in some place equally distant from her stepmother in San Francisco and
+from New York.  Which, of course, was no other than Chicago.  She had
+enough money to take her thither and take care of her until she should
+get a start--in some vaudeville house as she hoped.  And then she would
+be truly lost--forever, in all probability, and perhaps in more senses
+than one.
+
+
+Miss Pritchard was struck by the change in Elsie that morning at the
+breakfast-table.  The child looked almost ill.  She said nothing to
+her, however, feeling that it was the reaction from the excitement of
+Christmas, and believing she would be better for the distraction of the
+school.  But she couldn't dismiss the matter from her mind all day, and
+the more she thought of it the more serious it seemed.  She realized
+that Elsie hadn't looked merely tired or even exhausted.  It was worse
+than that.  For the first time since she had come East, Miss Pritchard
+thought she saw in the child indication of genuine, positive suffering.
+
+She decided that she herself had been gravely remiss.  The strain of
+giving herself so generously and whole-heartedly had worn upon the girl
+disastrously, and--she had had warning and hadn't heeded.  Until
+recently, it is true, Elsie's blithe buoyancy had seemed always the
+normal, unconscious, almost effortless efflorescence of a lovely
+nature, as natural as playful grace to a kitten, as simple as
+breathing.  But once or twice back in the fall, Miss Pritchard had been
+startled into wondering if the sweet instrument wasn't in danger of
+being strained through constant playing upon it, and to be fearful that
+Elsie might truly be rarely sensitive in a personal, as she seemed to
+be in an artistic, way.
+
+The first time when this had presented itself to her mind had been a
+matter of a month or six weeks previous.  At that time she had seemed
+to discover a shadow in the sparkling eyes and a transient pensive
+droop of the lips.  Then on the night of Charley Graham's visit, she
+had been frightened by the worn look upon the beloved little face, and
+had feared some definite trouble.
+
+It was not long after the affair of the five hundred dollars, and Miss
+Pritchard had wondered if the difficulty might not be somehow connected
+with that.  She had just reached the decision to question the girl when
+suddenly the weariness, the sadness, the pensiveness, the shadow,
+vanished utterly, leaving Elsie not only herself again, but even more
+glowingly and infectiously happy and buoyant than before.  And from
+that moment until this morning at the breakfast-table she had remained
+so.
+
+It was natural that now Miss Pritchard's mind should hark back to those
+former suspicions.  All day she vacillated between the fear that Elsie
+was beset by some secret trouble or by the solicitations of some
+unscrupulous person, and the apprehension that she was on the verge of
+nervous exhaustion.  Her face was anxious indeed as she left the office
+that night.
+
+She opened the door of her sitting-room with strange sinking of heart.
+Then she almost gasped.  Her breath was almost taken away by sheer
+amazement.  Elsie was waiting for her--yet another Elsie.  For, radiant
+and sparkling as the girl had been, she had never before been like
+this.  She was fairly dazzling.  If Miss Pritchard hadn't been almost
+stunned, she would have made some feeble remark about getting out her
+smoked glasses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+"My dear child, what has happened?" Miss Pritchard cried as Elsie
+relieved her of her wraps and bag, and she dropped weakly into a chair.
+"I believe your dimples have actually doubled in size since morning.
+It's positively uncanny, you know, anything like that.  Suppose it
+should go further?"
+
+"Like the Cheshire cat's grin?  Well--we should worry, Cousin Julia,
+dearest.  But--what do you think has happened, truly?"
+
+"Your friend from Enderby hasn't appeared?"
+
+"No, this is another sort of bliss.  This is--well, dearest darling,
+it's just that Mr. Coates has started me on something that--that I
+could go on the stage with!"
+
+Miss Pritchard's face fell.  "Oh, Elsie, child, what do you mean?" she
+asked anxiously.  The dimples disappeared but though Elsie spoke
+quietly, still there was that wonderful lilt in her voice.
+
+"Just this.  He called me into his office this morning and spoke to me
+about--my specialty, you know, 'Elsie Marley, Honey.'  One day back in
+the fall I was showing off with that to some of the girls that were
+eating their luncheon together, and he happened by and made me repeat
+it.  To-day he said he had had it in mind ever since, and had found
+that he could adapt it and change the music and make it into a regular
+vaudeville feature.  He thinks it's a real crackerjack.  He's going to
+begin right away to give me training in it."
+
+For a moment Miss Pritchard couldn't speak.  Then she had to stifle
+what started to be a groan.  "Oh, my dear child!" she exclaimed.
+
+"It seemed such a lovely ending to a lovely Christmas," said Elsie
+wistfully.  The girl was absolutely carried away by the excitement of
+it.  It didn't even occur to her--until she was in bed that night--what
+the "ending" of the lovely Christmas was to have been--the ending that
+alone was to justify her enjoyment of the holiday and of the days since
+she had weighed her action in the balance and found it wanting.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, really when you understand, it's simply wonderful,"
+she went on eagerly.  "I'm the only one picked out thus far, and you
+know most of the others are related to the profession, too.  And even
+if that thing is so old, I can't help liking it.  Most of the things
+_are_ rather awful, I must confess."
+
+"But the first year--the first six months!  I never dreamed of such a
+thing!" Miss Pritchard cried.
+
+"Neither did I, darling dear; that's what makes me so wild with joy,"
+said the girl softly.
+
+Touched and almost remorseful, Miss Pritchard kissed her fondly.  But
+she couldn't restrain a sigh.
+
+"Surely it doesn't mean--going on the stage?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh, no indeed, Cousin Julia, at least not right off.  Only--well, just
+being ready if anything should happen, you know."
+
+Then suddenly at the thought of that wonderful eventuality, the girl's
+dimples came out and her eyes so shone that Miss Pritchard felt as if
+she should burst into tears.  It seemed as if she couldn't bear it!
+Again she lamented inwardly.  Why should the child have had that crazy
+desire for the stage?  Why shouldn't it have been a passion for
+music--for opera, indeed?  Nearly every one who had heard Elsie sing on
+Christmas Eve had spoken to Miss Pritchard of the girl's wonderful
+voice, and the question of her cultivating that instead of working for
+the stage; and Miss Pritchard had yesterday decided to make a fresh
+plea to Elsie to that effect.  What joy would it not be to share the
+child's enthusiasm, had it been a matter of music!
+
+However, it would be worse than futile to drag in any such thing at
+this moment, she saw clearly.  Carried away by her delight, Elsie would
+have no ears and no heart for anything else.  Miss Pritchard told
+herself she must wait for the infatuation to cool--and when that might
+be, she couldn't in the least foresee.  Would it ever happen in truth?
+
+As she couldn't possibly force herself to rejoice with Elsie, and
+couldn't bear not to share in her joy, as they had come to share
+everything, she suddenly proposed attending a concert that evening to
+be given by a visiting orchestra from the Middle West.  Elsie entered
+into the plan with spirit, and they went off gayly together.  Miss
+Pritchard knew that Elsie was dreaming dreams to the strains of Bach
+and Schumann, and wished with all her heart they were another sort of
+vision; still, it was a happy evening for both where it had threatened
+to be uncomfortable.  But on the night when Elsie Moss had expected to
+lie awake in agony because of the imminence of her parting with all she
+loved most, she had only a brief moment of compunction, which she
+dismissed easily, falling asleep in the midst of radiant and enchanting
+visions of life on the stage.  It was Miss Pritchard whose rest was
+troubled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The answer of the real Elsie Marley to the letter in which her friend
+enthusiastically related her advance toward the stage might have
+indicated how far she had gone since the day on the train when she had
+opined that the girl who thinks of becoming an actress has to undergo
+much that isn't nice.  It so sympathized and rejoiced with the other in
+her happiness that it was solace and inspiration at once to Elsie Moss,
+who was living at a high and unhealthy pitch of excitement, and
+welcomed, indeed craved greedily, anything in the way of approval or
+sympathy.  For the girl feared that if ever she should stop to
+consider, she should find her heart a black well of wickedness.  But
+that she wouldn't do.  She _would not_ stop to consider.  She had her
+chance now, the chance she had waited for all her life, and she wasn't
+going to hazard it.  She was going to make the most of it, let her
+conscience go hang!
+
+
+For her part, the real Elsie Marley was led at this time to consider,
+and the more seriously.  To her inexperience, it looked as if Elsie
+Moss were very near the stage, as if another year might find her a
+fixed star in that firmament.  And what then?  She would be independent
+of Cousin Julia and the boarding-house, and might she not want to
+resume her own name and make herself known to her own relations?  Or
+would she, out of her abounding affection for Cousin Julia, suffer the
+present state of affairs to continue?
+
+The girl pondered long and rather sadly over the dilemma, but always
+inclined to the belief that the latter was really the only possible
+sequel.  It wasn't that the question of what would become of her in the
+former instance was all-important; it wasn't that Elsie Moss would
+probably not think of any other course of action.  It was the fact that
+some one very much like herself was needed here at Enderby.  Mr.
+Middleton depended upon her.  Mrs. Middleton would hardly know how to
+get along without her.  Katy counted strongly upon her sympathy and
+co-operation.  And even Mattie Howe and Dick Clinton would miss her.
+
+And, after all, didn't the fact of Elsie Moss's securing her heart's
+desire almost immediately, together with the working out of her own
+presence at Enderby to the satisfaction of a few very dear people,
+quite justify the exchange they had made?  Hadn't it really proved a
+beneficent idea?
+
+Arrived at this point, the girl was reassured.  The only difficulty was
+that the question didn't stay settled.  It came up again and yet again
+and the whole argument had to be redebated.  And finally she came to
+the conclusion that her wisest plan was to ward it off.  Like the other
+Elsie, she decided to avoid meditation and plunge into action.  And
+though the sort and amount of action to which she was limited wouldn't
+have seemed action at all to the other girl, it answered her purpose,
+nevertheless.  Elsie Marley threw herself into the performance of the
+various duties she had assumed with more fervor than ever, and
+presently had recovered a good measure of her former serenity.
+
+But it seemed only to have been regained to be threatened.
+
+One night early in February, when Miss Stewart relieved her and she
+left the library, she found Dick Clinton waiting outside.  He often did
+this, for he and Elsie had become good friends since the day he had
+first appeared at the library and asked for help.  She had seen him at
+all the parties of the high-school pupils which she had attended, and
+had gone coasting on his double-runner with other girls a number of
+times.  And no Sunday passed that he didn't seek her after service and
+walk home with her.
+
+He was strangely silent to-night.  His first shyness having worn off,
+he had since always had plenty to say.  Elsie was always quiet, and not
+a word was spoken until they were next door to the parsonage.
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, would you just as lief walk back a little way?" he
+asked suddenly.  "I had something I wanted to say to you, and there's
+the parsonage and I haven't begun.  I won't make you late for your
+supper--or dinner, whatever it is."
+
+Rather surprised, Elsie complied willingly, and they had no sooner
+turned than he began.
+
+"It's something I've done," he blurted out.  "I feel sort of--like
+thirty cents, you know.  I should sort of like to know--what you think
+of it."
+
+"Whatever it is, I don't believe you need to feel that way about it,
+Dick," she said gently.
+
+"I do, just the same, though I'm not sure I should have before I knew
+you, Miss Moss, you're so awfully sort of square, you see," he owned.
+"I'm glad anyhow it ain't so bad but what I can tell you.  This is what
+it is: one of the other fellows that's about my height and build wanted
+to go to the motor-show in Boston last week and his dad wouldn't let
+him.  He's simply wild over aeroplanes, and there was a model there,
+and when the last night came, he got me to help him out.  He pretended
+to go to bed about a quarter of nine.  Instead, he sneaked me up the
+back-stairs and left me in his room, and he caught the nine o'clock for
+Boston.  I went to bed and put out the light.  After a while his mother
+put her head in the door and asked if I was asleep, and then came in
+and kissed me.  About two o'clock he came back, climbed in the window,
+and I vamoosed.  It seemed all right, and I couldn't have refused him,
+and yet I felt queer."
+
+"I should think you were innocent enough.  It seems to me the other boy
+had all the responsibility of it," Elsie observed.
+
+"That's just what I thought.  And I'm dead sure it would only have
+seemed fun last winter.  And I'd have to do it again if he asked me.
+But--you know that little Howe kid that's trying to stretch himself out
+to get big enough to be a boy scout?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Charles Augustus Howe."
+
+"Well, he's always asking me things, and taking my answers so solemnly,
+and yesterday he wanted to know if I thought it was wrong to tell a lie
+to yourself in the dark.  I tried to reason out the thing with him
+and--great snakes, but it made me feel queer all over!  Talking to that
+kid about truth and honor and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I
+sort of hypnotized myself; but afterward it made me feel cheap.
+And--and there you are!"
+
+"But you didn't get anything out of it for yourself, Dick," said Elsie.
+
+"Nothing but feeling cheap before that kid."
+
+"Then I don't believe it's wrong for you--only for the other boy," she
+averred.
+
+They turned.  Nothing more was said until they reached the parsonage.
+
+"Much obliged, Miss Moss," the boy said quietly.  "And that's good to
+remember--not getting anything out of it for yourself.  Good night."
+
+She heard him whistling cheerily as he went on his way.  But her own
+heart was heavy.  Not to get anything out of it for oneself!  Oh, what
+would Dick Clinton think, what would every one think, to know that she
+wasn't Elsie Moss at all!  He had been sadly troubled because he had
+played the part of another one night--a silent part that required no
+spoken words.  What would he think to learn that she was an interloper
+at the parsonage?  It was in part, it is true, for the sake of another.
+But it was also in part--in large part, now--for her own sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+One evening in the early spring, during the interval between the films
+in a motion-picture theatre on lower Broadway, a thrill of excitement
+went through the audience, which was of the sort that desires to live
+on thrills.
+
+Perhaps to-night, however, there was reasonable excuse for genuine
+anticipation.  For the song-dance specialty that was about to take
+place was of a different order from anything that had been known in
+that theatre heretofore.  There was real grace and beauty in the
+dancing, genuine melody in the voice of the singer, and something sweet
+and wholesome about the whole performance.
+
+The act was entitled "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  And one
+whispered to another that the best of it was, that that was her real
+name--honestly it was--at least it had always been her stage name, so
+that probably the song had been written especially for her--and she
+that young--and it wasn't real ragtime either.  And her dimples were
+real too; possibly they were enlarged and deepened by the make-up, but
+she had them off the stage.
+
+Heavy applause greeted the entrance of the actress.
+
+She was only a slip of a girl--a mere child she looked, partly, they
+said, because of her hair--the "Castle bob," you know.  She tripped
+lightly before the footlights, smiled charmingly as she put the
+question of the first line, and sang the song through with dancing
+between the stanzas and dramatic rendering of the lines.  She smiled
+and sparkled and dimpled; but though she was so pretty and piquant and
+coquettish, so graceful and vivacious, so completely the actress, there
+was a look of youth and innocence about her that pleased the blasé
+audience, and touched one alien member of it to tears.
+
+Once and again was Elsie Marley recalled to repeat the act.  The young
+actress had other things prepared, but though they might be well
+received, they were followed by clamor for "Elsie Marley, Honey," until
+only the forcible resumption of the pictures availed to quiet it.
+
+And on Saturday night at the end of the second week, even that did not
+avail.  The last appearance of that bill having been announced, the
+audience could not let Elsie Marley go.  Finally, the manager came out
+and announced that Miss Marley had been engaged for another week.  And
+again, while there was intense satisfaction elsewhere, to one person
+the statement was like a blow.
+
+In truth, on the day when Elsie had announced the opportunity that had
+been offered her of appearing in a "specialty" on the stage of a
+second-class cinema theatre, Miss Pritchard had been aghast.  The
+chance had come through the school in the person of Mr. Coates, who had
+first seen possibilities in the song the girl had known since
+childhood, and who had developed it to its limit, and trained her in a
+more artificial though still charming rendering, the music having been
+adapted more nearly to music-hall ragtime.  When he had announced to
+her what he had known from the first--that she was to go upon the stage
+with it--Elsie had been so elated that Miss Pritchard had been
+powerless before her.  She couldn't be a wet blanket; neither, however,
+could she force herself to express any gratification.
+
+And when first she had seen this last member of her family before the
+footlights of the cheap little theatre, with the bad air, the mixed
+audience, and the poor pictures, she felt she couldn't endure it.  The
+image of the stately, aristocratic Aunt Ellen Pritchard rose before her
+vision, overwhelmingly severe and reproachful.  It would actually have
+killed her to witness once what Julia Pritchard had to witness every
+night for two weeks--or so she thought at first.
+
+On this Saturday night when the engagement was extended, they were
+later than usual in getting to their carriage.  Elsie was wrapped
+snugly in the rose-colored opera-cloak.  Her eyes were very bright, her
+cheeks flushed.  She had not really required any make-up, but they had
+insisted upon deepening the color of her lips and darkening the lower
+eye-lids.  Miss Pritchard, too depressed to force any semblance of
+cheerfulness, saw her dimples appear and disappear in happy reverie.
+She sighed.  Through it all, the child was absolutely enchanting to her.
+
+Elsie, catching the sigh, snuggled up to her.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I'm so happy, so happy I'm afraid I'll just burst
+like a circus balloon.  Oh, dear darling, you're so good to me.  And I
+suppose you're sick to death of the same old thing, and dread the
+thought of another week of it."
+
+As a matter of fact, Miss Pritchard was as captivated by the song
+specialty as any of the audience.  She confessed that it wore well.
+"But, oh, Elsie," she couldn't forbear adding, "I do wish you weren't
+going to have another week in that cheap place."
+
+"Oh, but Cousin Julia, one can't begin at the top," remonstrated the
+girl.  "Why, I'm the luckiest guy ever was.  How much do you suppose
+I'm going to get for this next week?"
+
+Miss Pritchard had no heart for guessing.  The sum the girl mentioned
+was indeed surprising, but it only seemed to remove her further from
+her and from the family they both represented.
+
+"I should be only too glad to do it for the experience alone," Elsie
+rattled on, "and of course what I get is only what is over and above
+what they pay the school.  And I shall get other chances, Mr. Coates
+says, and--oh, Cousin Julia, I don't dare tell you--you don't"--there
+was a catch in her voice--"you don't sympathize.  You were so
+different!  And now you're just like--well, almost as bad as the
+others."
+
+Miss Pritchard drew the little rose-colored figure close.
+
+"Yes, I do sympathize, dear little cousin," she said, "only----"
+
+She could not go on.  And they went the rest of the way in silence.  It
+was the first time that anything, recognized by both of them, had come
+between them.  As the excitement that had buoyed her up for the evening
+began to die away, Elsie's heart was like a stone.  Later it would
+ache.  She wondered rather drearily how it would be after she was in
+bed.  Even now she recognized something that would have been absurd if
+it weren't so terribly serious.  To think of her demanding sympathy
+from Cousin Julia--of appearing almost aggrieved not to receive it--she
+who should be cowering beneath her scorn!  How was it that she should
+so forget, should feel and act as if everything were true--and square?
+
+It was being on the stage, she supposed, a real actress at last.  At
+last!  Why, it was almost _at first_.  Who had ever been so fortunate
+as she!  To be on the stage in New York well within a year of her first
+entering the city!  And only to think that this might have been the
+last night of her engagement!  How terrible that seemed now!  How would
+she ever live without the evening to look forward to?  How blissful to
+have another week before her--six more appearances before that vast,
+applauding throng!  How happily would she go to sleep tonight to the
+music of the lullaby of the thought: "Another week at the Merry Nickel,
+another week at the Merry Nickel!  Bliss!  Bliss!  Bliss!"
+
+And yet it wasn't at all a blissful face which Miss Pritchard bore in
+memory to her own room that night after she had kissed Elsie, put out
+the light, and opened the windows.  Since the girl had been at the
+theatre, Miss Pritchard had dropped into the habit of going in to her
+the last thing every night and tucking her in as if she had been a
+child.  For somehow she had seemed, since striking out into
+professional life, only the more a child, more innocent, more
+appealingly youthful, more than ever to be sheltered and guarded.  She
+had tried her wings, it is true; she believed she had proved them (and
+perchance she had!); but more than ever was she a precious and tender
+nestling.
+
+As she sat by her window in the darkness, Miss Pritchard shook her head
+sadly.  She said to herself this couldn't go on--this state of things
+couldn't continue.  Despite Elsie's elation over the fact that she was
+booked for another week at the theatre, she looked more mournful and
+wistful and worn than ever.  Some strain was wearing the child out.  It
+wasn't the work, nor yet the excitement, for she lived on them, and not
+altogether unhealthily.  There was no other possible explanation: it
+was nothing less than the strain of combating her own disapproval,
+tacit or expressed.  Elsie was too warm-hearted to enjoy her legitimate
+happiness alone, too sensitive not to suffer from want of sympathy.
+
+The change in the girl had begun to be apparent directly after
+Christmas.  Elsie hadn't been herself since that time, which proved
+beyond peradventure that Miss Pritchard's suspicion was correct.  The
+joyous, sparkling little creature whom she had found in her room on the
+day after Christmas, bubbling over with excitement, eager to share her
+good news, had become thin and wan.  Her charmingly brilliant little
+face was not only peaked, but in repose was generally wistful or
+plaintive.  Many a time one could have looked on it without suspecting
+the existence of dimples.  Only in the evening did she resemble her
+real self.  From dinner until the moment she lay in her bed, she was
+the Elsie Marley she had been (with negligible interruptions) since the
+night when she had walked straight into Miss Pritchard's heart before
+she had known who she was.  At other times she was a pale shadow, the
+little ghost of the girl she had been or should be.
+
+Miss Pritchard sighed deeply.  If it were for want of
+sympathy--approving sympathy--the child drooped and pined, must she not
+have it, willy-nilly?  But again she sighed, and yet more deeply.
+Whatever her effort, was such a thing possible?
+
+As for Elsie herself, the lullaby didn't prove a lullaby at all, and,
+as usual these days, the girl cried herself to sleep.  Every night, of
+late, the reaction came.  Every morning she awoke with a sense of a
+heavy burden weighing her down.  All day her heart ached, though dully
+and vaguely for the most part; for if the pain threatened to become
+acute, she could still drug it with anticipation of the excitement of
+the evening.
+
+In the weeks that had passed, Elsie hadn't once faced her conscience.
+She had never squarely confronted the situation which was now so much
+further complicated.  When the unexpected and thrilling opportunity had
+come to her the day after Christmas--the very day that was to
+consummate her renunciation--the girl had been completely carried away
+by it.  She hadn't repudiated the decision she had come to so
+painfully, she had simply disregarded it--ignored it utterly as if
+there had been no such thing.  And she had gone on ignoring it.  In the
+very first of it, the excitement of working directly for the stage had
+rendered her oblivious of everything else.  Then when certain faint
+murmurings of conscience began to be audible, came the actual prospect
+of the Merry Nickel to stifle them, and then there was the stage itself
+and the actual footlights.  Nevertheless, avoid the issue as she would,
+more and more had her daylight hours come to be haunted with
+misgivings, and now her heart was never light except in the evenings.
+And combat any such direct thought as she might, she felt dimly that in
+giving over her purpose to square her conduct with the right, she had
+doubled and trebled the original wrong.  Unvowing a vow must be
+equivalent to signing a covenant with the powers of darkness.  Now and
+again lines from the poem Cousin Julia had repeated to her so
+impressively that she could never forget it, came to her suddenly in
+uncanny fashion.  At such times, if questioned, Elsie would have
+acknowledged that her Palladium had indeed fallen, with all the awful
+consequences.
+
+Lines from another and more familiar poem came to the girl the next day
+as she sat in the afternoon with Miss Pritchard in their sitting-room,
+the snow falling outside as if it were December.  As she gazed at the
+steadily falling, restful, soothing curtain of flakes which deadened
+all sound and veiled all save its own beauty, unconsciously she was
+repeating verses of a poem she had learned as a child.  But as she came
+to the words, "I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn," she recollected
+herself.  And somehow her mind turned instinctively to Miss Pritchard's
+lover.  It was because he, too, was dead, she supposed, and this snow
+was rounding above his grave.  But before she made the natural
+application or drew the familiar comparison between his failure and her
+own, Elsie clapped the lid down on her thoughts with a thud.  Turning
+resolutely to Miss Pritchard, she asked her, with strange intonation,
+if she thought the snow would continue all night.
+
+"I rather hope so," Miss Pritchard returned in a quiet voice that was
+like a part of the silent storm, "for it's so late that we can't expect
+another snowfall, and it seems really a privilege to have it now--like
+plucking violets at Thanksgiving."
+
+For a little, her gaze, too, lost itself outside.  Then she turned and
+looked at Elsie with a kindness in which there was something wistful.
+
+"I know what you have been thinking, dear," she said.  "You're thinking
+that I'm not consistent nor fair--and you're right.  I am neither.  I
+agree with you absolutely.  Having in the first place consented to your
+studying for the stage, I should have looked ahead and faced just this.
+As you say, one can't begin at the tip-top--nor yet at the top.  One
+must make use of humble stepping-stones."
+
+But it seemed that the struggle she had been through to bring herself
+to this attitude had been in vain.  On a sudden she lost all that she
+had gained.  Her heart sank as Elsie's face brightened eagerly--became
+transformed, indeed.
+
+"The trouble is," she went on sadly, "that the stepping-stones--oh,
+Elsie, I'm so afraid the stepping-stones will only lead on and on and
+on--never higher.  They'll be and remain on a dead level, and you will
+step from one to another, one to another, year after year, over the
+same dreary waste.  I hate awfully to say all this, dear, but when
+those people refuse to allow you to do anything but the Elsie-Honey
+business over and over, it comes to me what a fate it would be to be
+doomed forever to that one stunt."
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia!" Elsie cried deprecatingly.
+
+"Yes, dear, that's what I am exactly, an old killjoy; but truly I
+cannot help it, though I have tried.  I have struggled hard against my
+prejudice.  Elsie, last night you stopped yourself as you were about to
+tell me something, but I fear I can guess what it was like.  Some one
+suggested your going on the road, as they say, with that one thing as
+your repertoire--making a tour of the cheap moving-picture houses of a
+certain section?"
+
+Elsie grew very pale; her lips trembled.  One interested wholly in her
+dramatic career, seeing her at that moment, might have concluded that
+the girl had it in her to develop a capacity for tragedy as well as
+comedy.
+
+"Cousin Julia," she said with tremulous dignity, "I don't want you to
+come with me this week.  I can go back and forth in a carriage by
+myself.  I've got to go through it, for I promised and they will have
+made arrangements, but--please don't come with me any more."
+
+She gazed at Miss Pritchard through reproachful tears, but when she saw
+tears streaming down Miss Pritchard's plain, staunch face, she ran to
+her arms.
+
+"My dear, it's only because I love you so, because you are the very
+apple of my eye, that I talk so," the latter declared, and the warm
+words went straight to the girl's sore heart.  "I know I'm not just,
+but dear, we won't let anything come between us--ever.  I'll do my best
+to see your side of it, and you must be patient with me.  It's hard, I
+know, for youth to bear with age, for inexperience to hear the ugly
+words of experience; but now we'll just go through the week together
+and await what comes."
+
+What came demanded further patience on her part and increased Elsie's
+infatuation.  Before the end of the week the young actress had an offer
+from a rival establishment which would take her to the edge of summer
+at a salary that fairly made her gasp.  The second theatre was perhaps
+a shade better, but not sufficiently so to reconcile Miss Pritchard to
+it.  But she held her peace.  Whereupon the first manager increased the
+sum offered by his rival, and, Miss Pritchard still tolerant, Elsie
+agreed to remain there until June.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+Miss Pritchard acknowledged to herself that Elsie Marley had the right
+stuff in her.  She did not grow careless, never let herself down.  The
+audience was uncritical and wildly demonstrative, but the girl did her
+level best at every performance.  Up to a certain point, she even
+improved.  The possibility of so doing in this case was limited, but
+having reached that point she held it.  Further, her wonderfully sweet
+voice seemed to grow sweeter every day.
+
+Therein lay Miss Pritchard's one hope.  Presently, she sought out an
+old friend who had been a musician of note and later a teacher and
+musical critic on an evening paper, and confided her difficulty to him.
+Hearing her story, he was interested and very sympathetic.  He advised
+her to drop the concert idea and dwell wholly upon the possibility of
+opera as a lure: only the dramatic form and setting could compete
+successfully in a case of stage-fever like that.  And where Miss
+Pritchard had hoped only to be allowed to bring Elsie to him, he being
+an old man, he agreed to go to the theatre and hear the girl when she
+would be off her guard.
+
+"I'll go any night you say, Miss Pritchard," he proposed.
+
+"Don't make _me_ choose, Mr. Francis," she begged.  "There's so much at
+stake that if I knew when you were to be there, I should be so nervous
+I couldn't sit still."
+
+"You _nervous_, Miss Pritchard!" he exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"Alas, yes, Mr. Francis," she acknowledged, laughing.  "These young
+people with their careers are too stimulating for spinster cousins who
+have never had anything more exciting than night-work on a city paper.
+Well, I dare say I have only my come-uppings.  You see, I was afraid
+Elsie wouldn't be lively enough!  I had visions of an extremely proper,
+blasé young person moping about, and rather dreaded her.  Getting Elsie
+was like finding a changeling."
+
+"Rather too much of a good thing?  Well, we're all that way, Miss
+Pritchard.  If we're looking for a quiet person, we want a peculiar
+sort of quietude; and the lively ones must be just so lively and no
+more.  Do you remember in one of the old novels, where a sister
+enumerates in a letter to her brother the charms of the young lady she
+wishes him to marry?  At the end of the list she adds that the lady has
+'just as much religion as my William likes.'  Now isn't that human
+nature and you and I all over?"
+
+
+As she left the house, a suggestion came to Miss Pritchard in regard to
+a lesser matter she had had in mind.  Elsie having agreed to drop
+everything for July and August and go into the country with her, she
+had been studying prospectuses and consulting friends as to the
+whither.  Seeing Mr. Francis, suddenly recalled a summer twenty years
+before when he and his sister had passed a month at a place called
+Green River in eastern Massachusetts, and she had driven over a number
+of times from a neighboring town to dine with them.  It came to her
+suddenly that Green River was exactly the place she had been looking
+for, and she believed it must be near Enderby, where Elsie's friend
+lived.  And now she couldn't understand why she hadn't thought before
+of going where the friends might meet.
+
+Making inquiries, she discovered that the name Green River had been
+changed to Enderby, and that Enderby Inn was considered quite as good a
+hostelry as the Green River Hotel had been.  She wrote at once to the
+proprietor to see if she could engage rooms, saying nothing to Elsie
+lest the plan miscarry.
+
+So eager was she, that when she found a telegram on her plate next
+morning (almost before her letter had left New York) she opened it
+anxiously, uncertain whether such promptness meant success or failure
+for her.  But it was from Mr. Francis, asking her to lunch with him.
+She got through the morning in almost a fever of suspense.
+
+He had gone to hear Elsie that very night of Miss Pritchard's call, and
+told her without preface that the girl had a marvellous voice.
+
+"Now, Miss Pritchard, can't you shut down at once on that vaudeville
+business and set her to studying under a first-rate teacher?" he
+demanded.  "She ought not to lose a minute.  Of course she is rather
+small--too bad she isn't taller--but for all that I believe such a
+voice will carry her anywhere.  I shouldn't wonder if she should turn
+out a star of the first magnitude."
+
+He named a teacher with a studio in Boston who could take her as far as
+she could go in this country.  He usually went to Naples in the late
+spring with a pupil or two, but would be at his home near Boston all
+summer this year.
+
+Of course the fact that Enderby was within easy reach of Boston added
+to Miss Pritchard's excitement.  That night she received word that she
+could have accommodations at the inn, and a letter following next day
+offered her a choice of rooms.  She engaged a suite of three with a
+bath, though aware that the single rooms would be satisfactory.  And
+she smiled at herself for assuming airs already, as guardian of an
+operatic star, engaging royal apartments for her.
+
+Filled with enthusiasm, she announced to Elsie that night that she had
+secured quarters for them at Enderby for the two months.  At the first
+breath the girl was quite as surprised and delighted as she was
+expected to be.  The delight was, it is true, but momentary, though it
+sufficed to irradiate her face and fill Miss Pritchard's heart with
+generous joy--also, to hide from the latter the fact that it was
+succeeded by profound dismay.
+
+Those dimples!  Those awful dimples!  As she thought of them, Elsie
+Moss was overwhelmed by consternation.  Of course she couldn't go to
+Enderby.  She couldn't let Uncle John get even a second glimpse of her
+face.  She fled from the room in a panic which Miss Pritchard believed
+to be excited eagerness to impart the good news to her friend at once.
+
+Though, as the days had passed, Elsie had persisted in her refusal to
+face her conscience or look into the future, she had been vaguely aware
+of a day of reckoning ahead.  She had dimly taken it for granted that
+when she stopped she would have to consider--there would be nothing
+else to do.  When she should be out from under the influence of this
+powerful stimulant, she foresaw herself meeting perforce the questions
+she had evaded.  But also she had foreseen herself with two clear
+months before her and with Cousin Julia beside her.
+
+Now, on a sudden, all was changed.  She seemed to have no choice.  She
+had no control over her future.  She had delayed so long that the
+choice was no longer hers.  Her path was sharply defined.  There was
+nothing she could do except to disappear on the eve of Miss Pritchard's
+departure for Enderby.  And at that time there would be nothing to
+sustain her, no moral or redeeming force about an act that was
+compulsory.  It was like being shown a precipice and realizing that at
+an appointed time one must walk straight over its verge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+Mrs. Moss, who had loved her brilliant, impulsive little stepdaughter
+like her own child, had given her up unwillingly.  But it had been her
+husband's wish that Elsie should go to her uncle; the latter could give
+her advantages her stepmother could not afford; and she supposed it was
+right and natural for the girl to be with her own people, even though
+they had been strangers to her up to her sixteenth year.
+
+At first her loneliness found some solace in Elsie's letters.  They
+were short, but seemed brimming over with happiness.  Mrs. Moss didn't
+get any dear idea of the household at Enderby, but it was apparently
+all that the girl desired.  Then gradually the letters began to fall
+off, and before Christmas-time she felt a decided change in them.  They
+had become unsatisfactory, perfunctory; the girl seemed to be slipping
+away from her.  She began to wonder if Elsie were not concealing
+something, and soon after Christmas was forced to the conclusion that
+she was unhappy and would not acknowledge it.
+
+She endeavored to regain the confidence that had been fully hers; she
+tried in her own letters to prepare the way, to make confession easy,
+but she received no response.  In such circumstances letters are at
+best unsatisfactory, and it was maddening to Mrs. Moss that she was at
+such a distance that her warm words must grow cold in the five or six
+days that elapsed between the writing and the reading.
+
+Christmas passed, and the winter, and she was unrelieved.  She was busy
+with her teaching, but except when engrossed by that, was haunted by
+anxiety and apprehension.  She had finally decided to go East during
+the long summer vacation, ill as she could afford to make the journey,
+to investigate for herself, when one night after school she dropped in
+to see a friend, and while waiting picked up a New York paper.
+
+Some one in the house had that day returned from a journey East, and
+the paper was dated five days earlier.  It happened to be folded with
+the page given over to amusements uppermost.  Glancing carelessly over
+columns that devoted a paragraph each to an amazing number of cinema
+theatres, her eye suddenly caught the familiar name, _Elsie Marley_.
+
+With a vision of her stepdaughter as she had sung the old rhyme, she
+mechanically followed the words until the word "dimples" arrested her
+attention.  Then she read the paragraph with beating heart.  She read
+it twice before she fully comprehended--understood that Elsie Marley
+had completed her sixth week at the Merry Nickel in her song-dance
+specialty, "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  Miss Marley was
+declared to be more popular than ever; managers were clamoring for her
+and she had engagements a year ahead.  The notice added that despite
+the fact that her voice was so wonderful, her dancing and acting
+inimitable, some people declared that it was her dimples that wrought
+the spell--that she might stand dumb and motionless before the
+footlights if she would only smile.
+
+Mrs. Moss's first clear sensation was indignation toward Mr. Middleton.
+She felt she could never forgive him for allowing this situation to
+come about without warning her.  Then she realized that this was the
+key to the whole situation.  She had not heard from the girl for six
+weeks--just the length of time she must now have been at the theatre.
+Excusing herself before her friend appeared, she hastened home in a
+tumult of emotion.
+
+She did not know which way to turn.  She couldn't bear the idea of
+Elsie being on the stage of a motion-picture theatre; it seemed as if
+it would break her heart.  And still worse was the knowledge that the
+girl had deceived her; that she had written empty, non-committal notes
+calculated to make her believe she was staying quietly with her uncle,
+when she was all the time preparing for this.  And she had always been
+so frank and upright, so easy to appeal to and to persuade!  It seemed
+to Mrs. Moss that she must have come under unfortunate influence.
+
+Her first impulse was to write to Elsie; her second, to Mr. Middleton;
+but she did neither.  The situation was now too critical to be handled
+from a distance.  There were only two weeks more of school.  She
+secured accommodations on the railway for the evening of the last day
+of the term.
+
+On the sixth day after, she appeared without warning at the parsonage
+at Enderby.  A pleasant-faced woman who might be Mrs. Middleton, though
+she did not look like an invalid, sat on the veranda entertaining a
+little girl with a big baby in a perambulator.  She asked at the door
+for Mr. Middleton and was shown into his study.
+
+He came in directly, and the sight of his handsome, refined, strong and
+serene face, with a vague resemblance to Elsie's, revived her drooping
+spirits.  Suddenly she felt that whatever he sanctioned must be right.
+She inquired falteringly for Elsie before she announced her name or her
+errand.
+
+She learned that the girl was well, and, to her surprise, would be in
+presently.  Then the season was over, she decided, and recollecting
+herself, gave her name.
+
+He smiled.  "I thought as much from the way you spoke her name," he
+said.  "Elsie will be delighted.  May I call Mrs. Middleton?"
+
+"Just a moment, please.  I felt troubled about Elsie, Mr. Middleton,
+and came on without writing or sending word.  I'm impulsive too, like
+Elsie, though only her stepmother."
+
+He had never felt that Elsie was impulsive, and as he looked up in some
+surprise, she wondered if he minded her comparing herself to Elsie, and
+so to his sister.
+
+"Perhaps I should have sent word," she went on.  "But I hesitated.  I
+knew you didn't approve of Elsie's father marrying me."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, if I had any such feeling, it has long since
+disappeared," he assured her earnestly.  "From the moment I saw Elsie
+and realized what you have made of her, I have felt only the gratitude
+I am sure my sister would have felt for your devotion to her motherless
+child."
+
+"Thank you," she said.  "Now about Elsie----"
+
+But she couldn't go on.  A sudden wave of indignation swept over her.
+If he had felt kindly toward her, why hadn't he warned her?
+
+He glanced at her with some concern.  She seemed so fatigued and
+overwrought after the long journey that he begged her to let him call
+Mrs. Middleton that she might have a cup of tea and go to her room
+before Elsie's return.  The latter had gone into town but would be back
+very soon, for she went into the library at four.
+
+Mrs. Moss stared at him, and he asked if Elsie hadn't told her that she
+had been assistant librarian since September.
+
+She shook her head.  He wondered, and when she had again refused
+refreshment or rest, explained.  As he did so, it came out that she
+knew little or nothing of Elsie's activities, and he launched into
+glowing descriptions.  And the further he went, the more she marvelled.
+She couldn't understand how Elsie had become the sedate, dutiful girl
+he portrayed unless some great blow had fallen upon her.  Then she
+recollected what had brought her hither.
+
+"Elsie has been away lately?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, no, Mrs. Moss, she only went into Boston to do some shopping."
+
+"But she was in New York in May?"
+
+"Why, no," he returned with some surprise.  "I'm sorry to say she
+hasn't been away overnight since she came.  But we have made up our
+minds she shall have a change this summer, and now that you are here,
+we shall surely be able to put it through.  Perhaps you will go to the
+shore with her?  Of course you will spend the summer with us?  Mrs.
+Middleton will insist."
+
+Mrs. Moss was too dazed to reply.  Indeed, the only statement she had
+taken in was that Elsie had not been away since she came.  For an
+instant she wondered if she could have mistaken.  But that could not
+be.  Surely there were no two girls in the country who would have
+selected that particular song and have had peculiar dimples into the
+bargain.  On the other hand, Elsie couldn't have been in two places at
+once.  Neither could she have been away without his knowledge.  It
+wasn't conceivable that he----
+
+It struck her coldly that he was not in his right mind--that this
+handsome, courteous gentleman was mildly insane.  In spite of his fine
+manner and bearing, his every word had been irrational.  She hazarded
+one last question.
+
+"Has Elsie said anything--shown any interest in the stage?"
+
+As she spoke, there was a curious expression on her face--it seemed to
+him so watchful as to be almost furtive.  He began to suspect that
+something was wrong.  She was certainly overwrought and almost
+hysterical--beyond anything the journey would bring about.  Possibly
+that was the explanation of the mystery.  Elsie had rarely spoken of
+her stepmother.  Perhaps her husband's death had unbalanced her mind?
+
+Whereupon he murmured something soothingly and courteously evasive that
+confirmed Mrs. Moss in her suspicion with regard to him, his mind was
+wandering now; he had illusions, without doubt.  Quite likely Elsie was
+now in New York, and he constantly believed her to be in Boston for the
+day, coming back in time for the library.  And Mrs. Moss wondered how
+she could get the ear of the lady on the porch.
+
+She could see her through the window.  Now she saw that she had a mass
+of wool, red, white, and blue, in her lap and was knitting a
+curious-looking article, and it came to her that perhaps she, too, was
+out of her mind?  Perhaps this was a mental sanitarium?  True, she had
+inquired for the _parsonage_.  Could it be that in the cultured East
+that was a new euphemism for insane asylum?
+
+But that idea was too ludicrous, and suddenly struck by the absurdity,
+she laughed out.  Her laugh was so merry and infectious as to lay his
+suspicion at once, and he couldn't help joining her.  And then,
+somehow, each understood the misapprehension of the other, and they
+laughed the harder.
+
+Even as they laughed, there was a light step on the veranda outside,
+and some one cried _Elsie_ in a tone of warm welcome.
+
+Mr. Middleton had risen.  "Shall I tell her who it is, or just send her
+in, saying that it's an old friend?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+Her heart was beating violently.  "Don't tell her who it is," she
+begged weakly and shrank back as he opened the door.
+
+He closed it behind him and she waited breathlessly.  She forgot
+everything except that she was to see Elsie.  At the first sound she
+sprang to her feet, and as the door opened--not with Elsie's
+characteristic fling--she held out her arms.
+
+"Elsie!" she cried, then started violently.
+
+A total stranger stood before her, a pretty girl with a sweet face and
+long light-brown curls hanging from her neck.
+
+"And who are you?" she cried wildly.  "Am I mad or is this a lunatic
+asylum?"
+
+For a moment the girl stared at her with sweet perplexed face.  Was she
+another patient, then? thought the distressed woman.
+
+"I am Mrs. Moss," she said in a sort of desperation.  "Pray tell me who
+you are and where I am?"
+
+All the pretty color left the girl's face.  She stepped back and leaned
+against the door.
+
+"This is the parsonage," she faltered.  "I am Elsie Pritchard Marley.
+Your Elsie is in New York with my cousin.  We exchanged."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+On the Saturday afternoon following the arrival of Mrs. Moss at
+Enderby, Miss Pritchard and Elsie had just seated themselves in the
+former's cool, pleasant room for the purpose of discussing summer
+clothes for the latter.  A maid came to the door and brought in a card.
+
+"Mrs. Richard Moss!  I'm sure I don't know any such person; do you,
+Elsie?" Miss Pritchard exclaimed, frowning as she attempted to
+recollect whether that could be the married name of any one who had
+formerly been at Miss Peacock's.  As she looked up she saw that Elsie
+was almost ghastly white.
+
+She sprang from her chair and went to her.
+
+"Elsie, darling, are you ill?" she cried.
+
+Elsie almost gasped.
+
+"No, Cousin Julia, only--startled, _scared_," she said in a strange
+voice that frightened Miss Pritchard still further.
+
+But the maid waited.  About to ask her to excuse her to Mrs. Moss, she
+looked again at Elsie.
+
+"You don't know her, dear?" she said gently, putting the card before
+her.
+
+"Yes--I do.  That's what--fazed me," gasped Elsie.  "It's
+my--stepmother.  I'm afraid something awful has happened."
+
+Now Miss Pritchard was white, too.
+
+"My child, are you out of your head?" she exclaimed.  "What are you
+talking about?  You never had a stepmother.  You couldn't have."
+
+Then she half smiled.
+
+"Oh, Elsie!" she cried reproachfully, "it's some of your stage friends
+come to see you.  How you startled me!  I'll settle with you later for
+that and give you a good scolding, but I won't stop now.  Will you have
+her up here or down in the parlor?"
+
+"Please, let's have her up here," said the white-faced girl in the same
+strained tone.  "There's nothing to do now but go through with it.  It
+serves me just right.  But----"
+
+Without understanding, her heart beating strangely, Miss Pritchard
+asked that Mrs. Moss be brought up.
+
+They waited in silence.  Presently the caller was ushered in, a slender
+woman clad in black, with a young-looking, sad face.  Seeing Elsie, she
+too became very white.  But the girl rushed upon her, flung her arms
+about her, and hid her face on her shoulder.  And the stranger clasped
+her close.
+
+Miss Pritchard stared in amazement.  She hadn't known of any warm
+friend of Elsie's except the young girl in Enderby; but this was
+unmistakably an affection of long standing.  For a moment she stood
+stock-still.  Then somehow she got them both over to the sofa, relieved
+Mrs. Moss of her wraps, and sat down near.
+
+"I don't understand," she said finally.  "You are evidently an old
+friend of my little cousin's.  Perhaps you are the lady she stayed with
+while she was finishing her school after Mrs. Pritchard's death?"
+
+Mrs. Moss looked hard at Elsie, reproachfully yet lovingly.  It was so
+good to see the girl that the plans she had laid as she came on from
+Massachusetts escaped her.  She spoke at random, and might have
+imparted the same impression of mental irresponsibility that she had
+given Mr. Middleton.
+
+"She hasn't any grandmother.  She never had one.  And she isn't----"
+
+"Oh, _Moss_, I have it!" exclaimed Miss Pritchard.  "You're the mother
+of Elsie's friend at Enderby--though I believed her to be an orphan all
+this time."
+
+"I am Elsie's stepmother, and she isn't your cousin at all," declared
+Mrs. Moss sadly.  "She's only a very naughty girl playing a trick on
+you."
+
+Then for the first time Miss Pritchard spoke sternly to Elsie.
+
+"If this is a trick, a part of your stage business, won't you please
+bring it to a close right here!" she demanded.  "It has gone too far
+already."
+
+"My dear Miss Pritchard, will you allow me to explain?" said Mrs. Moss.
+Then she turned to the girl.  "Or will you do it, Elsie?  I went to
+Enderby to see you and found that other girl and learned the truth from
+her."
+
+Elsie drew away a little.
+
+"You tell her, please, auntie, I couldn't," she faltered.  She clasped
+her hands tightly.  Her face was whiter than before.
+
+"Miss Pritchard, if you will have patience and bear with me for a
+little, I hope I can make things plain, though I can't make them
+right," said Mrs. Moss rather appealingly.  "I have just come from
+Enderby, Massachusetts, where Elsie's uncle and guardian lives.  I got
+worried and went there to see about Elsie.  I came all the way from
+California."
+
+Miss Pritchard stared at her in amazement.
+
+"Oh, auntie!" cried Elsie in distress.  Then she went to Miss Pritchard.
+
+"Kiss me just once, Cousin Julia, kiss me hard," she entreated.  And
+Miss Pritchard clasped her to her heart.
+
+The girl resumed her place on the sofa and sat motionless, her eyes
+upon her clasped hands.  Mrs. Moss endeavored to get the main fact out.
+
+"I found there instead of this Elsie, instead of Mr. Middleton's own
+niece, a strange girl who has lived there since last June as Elsie
+Moss.  Her first name happened to be Elsie, too, but her last name is
+Pritchard--Marley, I should say."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, I must be stupid, but I cannot understand what you
+mean!" cried Miss Pritchard.  And Elsie choked.
+
+"I'll begin again," said Mrs. Moss with mournful patience.  "A year ago
+this Elsie, _my_ Elsie, Elsie Moss, started East to live with her
+uncle, John Middleton, in Enderby, Massachusetts.  On the train she
+fell in with this Marley girl who was coming on to New York to live
+with her cousin, Miss Pritchard.  Elsie was badly stage-struck and wild
+over New York, and the other girl didn't mind a quiet country town, and
+they calmly changed places--and names.  Elsie Moss came to you--with no
+claim in the world upon your hospitality; and your relative, Elsie
+Marley, imposed upon the Middletons in the same fashion.  And they have
+gone on with the imposture for practically a year."
+
+As she continued, one detail after another fitted into the framework
+she made, and Miss Pritchard grasped the situation fully.  Stunned and
+wholly at a loss, she glanced at Elsie.  The girl sat like a statue,
+white with downcast eyes.  Miss Pritchard went to the window and stood
+gazing out for some moments.
+
+When she returned to her place, her expression was composed, but her
+face looked suddenly strangely worn and older.  She looked into Mrs.
+Moss's eyes as who should say "How could she!"  But she spoke to the
+girl.
+
+"Well, Elsie?" she asked quietly.
+
+"That was why I hedged about going to Enderby," said Elsie
+incoherently, "I didn't dare let Uncle John see my dimples.  They would
+give me away, you see, Cousin Julia."
+
+Then she suddenly bethought herself.
+
+"Oh, but you're not my Cousin Julia any more!" she cried, and burst
+into a tumult of weeping.
+
+Her stepmother gathered the girl to her, and Elsie sobbed wildly on her
+breast.  Mrs. Moss, who had been more severe with Elsie Marley at
+Enderby than she had ever been with any one before, was now disposed to
+be very gentle--perhaps over-lenient--with the real culprit.
+
+"Yes, Elsie, I am your Cousin Julia--to the end of things," Miss
+Pritchard assured her.  And she spoke almost solemnly.  "But tell me,
+dear--you didn't know what you were doing?  Oh, Elsie, you didn't
+realize that it wasn't--that it was--wrong?"
+
+"Not at first--not when I did it," sobbed Elsie.  Then she uncovered
+her face.  "But I knew afterward.  It came to me then, and I knew it
+was the sort of wrong you think worst of all.  And so do I, honestly,
+Cousin Julia."
+
+Again Miss Pritchard walked to the window.  Elsie's eyes followed her
+in agonized appeal.
+
+"Cousin Julia!" she cried desperately.  And Miss Pritchard was at her
+side in a moment.  But though her face was all tenderness and sympathy,
+the pain that shone through it would have been severe retribution even
+had Elsie been altogether impenitent.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I was sorry!" the girl cried, "I was terribly sorry.
+But it only came on me when everything was--sort of--_fixed_, you know.
+I couldn't bear to break up Elsie Marley's happiness at Enderby, and--I
+couldn't bear to have it--hurt you--though I know this is a lot worse.
+So I was going to disappear.  I had my mind all made up.  I was going
+to leave a letter so that you wouldn't feel troubled.  And I thought
+that would sort of make up for everything, because I never would have
+been happy again.  And then--oh, Cousin Julia, then came that chance
+that I knew led straight to the stage, and I lost my head.  I chose to
+be wicked, and I suppose I lost my soul as well as my head,
+only--there's something that hurts as if I still had one."
+
+Again the girl wept wildly.  But now Miss Pritchard's arm was enfolding
+her.
+
+"No, precious child, you haven't lost it.  And if you were sorry--but
+we won't talk more about it now.  I'll hold that in my heart as comfort
+until to-morrow and then we'll see what we can do to straighten it all
+out.  At this moment we must consider that there's the evening
+performance to go through, and being the last, it will be very taxing.
+Somehow, we'll make things right, among us all.  You go to your room
+now and lie down.  If you think of this, only say to yourself that it's
+over, and be thankful for that.  And we two women who love you so that
+we're all but jealous of one another already will plan the next--or
+rather, the first move.  Come, child."
+
+At the door Elsie turned.  "Is the other Elsie all right, auntie?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+"Yes, dear," returned Mrs. Moss rather doubtfully.  "At least--well, as
+a matter of fact the poor child is just--waiting.  I made her promise
+not to say a word to the Middletons until I came on here and returned.
+I am afraid--dear me, I am sure I don't know _what_ I said to the girl.
+I am afraid I must have been rather hard on her."
+
+"Oh, auntie!  And it wasn't her fault in the least!  I just dragged her
+into it.  It was all for me.  And she's the sweetest, gentlest thing!
+And not the least little bit her fault!  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!"
+
+The girl wrung her hands in genuine distress.  Mrs. Moss shook her head
+mournfully.
+
+"I might have known," she acknowledged regretfully.  "But, oh, Miss
+Pritchard, I was nearly distracted.  It all came upon me so
+suddenly--not a whisper of warning."
+
+Miss Pritchard could understand what that meant.  She led Elsie into
+her room and established her upon the bed.  Elsie talked incoherently
+and at random, until Miss Pritchard had to declare that she must go
+back to Mrs. Moss.  Kissing the girl again, she bade her forget
+everything for the time being and rest.  And though she stifled the
+deep sigh that rose involuntarily, Miss Pritchard felt as if she was
+staggering as she left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+For some time Miss Pritchard and Mrs. Moss discussed, not as they had
+purposed, the way out of it, but the affair itself: the change of names
+and destinations and the year of masquerading.  They marvelled equally at
+the audacity and the success of the scheme, and the various circumstances
+that had favored it.  Miss Pritchard reviewed the year aloud in the light
+of the discovery, with eager comment from the other.
+
+"How Elsie could have accepted so much from you, knowing all the while
+she was deceiving you, I cannot understand!" cried Mrs. Moss, shaking her
+head sadly.
+
+"Accepted!  Oh, Mrs. Moss, if you could only know half the girl gave, you
+wouldn't speak of accepting!" protested Miss Pritchard.  "She has made
+this year the happiest of my life, that captivating, lovely child has.
+As for deceiving--she didn't mean any such thing, and it wasn't real
+deceit in her case.  She said just now she always felt as if I were
+really her cousin.  When she swapped, she did it in such a whole-hearted
+way that she was herself almost as deluded as I.  And later, when she
+began to realize, she suffered--looking back, I begin to understand that
+she has suffered torture."
+
+Mrs. Moss suddenly bethought herself.
+
+"The question is, what is to be done?" she repeated.  "You see, I have
+left that girl in Enderby in a most uncomfortable position.  The
+Middletons as yet know nothing.  I shall have to break it to them, but
+before I do so, I want to come to some sort of an understanding with you."
+
+"I confess, I don't see any way out of it at this moment," returned Miss
+Pritchard.  "Dear me, I can't yet really realize we're in it."
+
+"The simple thing would seem to be to just----"
+
+"Swap back?  Oh, it wouldn't be possible after all this time, my dear
+Mrs. Moss!" cried Miss Pritchard, really aghast.
+
+"We shall have to see how the Middletons feel, of course," admitted Mrs.
+Moss.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, couldn't you go back with me to-night and
+then all of us talk it over together?  I don't believe we'll ever come to
+any understanding unless you do.  My flying back and forth between you
+like a shuttlecock isn't going to amount to anything."
+
+"Yes, I will go on to Enderby--there's no other way," agreed Miss
+Pritchard, "but I can't go tonight, because Elsie has an engagement.
+It's her last appearance at that wretched place, I'm thankful to say.
+She and I will follow you to-morrow.  Meantime, you can give them the
+plain facts to digest."
+
+She smiled half grimly.  "As a matter of fact, I have a suite of rooms
+engaged at the inn at Enderby for the last two weeks in June and for July
+and August, though I never dreamed of any such complication, as you know.
+Like as not we all--you and Elsie and I--can occupy them now--I can
+telegraph presently.  Dear me, dear me! what a pair of thoughtless scamps
+these children were.  And yet--what hasn't it meant to me to know Elsie?
+Oh, Mrs. Moss, I can't face giving her up.  I simply cannot face it."
+
+"Of course, Mr. Middleton is her guardian," remarked Mrs. Moss, who
+sympathized with Miss Pritchard, but felt she might remember that she had
+had to part with Elsie a year ago, after having had her from a child.
+"He seems like one who would do the right thing," she added, "but of
+course he was devoted to Elsie's mother."
+
+"No doubt he'll be glad to hand over little Pritchard to me?"
+
+"Well, he seemed attached to her.  But of course being a clergyman he may
+judge her very severely."
+
+"I wish we could all go to Enderby this very moment," cried Miss
+Pritchard impatiently.  "If it weren't for that old movie-show!"
+
+Then the other forgot Enderby.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, tell me, is Elsie
+very deeply concerned?" she asked anxiously.
+
+Miss Pritchard related the matter in detail.  Mrs. Moss was distressed
+beyond words, though she was cheered when the other repeated Madame
+Valentini's dictum in regard to the girl's voice, and the yet more
+authoritative word of Mr. Francis.  And then and there the two women who
+cared deeply for one little girl decided that that night should close her
+theatrical career, not only for the season but forever.  And they added
+that whatever be the outcome of the conference at Enderby, Elsie must
+begin in the late summer or early autumn to study with the teacher in
+Boston recommended by Mr. Francis.
+
+"The child has actually grown rich overnight," observed Miss Pritchard.
+"She has saved all she has earned and if need be could pay for her own
+lessons for a time at least.  But I should like nothing better than to
+retire and take her to live in some quiet place near Boston, and then go
+abroad with her when the time comes.  I've got enough to do that and yet
+do something for that girl at Enderby."
+
+She paused in her pacing, sat down suddenly and frowned deeply.
+
+"There's no use," she groaned.  "That Mr. Middleton will take her away
+from me, mark my word.  What sort of a man is he, anyhow?"
+
+Mrs. Moss didn't confess that she had taken him for a lunatic; but her
+description was colorless.
+
+"Of course, I should be only too glad to take Elsie back with me," she
+added wistfully, "though I couldn't give her advantages."
+
+Miss Pritchard gave her a look of sympathy, though she couldn't conceive
+of her wanting Elsie as she herself did.
+
+"Neither you nor I will have any chance," she returned gloomily.  "He'll
+snap her up--that minister.  And I shall be desolate in my old age--for I
+shall grow old in a night if I lose Elsie."
+
+"But there's the other Elsie," rejoined Mrs. Moss plaintively.  "There
+seems to be one apiece for every one except me."
+
+"Oh, _Elsie Pritchard_!  Good heavens!"  Miss Pritchard began her pacing
+again.  "I shall have her on my hands.  I never thought of that!"
+
+"I suppose you'd hardly expect to have them both," remarked the other
+mildly.
+
+"I certainly won't have Elsie Pritchard by herself!" Miss Pritchard
+retorted.  Then she laughed at herself, though ruefully.
+
+"Ah, that accounts for the five hundred dollars!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+
+"I don't understand what you mean," murmured Mrs. Moss plaintively.  Now
+even Miss Pritchard had begun to talk like Alice in Wonderland.
+
+Miss Pritchard paused in her walk and explained rapidly and in great
+detail, leaving Mrs. Moss as much in the dark as before.  Again she went
+the length of the room, pausing before Mrs. Moss to demand: "What sort of
+a girl is this Elsie Pritchard?"
+
+"To tell the truth, I was so taken aback, I scarcely noticed.  She's a
+pretty girl and ladylike."
+
+Miss Pritchard groaned.
+
+"Well, I think she looks as if she had character," Mrs. Moss added.
+
+"Any ginger?"
+
+"Well, perhaps not," the other admitted.  "But you should have heard Mr.
+Middleton talk about her--er--work in the parish."
+
+"Good heavens!  Visiting the sick and distributing tracts?"
+
+"Not exactly," Mrs. Moss smiled.  "He spoke about the library and--well,
+I'm afraid I didn't take in the rest."
+
+"Never mind, I can guess.  And I see my finish when she gets hold of me.
+She'll endeavor to reform me.  A year ago, now, I was prepared for a
+superior person.  But after Elsie----"
+
+"What mischief they made!  And yet, Miss Pritchard, it was all done
+thoughtlessly."
+
+"I know.  And poor Elsie--I'm afraid we came down pretty hard on her.  I
+think I'll just go and see how she is."
+
+Mrs. Moss followed.  Miss Pritchard tapped lightly at Elsie's door.
+There was no response and she opened it softly.  Then she beckoned the
+other with a look on her plain face that made it very sweet.
+
+Together they stood over the little figure on the big bed.  Elsie had
+cried herself to sleep.  She looked young and sweet and innocent, her
+brown head with its short locks against the pillow, her lips parted, her
+hand under one cheek, and the shadow of a dimple visible.
+
+They turned away, the eyes of both being filled with tears.  And when
+they were back in Miss Pritchard's sitting-room they seemed somehow
+nearer one another, almost like old friends.
+
+"She's too sweet and good for the stage," cried Mrs. Moss.  "Do you
+suppose we can get her away?  Do you think she'll be willing to give up
+and cultivate her voice instead?"
+
+"_Willing_?  Not Elsie!  The child's more crazy about the stage than
+ever.  And as for easily persuading her to settle down to daily drudgery
+with no excitement in view for years--"  She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"She doesn't look now as if she had a will of her own, does she, with her
+hand under her cheek and her darling baby lips parted?" cried her
+step-mother.
+
+Miss Pritchard's eyes filled a second time.  Then suddenly an idea
+flashed into her mind.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, you'll be awfully shocked, but do you know what your
+words have put into my head?  I feel like a wicked conspirator collecting
+his pals, but--listen--you and I must attack Elsie at once and get her to
+forswear the stage and take up music."
+
+Mrs. Moss couldn't see any difference in this proposition from anything
+previously proposed.
+
+"What I mean is, we must do it this very day," the other went on.  "We've
+got to strike while the iron is hot.  The child is in a chastened state;
+she's sorry and ashamed and unusually meek.  We've got to be wolves and
+prey upon the poor lamb in her moment of defenselessness.  She'll agree
+to anything to-day.  Oh, Mrs. Moss, it sounds cruel and hateful, but it's
+really for her good.  If you'll stand by me, I'll attempt it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+Elsie Marley had let Mrs. Moss out by the side-door, and half an hour
+later she passed out that way herself.  She had promised not to say
+anything until she returned, and so couldn't even leave a note to explain
+her own going.  She would write one to-night to bid them wait for Mrs.
+Moss's explanation.  And afterward she could tell them that she couldn't
+bear to see them again.  And by that time they would have their own Elsie
+with the dimples.
+
+And she would be with Miss Pritchard?  She supposed so, but she couldn't
+go there to-night.  Eventually, she must; she wasn't sufficiently clever
+or self-reliant to take care of herself; but she wouldn't go to New York
+while Mrs. Moss--that terrible Mrs. Moss--was there.  What she had said
+was quite true, but oh, it had been hard and cruel, and Elsie could never
+forget it!
+
+She had made up her mind to go into Boston to a hotel where she had
+lunched several times, write Cousin Julia from there, and wait until she
+should hear from her.  She was anxious to get away before Mr. Middleton,
+who had gone to the library in her place, should return.  And yet she
+took a wide detour that doubled the way to the station; for she could not
+bear to go near the street on which the library stood.
+
+Forgetting her haste, before she had gone far, she turned and looked back
+at the parsonage.  It was like home to her.  Leaving it forever, she
+realized dimly that it was home to her, the only real home her life had
+known.  And Aunt Milly?  Once, not so long ago, Elsie couldn't have
+imagined herself wanting to go back and throw her arms about her and tell
+her she wished she had understood and loved her long before.  And
+Katy--dear old Katy!----
+
+Turning away, she almost ran.  She met no one in the out-of-the-way path
+she chose, and she was to take the six-two train for Boston, which
+Enderby people rarely used.
+
+The station stood on a hill.  As she climbed it, Elsie decided to ask the
+agent, whom she knew slightly, to telephone to the parsonage after the
+train had gone to say that something had called her away, and that Mrs.
+Moss would explain.  Fearing lest he might forget the latter clause, she
+stopped and wrote the message out.  As she did so, it came to her that
+they might think she had gone away with her stepmother, and wouldn't be
+disturbed.
+
+As she took up her satchel again, she heard some one behind her on the
+wooden walk.  Kate had come by the direct way, but she had stopped to put
+a skirt and jacket over her kitchen-dress and to squeeze her feet into
+boots to hide the holes in her stockings.  Warm with the extra clothing
+and the unusual effort, Kate actually panted as she caught up to Elsie
+and seized hold of her as if she were rescuing her from drowning.
+
+"Why, Katy, has anything happened?" the girl inquired anxiously.
+
+"Anything happened?  Well, I like that!" ejaculated Kate between her
+gasps.  "No, nothin's happened yet, but I suspicioned something was
+a-goin' to and so I hiked along after you.  What are you a-doin' up here
+and himself gettin' all tired out at that library?"
+
+Elsie's heart sank yet lower.  "There won't be many in to-day, Katy," she
+said meekly.  "And anyhow--but don't keep me, Katy, I must----"
+
+"No, you mustn't, Miss Elsie, no such thing.  You're a-comin' straight
+home with your own Katy.  Do you want your aunt a-fallin' down in one of
+her heart-spells, and her so well and happy for the first time sence I
+come?  She'll have one sure's you're born if you ain't there for your
+supper--and me after makin' shepherd's pie!"
+
+Elsie paled.  "Oh, Katy, I can't go back, honestly I can't, but you'll
+make it right with them, won't you?  Tell them I _had_ to go and
+she--Mrs. Moss--will explain when she comes back."
+
+"You just come back yourself and wait for her, Miss Elsie.  The missus
+will have one of them flop-overs the first thing if you don't, and then
+for himself to come home tired from the library and find her in that
+state and you not by to break it to him, and him not so young as he was
+once, you know!"
+
+Tears streamed down the girl's distressed face.  Kate took her satchel
+while she got out her pocket-handkerchief, and then would not loose her
+hold on it.  Elsie started on, Kate by her side.
+
+"If you're bound to go, then, you might as well get two tickets, for I'm
+goin' with you," the latter said stoutly.
+
+Elsie looked at her in amazement.
+
+"Sure thing.  If you go, I go," Kate insisted.
+
+"But, Katy, you wouldn't do such a thing?  You wouldn't leave--them?"
+
+"Indeed I would," Kate returned exultantly, feeling that she had scored.
+"I'll go by the same train.  I've got some money in my stocking.  I
+couldn't face the music with her in a dead faint, and himself like as not
+havin' a shock."
+
+Elsie stopped short.  "Katy, why will you say such dreadful things?" she
+cried.  "Honestly, it's only a question of a day or two.  I've got to go
+away, and why can't you let me do it quietly now instead of waiting and
+having it still harder."
+
+"You don't mind the easiest way for you bein' the hardest for them?"
+
+"Yes, I do.  But I can't go back.  I cannot--act another day."
+
+"Oh, yes you can," replied Kate soothingly.  "And, besides, it'll all
+come right if you just hang on.  I knew something was strange--I've
+suspicioned it ever sence you come.  Wasn't it me as went around and took
+all your baby pictures out o' the old albums and others with big round
+dimples out o' velvet photograph-frames, and himself lookin' everywhere
+for 'em and me never lettin' on?  I says to myself you wasn't really
+yourself, but like enough a cousin or foster-sister, and just as good and
+perhaps more satisfactory.  Come, we'll just race around home and go in
+by the back-door so as to be there for supper as if nothin'd happened."
+
+Just before they reached the kitchen door, Elsie spoke.
+
+"Oh, Katy, couldn't I stay in my room until she--Mrs. Moss comes?  My
+head does ache--terribly."
+
+"Well, child, you go up there now, anyhow, and Katy'll see what her big
+head can do."
+
+The quick-witted woman got out of her suit and into her slipshod shoes
+and went straight to Mrs. Middleton.
+
+"That Mis' Moss flew right off, ma'am--forgot somethin' she had to do in
+New York, it seems, and off she goes.  Them Westerners, you know, is
+reg'lar globe-trotters.  She's comin' back to accept our hospitality on
+Sunday, it seems, but here I am with a company supper fit for the Empress
+of Injy and plans for meals all day to-morrow and a bed made up.  I
+suppose you wouldn't want to ask Miss Dunham to make her visit now and
+help eat things up?  The pineys are all in blossom, too."
+
+Miss Dunham was an elderly, crippled parishioner who lived a little out
+of town and came each year to the parsonage for a day or two.  Mrs.
+Middleton threw her arms about Kate.
+
+"Oh, Katy, what a dear you are to think of it!  It's just the thing.  Day
+after to-morrow is children's Sunday and she'll enjoy that, and I'm going
+to church myself and surprise Mr. Middleton.  That is why Elsie went into
+Boston to-day--to get me some gloves and a dove-colored sunshade.  Do you
+think you can get her here to-night, Katy?"
+
+"I'll telephone to himself at the library," said patient Kate, who hated
+the telephone.  "And we'll wait supper."
+
+The plan worked perfectly.  The minister fetched Miss Dunham in a
+motor-car in time for a late tea.  Only Kate and Elsie knew what her
+visit meant to the latter, and Kate didn't understand fully.  Mrs. Moss
+arrived on Sunday shortly after the guest had gone.
+
+But at best Elsie had suffered keenly, and when Mrs. Moss found her pale
+and hollow-eyed, she felt conscience-stricken.  But she had no
+opportunity to give her any of Elsie Moss's cheering messages, for she
+went into immediate conference with the Middletons.
+
+They talked for an hour.  The waiting was agony for the girl, and she was
+at once relieved and desperate when at length she was summoned down to
+the study.  Mrs. Middleton beckoned her to a place beside her on the
+couch, and Elsie dropped gratefully into it.  She could not raise her
+eyes; she sat with her hands clasped tightly, very pale, yet aware
+somehow, at the very first, of the kindness, the sheltering kindness, as
+it were, of the woman at her side.  And while she had steeled herself to
+endure the coldness of Mr. Middleton's voice, it had never been more
+gentle.
+
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story, now.  It seemed a sad mix-up at
+first--what a friend of mine up-State would call a 'pretty kettle of
+fish'; but with Aunt Milly's assistance we managed to get at the crux of
+the affair and see things more clearly.  Aunt Milly declares it was just
+child's play: that you girls had no more idea of doing anything wrong, of
+deceiving, than she had last winter when her new hat came from the
+milliner's and she decided to wear it back foremost and never told any
+one what she was doing."
+
+[Illustration: "Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now."]
+
+Elsie knew from his voice that he was smiling.  She wanted to thank him
+for his kindness; she longed to raise her eyes gratefully to Aunt Milly,
+but she was powerless to do even that.  He went on:
+
+"Mrs. Moss brings word that Miss Pritchard has become deeply attached
+to--er--the other Elsie.  Now that isn't a circumstance to our case.  For
+my part, I couldn't possibly have cared more for my dear sister's
+daughter than I have come to care for you, Elsie, and Aunt Milly is
+convinced she couldn't have cared for her nearly so much.  In any event,
+we cannot give you up.  Somehow we shall have to come to an agreement
+with your guardian, Miss Pritchard--that is, if you are willing?"
+
+Elsie knew she should burst into tears if she attempted to answer.
+
+"I'll speak for her.  Elsie won't leave us," Mrs. Middleton declared.
+
+"Not if--if you----"
+
+The bell rang violently.
+
+"That sounds like Miss Pritchard now," remarked Mrs. Moss, thankful to
+have the tenseness relieved.  And, in truth, Kate, who was suspiciously
+near the front door, ushered that lady in at once.
+
+Introductions were gone through hastily.  The Middletons felt their
+prejudice vanish at sight of her kind, worn, genuine face, and she was
+deeply impressed by the minister.  Of his wife, she reserved judgment.
+
+She kissed her young relative with more warmth than she had expected to
+feel, for there were tears on the girl's white cheeks, and she looked
+sweet and sorry and appealing.  She was indeed a Pritchard, though not so
+typically so as she had anticipated.
+
+The minister mentioned the point at which they had arrived in the
+discussion, and for a little they talked all round the matter.  Then Miss
+Pritchard presented her conclusions.
+
+"Those babes took things into their own hands in great style a year ago,"
+she declared.  "They got hold of a deck of cards and shuffled them to
+suit themselves, not realizing that isn't the way to play the game.  They
+shouldn't have touched the cards and they shouldn't have shuffled them;
+but somehow they happened to make a good deal all round.  As the game has
+come out, we all like it.  We shouldn't, indeed, be willing to go back
+and deal out fresh hands.  Am I wrong?"
+
+The rejoinder indicated that she was wholly in the right.
+
+"Now, for my part, I'm used to Elsie Moss and I want to keep her, but I
+wouldn't take her out of reach of her own kin--at least not for some
+time.  There's a man in Boston I want her to study with--she's going to
+be an opera-singer--and we're to be here at the inn all summer so that we
+can get respectively acquainted with our shuffled kith and kin--I want a
+chance to know my little Pritchard cousin, too."
+
+It seemed easier to speak beside the point than to the question.
+Thereupon the minister suggested that Miss Pritchard should remain
+permanently at Enderby.  That might well have waited, but Miss Pritchard
+declared she had already thought of taking a house in the fall.
+
+"I thought if you insisted upon trading back, we'd all be in sight of one
+another that way, even though we elders might be mutually hating each
+other," she added.
+
+Whereupon they began to mention particular houses, and would have gone on
+indefinitely but for Mrs. Moss.  It was she, the outsider, for whom,
+whatever the sequel, there would be no place in the plans, who called
+them back to the real matter at issue.
+
+"Apparently, then," she said, "you're going to let things remain largely
+in the _status quo_.  But one difficulty comes to my mind.  When all is
+said, my Elsie was wholly at fault in all this.  She's sorry now, but for
+all that, I'm afraid she hasn't taken it so hard as this Elsie here, and
+what's more--this is what I'm getting at: Elsie Moss can drop the name
+she assumed falsely and, going elsewhere, resume her own as a matter of
+course.  But this Elsie, who has become well acquainted here and entered
+into the life of the place, cannot suddenly change from Moss to Marley
+without a great deal of pain to herself."
+
+Quite true.  No one had thought of that.  It seemed appalling!
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Moss went on rather doubtfully, "she could keep on with
+the name.  It's perfectly possible to have two Elsie Mosses in one
+family.  People would only take them for cousins."
+
+"It's possible," the minister acknowledged, "but it wouldn't be right.
+It wouldn't be honorable for Elsie to continue to use the name now."
+
+"Ah, but Jack, it would be cruelly hard for her to change back to
+Marley!" cried his wife; and he sadly agreed.
+
+"Do you think you could go through it, dear?" he asked, turning to Elsie.
+
+"I ought to bear something a great deal harder," cried Elsie suddenly.
+
+"No, you ought not, my dear," rejoined Mrs. Middleton.  "No, Jack, it
+would be too hard on Elsie--on any young girl; and, besides, it would
+hurt her influence at the library and with the schoolgirls.  If people
+could understand everything clearly, it would be another matter, but they
+couldn't.  Elsie's best friends know it.  For my part, I don't believe
+she deserves any punishment for doing wrong unconsciously--especially
+since she's been such an angel of mercy to this house.  But even if she
+had, she's suffered enough already to atone--with plenary grace."
+
+"She's got to go by some name," Miss Pritchard remarked palpably, but
+that gave Mrs. Middleton a suggestion.
+
+"I know," she cried.  "Oh, Jack!  Oh, Elsie!" and her face was quite
+irradiated with love and good-will.  "I know exactly what we'll do!
+Elsie is just seventeen.  We'll adopt her, Jack, for our own daughter,
+and she shall wear our name henceforth.  She shall be Elsie Middleton,
+and Elsie Moss shall remain Elsie Moss, and they'll really be cousins."
+
+She held out her arms, and Elsie nestled into them.
+
+"My dearest Mildred!" cried her husband, going over to them in his
+enthusiasm.  "Isn't she wonderful?" he demanded, and almost in the same
+breath asked Miss Pritchard's consent to legalize the adoption.
+
+"Of course, only after suitable arrangements and provision were made,
+Miss Pritchard.  All we want now is your general or conditional approval."
+
+Miss Pritchard smiled as she sighed.  "I'm sure I don't know what the
+Pritchards would say, but if Elsie's willing I confess I don't see any
+objection."
+
+Elsie's expression made any questioning of her unnecessary.
+
+"My own Elsie, my darling daughter," murmured Mrs. Middleton in her
+sentimental way, stroking Elsie's hair.  But, strange to say, Elsie found
+it all very grateful.
+
+"As to Elsie M--" Miss Pritchard began, when she was interrupted by a
+knock on the door, which she had left ajar (greatly to Kate's approval),
+and Elsie Moss burst in.
+
+In the excitement of the moment, she seemed her old self again--though
+Miss Pritchard knew it to be a lovelier self.  She stood a moment in the
+doorway, a charming little figure in a smart rose-colored linen suit with
+a large drooping hat perched coquettishly upon her short locks, her
+dimples very conspicuous.  Then she rushed upon Elsie Marley, who had
+come forward shyly, and flung her arms about her.
+
+Then she turned, her arm still about the other girl, to Miss Pritchard.
+
+"I couldn't wait any longer, Cousin Julia," she said sweetly.  "I just
+had to see Elsie-Honey."
+
+"We're to be real cousins," the other whispered, and the quick-witted
+girl understood at once.
+
+"How perfectly ripping!" she cried.  "Oh, everybody's so dear and darling
+that I should simply die of shame and remorse if I didn't just have to
+stay alive to worship Cousin Julia and get acquainted with Uncle John and
+Aunt Milly and--love my honey!"
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***
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+<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elsie Marley, Honey, by Joslyn Gray</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Elsie Marley, Honey</p>
+<p>Author: Joslyn Gray</p>
+<p>Release Date: September 30, 2007  [eBook #22819]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***</p>
+<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="Elsie . . . repeated the performance in a manner that was only the more captivating." BORDER="2" WIDTH="399" HEIGHT="644">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 399px">
+Elsie&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. repeated the performance in a manner that was only the more captivating.
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+ELSIE MARLEY
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BY
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+JOSLYN GRAY
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+AUTHOR OF "KATHLEEN'S PROBATION"
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ILLUSTRATED
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+NEW YORK
+<BR>
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
+<BR>
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+TO
+<BR>
+MARY BULLIONS GRAY ANDERSON
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%">
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%">
+<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%">
+<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%">
+<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%">
+<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%">
+<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap26">CHAPTER XXVI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap27">CHAPTER XXVII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap28">CHAPTER XXVIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap29">CHAPTER XXIX</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap30">CHAPTER XXX</A>
+</TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap31">CHAPTER XXXI</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap32">CHAPTER XXXII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap33">CHAPTER XXXIII</A>
+</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">&nbsp;</TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-front">
+Elsie&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. repeated the performance in a manner that was only
+the more<BR> captivating&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. <I>Frontispiece</I>
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-130">
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,<BR>
+as you call it"
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-162">
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none<BR> of them," he remarked
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-260">
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now"
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Bennet, her travelling companion from San Francisco, having proved
+to be talkative and uninteresting, Elsie Marley was more than content
+to find herself alone after the change had been made and her train
+pulled out of Chicago.  It was characteristic of the girl that she did
+not even look out of the window to see the last of Mrs. Bennet, who,
+having waited on the platform until the train started and waved her
+handkerchief in vain, betook herself indignantly to her carriage.
+Quite unaware of any remissness on her part, Elsie settled herself
+comfortably&mdash;Mrs. Bennet had disposed of her luggage&mdash;folded her hands
+in her lap, and gazed idly out the window opposite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A pale, colorless girl, the simplicity of her dress was in almost too
+great contrast with its elegance&mdash;a contrived simplicity that left no
+room for any trace of careless youth or girlishness.  Slender and
+rather delicate-looking, she had brown eyes, regular features, and
+soft, light-brown hair waving loosely about her face and hanging in two
+long, demure curls from a shell clasp at her neck.  But her eyes were
+of rather a shallow brown, her brows and lashes still lighter; her
+features were almost too regular, and her skin, though soft and clear,
+was quite colorless.  Even so, she might have been pretty, perhaps
+lovely, had she possessed any animation.  But the girl's face and even
+her eyes were as nearly expressionless as human features may be.  She
+was like a superior sort of doll with white cheeks in lieu of red.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a little she opened a small leather satchel, took out a letter,
+and perused it attentively.  It was the last she had received from her
+guardian and only living relative, Cousin Julia Pritchard, and, as she
+was to see her soon, it behooved her to prepare herself so far as she
+might for that occasion.  For Elsie Marley realized, though dimly, that
+she was to encounter a personality unlike any with which she had come
+in contact in all her sheltered, luxurious life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear Elsie," the letter ran, "I find myself very much pleased at
+the thought of having you with me.  The heart of a woman of fifty
+cannot but rejoice in anticipation of the company of a young girl with
+the ideals, the vigor, and buoyancy of sixteen.  And since we are both
+alone in the world, you representing all my kith and kin as I believe
+myself to represent all yours, it is only fitting that we should be
+together instead of being separated by the breadth of our great
+American continent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will, I am sure, like this great, busy, restless, humming city,
+though the only home I have to offer you, I am truly sorry to say, is
+in a boarding-house, comfortable though it is.  Remembering Aunt
+Ellen's beautiful home in California, which I visited fifteen years
+ago, I fear the change may be difficult, though, for a young person,
+not too painfully so, I trust.  A boarding-house is the only home I
+have myself known for thirty years, and this particular one is
+excellent and full of interesting people, though the youngest among
+them are middle-aged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am, I repeat, happy to say that I can give you a home here and
+clothe you suitably.  That will release your income, which can be put
+to any use which we may decide upon after consultation together.  Your
+lawyer tells me that you are through school, and neither you nor he
+speak of any desire on your part to go to college.  I suppose, however,
+like most young girls, you will wish to take up some study or
+occupation to fit yourself to become self-supporting or to be useful to
+the world in some definite manner.  I heartily sympathize with such an
+aim, having worked since my eighteenth year myself, and shall be
+cordially interested in helping you either to plan or to carry out a
+future for yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here Elsie broke off.  Cousin Julia was certainly absurd!  She had
+always been regarded, indeed, by the California Pritchards as a
+singular, eccentric person, rather wanting in refinement and careless
+of social amenities&mdash;one from whom they were quite content to be
+separated by the "breadth of our great American continent."  She had
+taken after her mother, who came from Nebraska&mdash;or some such place&mdash;and
+the family had considered it a pity that she should have been and
+remained Pritchard by name, particularly since Elsie herself, Pritchard
+of Pritchards, had to go by the name Marley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still the girl's smooth brow did not contract.  In any event, she said
+to herself, after Cousin Julia had seen her, it wasn't likely that she
+would suggest that she go out and earn her living.  And as for her
+future, which the letter mentioned&mdash;why, her future was of course far
+ahead.  Elsie had rather taken it for granted that she should marry
+when the proper time came, as girls did in books, as her grandmother
+and mother had done, and as Aunt Ellen would have done had she not been
+so frail.  Once it had even occurred to her that it would be rather
+appropriate if she should marry some one named Pritchard, though she
+realized that to be only a remote possibility.  In any event, she
+didn't know why going to New York should necessarily make any essential
+difference in her future, and she was thankful that she hadn't to
+consider it for some years yet.  Meantime, the boarding-house
+confronted her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Very likely, however, she could endure even that.  She knew it would be
+comfortable, so far as that went, and she needn't mingle with the other
+people.  She could have a piano and continue her lessons, and she might
+study vocal music.  She could buy books and attend concerts and perhaps
+even the theatre and opera.  She could go alone in a carriage to
+matinée performances, and quite likely there would be some reduced
+gentlewoman living at the boarding-house who might be glad of the
+chance to accompany her as chaperon in the evenings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For Elsie took it for granted that Cousin Julia wouldn't care for the
+sort of things she was accustomed to any more than she herself would be
+interested to go about with her.  Somehow the girl felt that Miss
+Pritchard would be devoted to vaudeville and even moving pictures&mdash;she
+might even refer to the latter as "movies"!  Of course, that was the
+worst of the whole situation&mdash;Cousin Julia herself!  For, no matter how
+singular or even coarse she might be, Elsie had to live with her and to
+put up with a certain amount of her society.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That would be very difficult; still, even now, the girl seemed to see
+wide spaces between.  Except for Sundays and evenings when neither of
+them went out, she wouldn't have to see a great deal of the older
+woman.  She might have to dine with her every night, but, as she worked
+in a business office, she probably wouldn't be home to lunch, and of
+course Elsie would have her breakfast in her room.  Sunday might be
+long and boring, but, whatever Cousin Julia's ideas might be, Elsie
+would always insist upon going to service, and that would occupy a part
+of the day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+An hour had passed since Mrs. Bennet had left Elsie Marley.  As she
+returned the letter to the satchel she became aware that the train was
+at a standstill and not before a station.  Indeed, there was not a
+building in sight: only a dreary waste of sunburnt prairie-grass
+extended flatly to the glare of the burning horizon.  She looked about
+wonderingly, vaguely aware that they must already have waited some time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her gaze included the rear of the car and emboldened a young girl who
+had been watching her longingly a great part of the way from San
+Francisco, to act upon her desire.  Immediately she donned a coquettish
+little red hat and linen top-coat, and made her way to the other girl's
+seat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you want to come out and walk a little?" she asked in a
+singularly sweet, eager voice.  "There's a hot-box, or some such thing,
+and they say it'll be an hour more before we get away.  It might seem
+good to stretch our legs on the prairie yonder?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley didn't care at all to go.  Indeed, she didn't wish to make
+the acquaintance of this conspicuous-looking girl with her dark hair
+cut square about her ears who had travelled alone all the way from San
+Francisco and seemed to know every one in the car.  If she should give
+her any encouragement, no doubt she would hang about her all the rest
+of the way.  She excused herself coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, please do, please come for just a wee turn," urged the other,
+smiling and displaying a pair of marvellous dimples.  And Elsie Marley
+surprised herself by yielding.  Possibly she was too indolent to hold
+out; perhaps she felt something in the stranger that wouldn't take no
+for an answer, and didn't care to struggle against it.  Again, she may
+have felt, dimly and against her will, something of the real charm of
+the other.  However that was, she yielded listlessly, put on her neat
+sailor hat reluctantly, drew on the jacket of her severe and elegant
+dark-blue suit, and followed the stranger slowly from the car.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The stranger, who was dressed in a rather graceful and perhaps rather
+flamboyant adaptation of the prevailing fashion, was picturesque and
+radiant to the extreme: slender, dark, vivid, with big, dark eyes in a
+small pointed face, dark hair "bobbed" and curling sufficiently to turn
+under about her ears and neck, a rather large mouth flanked by really
+extraordinary dimples, and an expression at once gay and saucy and
+sweet and appealing withal.  Her voice was very sweet, her unusually
+finished pronunciation and enunciation giving a curious effect to her
+slangy speech.  She wore her clothes jauntily, carried herself with
+charming grace, and her great dimples made her frank smile irresistible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know, I've been simply crazy all the way to come and speak to
+you," she confessed as soon as they were outside.  "I spotted you the
+very first thing, but I was rather phased by that woman with you.
+Wasn't she the&mdash;goodness gracious!  I hope she wasn't any
+relation&mdash;your aunt or mother?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no indeed, scarcely an acquaintance," returned the other,
+surprised that any one should even conjecture that Mrs. Bennet might be
+connected with her.  Then it occurred to her that Cousin Julia might be
+even worse!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never met her until a week ago," she went on languidly.  "She
+happened to be a friend of my lawyer's wife, and he wished me to come
+as far as I could in her company.  I suppose I oughtn't to travel the
+rest of the way alone, but he didn't make any other arrangement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it isn't bad.  I've come all the way alone and everything's been
+jolly.  I've made awfully good friends, though they're all either
+elderly or children.  So your being about my age only made me want to
+know you the more.  Well, now that we're acquainted, we'll have to make
+the most of what's left of the way.  I am Elsie Moss and I was sixteen
+Christmas day.  Aren't you about that age?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sixteen, Miss Moss," returned Elsie Marley formally.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But don't call me <I>Miss</I>," pleaded the other.  "<I>Everybody</I> calls me
+Elsie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley did not reply.  She disliked the idea that the
+unchaperoned stranger should be Elsie, also, and should even have the
+same initials.  Her imagination was limited; still it occurred to her
+that the situation would have been much worse had the girl happened to
+bear the surname Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stifled a sigh.  They seemed to be getting acquainted perforce.
+Now that she was out, however, she didn't care to go back at once, even
+though the sun beat down upon them fiercely, and the dry grass was full
+of dust and cinders.  She glanced about irresolutely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now if this were a scene in a play," remarked Elsie Moss reflectively,
+"the engine would have broken down near a grove with immemorial trees,
+or there'd be a dell hard by where the hero and heroine could wander by
+a stream.  Or else&mdash;" she hesitated.  "You don't feel comfy, do you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The sun is so hot, it's hardly safe to be out.  I'd better go in
+again," replied the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the car'll be awfully hot, too, standing right in the sun.  I
+know&mdash;I'll get an umbrella."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rushed off at full speed lest the other should
+remonstrate&mdash;something that Elsie Marley didn't think of doing.  She
+accepted the favor as a matter of course, and they walked on slowly,
+the one restraining her eager feet with difficulty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, I suppose <I>you're</I> going to New York, too?" she asked.
+"Everybody seems to be except poor me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other returned a spiritless affirmative.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course!  Oh, dear, and I'm simply <I>perishing</I> to go!  But I'm due
+in a poky little place in Massachusetts called Enderby.  Isn't that the
+limit?  The name alone would queer the place, don't you think so?  It's
+fairly near Boston, but they say Boston's slow compared with New York
+or even with San Francisco."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She waited a moment, then rattled on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know, sometimes it seems my <I>duty</I> to go to New York.  I've got
+five hundred dollars all my own.  Dad had a long sickness, and, anyhow,
+he never got much ahead; but he left me that clear, and I'm just going
+to beg and implore my uncle on bended knee to let me take it and go to
+New York to study.  I could get a start with that, I'm sure."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She looked up so eagerly that something strange seemed to stir within
+the quiet girl.  It was almost as if she would have liked to express
+her sympathy had she known how.  And when the light suddenly died out
+of the sparkling eyes and even the shadows of the dimples disappeared,
+she felt almost at fault.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other girl did not resent her want of sympathy, however.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But he'll never, never consent," she went on mournfully, "because he's
+an orthodox minister and I want to be an actress.  Of course he
+couldn't approve, and I ought not to blame him.  And yet, if I wait
+until I'm of age, I'll be too old.  I'd like to run away right now, but
+for the row it would make and for frightening auntie.  Really, you
+know, I'd rather join the circus than go to Enderby."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I have always understood that to be an actress one must go through
+much that&mdash;isn't nice," remarked Elsie Marley in her colorless voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but that's half the fun&mdash;the struggle against odds," exclaimed
+Miss Moss with the assurance of untried youth.  "Our class motto at the
+high school was 'Per aspera ad astra.'  Isn't that fine and inspiring?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other assented listlessly,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A breeze had arisen, and now, at a little distance from the track, the
+air, though warm, was fresh and sweet.  The yellowed grass extended to
+the brilliant blue of the sky as far as the eye could reach.  For the
+first time, perhaps, in centuries, the plain was peopled by a throng;
+for by now nearly every one in the long train had come out.  Men stood
+in groups discussing politics and the Mexican affair; women wandered
+sedately about, most of them keeping a watchful eye upon the engine, as
+if it might suddenly start and plunge on, dragging an empty train of
+cars; children ran and frisked and shouted, making the most of the
+occasion, as only children can.  The two Elsies happened to be the only
+young girls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They had gone some little distance beyond the others.  Failing to draw
+out her companion, Elsie Moss took it for granted that she was shy, and
+chatted on about her own affairs, hoping presently to effect an
+exchange of confidences.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't help wondering what my uncle will be like," she said soberly,
+thrusting her hand into the pocket of her coat.  "You see, I've never
+seen him, though he and my mother were the greatest chums ever when
+they were young&mdash;almost like twins, though he was heaps older.  But
+mother went to California when she married and I was born there, and
+though he always meant to, he never got out to see us.  His wife
+couldn't stand the journey.  And when mother died, he was way over in
+Egypt, so of course he didn't come.  All that I know is that he's
+handsome and dignified and lives in a very proper place where they have
+everything correct and conventional&mdash;musical advantages and oratorios
+and lectures on Emerson, and village improvement and associated
+charities and all that, but no vaudeville nor movies.  I suppose if
+there were a theatre they'd only play Ibsen and Bernard Shaw."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley opened her eyes rather wider than usual.  For it all
+sounded attractive to her, particularly in contrast with the
+boarding-house and New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's awfully religious-looking, you know," Elsie Moss continued.  "He
+wears the same sort of waistcoats and collars the Episcopalians do,
+though he's a Congregationalist, and his picture is more than
+dignified, I can tell you.  Well, no doubt he's dreading me just as
+much as I am him, or else he's expecting me to be just like mother and
+will have the surprise of his life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She hesitated.  "I suppose I do look like her," she added gently and
+quite as if she believed the other girl to be deeply interested.  Then
+her voice dropped suddenly and her eyes filled with tears.  "Mother
+died&mdash;in the earthquake," she added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Something vaguely uncomfortable just stirred the surface of Elsie
+Marley's consciousness, though it wasn't sufficiently acute to be
+called a pang.  The earthquake had happened seven or eight years
+ago&mdash;and this girl's grief seemed fresh to-day.  Her own mother had
+been dead less than three years.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She did not acknowledge that her mother was only a memory.  She hardly
+realized it, indeed.  Only, conscious of that vague, strange
+discomfort, she had an impulse to get away from it.  She put a languid
+question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What have you done since?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've learned what a difference mothers make," returned the girl
+soberly.  Then she darted suddenly outside the range of the umbrella.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's that?  A gopher?" she cried.  "Oh, my goodness, it's only one
+of those ridiculous Dutch dogs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It might have been, you know," she said as she returned to the shade.
+Then she resumed the subject she had dropped.  Elsie Marley said to
+herself that she needn't listen, but as a matter of fact she heard
+every word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was so small I couldn't do much, and we had an awful time for a
+year.  Dad was always more or less hard up, but he was worse after the
+earthquake, and if we had a servant she wasted things so that he was
+wild.  He married again&mdash;a schoolteacher, and it wasn't a year, quite,
+after&mdash;the earthquake.  Most people didn't blame him, but Uncle John
+where I'm going did, and wanted me to come right on East and live with
+him, but dad wouldn't hear of it.  And, anyhow, she was the nicest
+thing.  I loved her dearly at the end of a week.  She wanted to keep me
+with her after dad died, but my uncle insisted upon my coming to him,
+so here I am."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She looked into the other girl's eyes half appealingly, though her big
+dimples were dimly visible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She wouldn't stand for my being an actress, either, so there you are.
+And I liked her so much I couldn't half urge her.  And that's the worst
+of it; if I stay with my uncle the least little while I shall get to
+liking him so much I shan't be able to run away.  It's perfectly
+terrible to get so fond of people when you want a career.  I suppose
+the thing to do would really be to disappear right now.  Oh, not this
+moment, but simply never to go to Enderby.  Suppose I should go right
+on to New York with you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley gazed at her without a word and almost without expression.
+But within, she was secretly roused.  She marvelled at the stranger's
+audacity.  She was surprised to feel that she was not bored.  She
+decided that she would not return to the car until they should be
+summoned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she was fumbling in her mind for the response the Moss girl
+evidently awaited, one of the children whose acquaintance the latter
+had made came running up to her and shyly took her hand and kissed it.
+Again putting the umbrella into the other girl's hands, Elsie Moss
+impulsively caught the little thing into her arms and fondled her.
+Then dropping her gently, she took both the little hands in hers and
+danced away with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They made a charming picture against the long, yellow prairie-grass.
+The little girl moved with the grace of a child, but Elsie Moss danced
+like a fairy.  Her cheeks glowed, her dark eyes shone, her dimples
+twinkled, her feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground.  Her red hat
+was like a poppy-cup, and the dark hair tumbling about her little face,
+elf-locks.  Elsie Marley gazed spellbound.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But only for a moment; on a sudden she turned and made her way back to
+the car, which was almost empty.  She returned not because she wanted
+to, not even because she was indifferent as to what she did.  She went
+because she didn't want to.  Unconsciously she was struggling against
+yielding to the charm of the vivid young creature who threatened to
+take her by storm.  In all her life she had never been deeply or warmly
+affected by another personality.  Perhaps now she realized this dimly,
+and some instinct warned her subtly to avoid any departure from old
+habitude, even when avoidance meant the first real struggle she had
+ever made against definite inclination.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seemed long before the other occupants of the car began to stroll
+in.  Then the engine whistled sharp warning, the laggards trooped back,
+and the train started briskly.  Elsie Moss entered by the rear door, as
+Elsie Marley knew, though she did not turn around.  She said to herself
+that no doubt she would be upon her directly, that she would have her
+company for the rest of the day and the remainder of the journey.  But
+she established herself in the middle of the seat lest she seem to give
+any invitation.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley was not interrupted, as it happened.  Some little time
+passed and still she was alone.  The girl could not understand a
+certain unrest that was upon her.  She waited a few moments longer,
+then she moved close to the window so as to leave more than half the
+seat vacant.  Still nothing happened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At length she turned and looked back.  Elsie Moss, who sat between an
+old lady and a little boy, smiled and nodded.  Elsie Marley half
+smiled.  Still the other made no move.  Then she looked back, really
+smiled, and beckoned her to a place beside her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss, more than willing to be summoned, had some difficulty in
+getting away from her present companions.  But the grandmother
+prevailed upon the little boy to spare her, and she presented herself
+at Elsie Marley's seat smiling in her irresistible way with the big
+dimples indented, and looking as if she would like to hug her as she
+had hugged the little girl outside.  And Elsie Marley had a curious
+intimation that she shouldn't have minded greatly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you think," exclaimed Miss Moss as she seated herself, "you
+know all my family history and I don't even know your name.  I've been
+guessing.  It ought to be either Isabel or Hildegarde.  Is it?  Oh, I
+do wish it were, they're both so sort of stately and princess-like that
+they'd just suit you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It isn't either," responded the other with a curious sense of
+disappointment.  "My name is Elsie also."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of all things!  But it's rather jolly, after all.  And what's the
+rest?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Marley, Elsie Pritchard Marley.  But at home they called me Elsie
+Pritchard, because I am&mdash;all Pritchard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unacquainted with the Pritchard distinction, Elsie Moss was not
+impressed.  But she exclaimed gleefully over the real surname.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie Marley!" she cried.  "Why, isn't that funny, and oh, isn't it
+dear!  Elsie Marley, honey!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other girl looked blank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course you know the song, or at least the rhyme?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Song?  Rhyme?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes.  You must have heard it: 'And Do You Ken Elsie Marley,
+Honey?'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it really and truly Elsie Marley?" queried the pale Elsie speaking
+for the first time like a real girl, though she had no girlish
+vocabulary from which to draw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sure," asserted the other, delighted to be able to surprise her
+seatmate.  And she sang a stanza in the sweetest voice Elsie Marley had
+ever heard, though she had heard good music all her life, and famous
+singers.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?<BR>
+The wife who sells the barley, honey?<BR>
+She won't get up to serve her swine,<BR>
+And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is there&mdash;any more?" demanded Elsie Marley almost eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One more, and then you just repeat the first.  I've known it all my
+life.  Mother used to sing it to me when I was a baby.  Then a few
+years ago when I first went to see vaudeville, I 'got it up,' as they
+say, with dancing and a little acting.  I used to spring it on people
+that came to the house.  Dad liked it, but it made my stepmother feel
+bad&mdash;dad said because I was too professional."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sighed deeply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sing the rest, please, Elsie?" asked the other, using her name for the
+first time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will if you'll let me call you Elsie-Honey?  You see it really
+belongs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie knew that it was silly, but she found herself quite willing.  She
+seemed under a strange spell.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only," she added, with a stronger sensation of discomfort, "after
+to-morrow it isn't likely we'll ever see one another again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes we will, sure.  Why, we just <I>must</I>&mdash;at least if you want to
+half as much as I do, Elsie-Honey?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do," Elsie confessed shyly and now with a curiously pleasant
+feeling.  "And now, Elsie, please sing the other stanzas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It sounds just dear to say <I>stanzas</I>," cried the other.  "I should
+always say <I>verses</I>, even if I didn't forget which was which."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With an absurd little flourish of her hands, she turned slightly in her
+seat.  The dimples came out strongly, and though she sat quite still,
+there was truly something dramatic in the manner in which the would-be
+actress sang the lines.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Elsie Marley is grown so fine<BR>
+She won't get up to feed the swine,<BR>
+But lies in bed till eight or nine,<BR>
+And surely she does take her time.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?<BR>
+The wife who sells the barley, honey?<BR>
+She won't get up to serve her swine,<BR>
+And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both girls broke into natural, infectious laughter.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Bliss, or any one who had known Elsie Marley, could scarcely have
+believed their eyes or credited their hearing.  But Elsie's father, who
+had died while she was an infant, had had a warm heart and a keen sense
+of humor, and it might well be that his daughter had inherited
+something of this that had lain dormant all the while.  For truly, the
+wholesome, hardy qualities brought out in others through simple human
+association had had little chance to germinate in her hothouse
+existence in the Pritchard household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Despite the rumble of the train, four children in the rear of the car
+caught the sound of the singing and came trooping up begging for more.
+A pretty nursemaid followed with a fat, smiling infant.  Elsie Moss
+made her sit down with it (beside Elsie Marley!) and she herself
+perched on the arm of the seat and sang song after song until it was
+time to go into the dining-car.  The children, wild with enthusiasm,
+were not in reality more appreciative of the lovely voice than Elsie
+Marley herself.  The two girls went in to dinner together in happy
+companionship.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley lay in her berth that night for some time in a state
+between musing and actually dreaming.  She was conscious&mdash;partly
+conscious, that is&mdash;of a new sensation of happiness.  She did not,
+however, at all realize how fortunate she was.  She did not know that
+for the first time in her life the door of her heart had been opened in
+response to another.  It was, perhaps, open only a crack.  Possibly it
+had been fast so long that it would not remain open.  None the less, at
+the moment it stood ajar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After dinner the girls had talked late&mdash;late for sleeping-car hours,
+that is to say.  Elsie Marley herself had talked; had said more in an
+hour than she had ever before said in a day.  Questioned in a frank,
+sympathetic manner by the other Elsie, she had been led to speak of her
+grandmother's household and of her daily life there, going into details
+so far as she knew how, as she found the other so generously and
+romantically concerned.  Then she had gone on to speak of Cousin Julia
+Pritchard and the boarding-house, confessing her apprehension and
+dread, which seemed somehow to have become more definite in the
+interval.  She even showed the stranger Cousin Julia's letter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having perused it, Elsie Moss acknowledged that it wasn't altogether a
+pleasant outlook for such a one as Elsie Marley, honey, though she
+herself wouldn't mind it.  Indeed, she declared that she should have
+liked it immensely.  And finally, as she left to go back to her berth,
+she exclaimed with fervor that she only wished that Miss Pritchard were
+her cousin, and the Reverend John Middleton Elsie Marley's uncle and
+guardian.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As those were Elsie Moss's last spoken words that night, so that
+thought was uppermost in her mind as she fell asleep shortly after her
+cropped head touched the pillow.  And next morning when she woke early
+with a startlingly delightful idea, it almost caused her to bound from
+her upper berth as if it had been a bed in the middle of a stationary
+floor.  For it came not in embryo, not in the egg, so to speak, but
+full-fledged.  It seemed as if she couldn't possibly wait until she was
+dressed to divulge it to Elsie Marley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Elsie Marley was, like her prototype, late in rising, and the other
+Elsie's eagerness grew yet keener as she waited.  Finally, however,
+they were alone together in the former's seat, as the train sped
+rapidly eastward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley's countenance seemed almost to have changed overnight.
+There was truly something in it that had not been there before.  Of
+course it was not animated now; nevertheless, it was not so utterly
+wanting in expression as it had been the day before, even in
+juxtaposition with the vivid little face beside her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey, I've got something perfectly gorgeous to tell you,"
+cried the dark Elsie.  "Listen&mdash;you're not very keen about going to
+your cousin's, are you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie confessed that she liked the idea less than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I just <I>hate</I>&mdash;the short of it is&mdash;I simply <I>cannot</I> go anywhere
+but to New York.  You'd ever so much prefer Enderby because it's select
+and has culture and advantages, and you'd sooner have a dignified
+clergyman uncle than a newspaper cousin.  As for me, I should adore
+Cousin Julia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It seems a pity, surely," admitted Elsie quietly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other looked at her.  "You see what's coming, honey?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head, perplexed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey!  It's plain as pudding.  Presto! change!  That's all.
+Aren't we both Elsie, and don't we both want just what's coming to the
+other?  All we have to do is to swap surnames.  See?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still Elsie Marley did not understand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shake us up in a box, you know," the other explained, her dimples very
+conspicuous, "and you come out Elsie Moss and I, Elsie Marley, without
+the honey.  You go to live with Reverend John Middleton and I'll go to
+New York and try to persuade your Cousin Julia to let her supposed
+relative study for the stage.  What could be better?  It's simply
+ripping and dead easy.  Neither of them has seen either of us.  Uncle
+John would draw a prize instead of me, and&mdash;I'd be awfully good to your
+cousin, Elsie-Honey."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Really to grasp a conception so daring and revolutionary took Elsie
+Marley some time.  But when she had once grasped it, she considered it
+seriously.  It did not seem to her, even at first, either unreasonable
+or impossible.  Indeed, influenced by the enthusiasm of the other girl,
+she began to feel it both reasonable and fitting.  In a way, too, it
+was only natural.  For after all, the girl had always had her way made
+smooth for her, and this appeared only a continuation of that process.
+She certainly <I>didn't</I> want to go to Cousin Julia's, and she liked the
+idea of living in the quiet parsonage of the aristocratic country town.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, she agreed to the proposal more readily and unquestioningly
+than a girl of more imagination or experience could have done.  For her
+part, Elsie Moss foresaw certain complications, though in truth only
+the most obvious ones.  They discussed these gravely, yet with much
+confidence.  Indeed, an older person must have been both amused and
+amazed at the youthfulness, the inexperience, and the ignorance of life
+the girls exhibited, at their utter unconsciousness that they were not
+qualified to act as responsible human beings and shuffle blood
+relationships about like pawns on a chess-board.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's certainly nothing about it that even my stepmother could
+object to," Elsie Moss concluded.  "Nobody's being cheated: they are
+both going to get what they would really choose if they had a chance,
+and to escape what might be very uncomfortable, and so are we.  We're
+both Elsies, and about the same age, and have brown eyes: if Uncle John
+were to take his pick, wouldn't he take a quiet, dignified, ladylike
+Elsie, instead of a harum-scarum one with short hair that was mad for
+the stage?  And Aunt Milly being rather frail, I should have driven her
+to drink, while you're used to an invalid aunt.  Isn't it just
+wonderful?  The more I think of it, the <I>righter</I> it seems.  I almost
+feel now as if it would be wrong <I>not</I> to do it, don't you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Like one in a dream, Elsie Marley assented.  She was almost giddy at
+the swift flight of the other's imagination.  She listened spellbound
+while Elsie Moss spun plans, able herself to contribute nothing but
+assent and applause.  Under skilful questioning, however, she related
+all the Pritchard traditions and family history that Cousin Julia might
+be expected to be familiar with, and endeavored in a docile manner to
+learn enough of Moss and Middleton annals to take her part in the
+Middleton household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss possessed a certain sort of executive ability which enabled
+her to make the practical arrangements for carrying through the plan.
+Quite self-reliant, she planned to accompany the other to Boston to
+make sure that all went well, going thence herself to New York.  After
+consultation with the conductor in regard to time-tables, she sent a
+telegram asking Miss Pritchard to meet a later train.  The change in
+the destination of their respective luggage was more difficult to
+effect, but she accomplished that also, and both girls changed cars for
+Boston.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, presently it seemed as if the only difficult part of the whole
+affair would be the parting from each other.  They were to write
+frequently, of course, and not only for the sake of mutual information;
+but it seemed, particularly to the pale Elsie, who had never had a
+friend, cruelly hard to have to be separated so soon from this most
+charming companion.  She gazed at her wistfully, unable to express
+herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The other Elsie, as quick, nearly, to read as to express feeling, and
+naturally the more impulsive, answered from her heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, we'll see each other often, we'll just have to, Elsie-Honey," she
+cried.  "And anyhow, we'll want to compare notes and brush up on our
+parts.  We'll visit back and forth.  You come to New York and I&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stopped short.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My goodness, that'll never do!  I can never come to Enderby.  You'll
+have to do all the visiting, honey.  I'm the very image of my mother,
+and I'd give it all away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh," said the other feebly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You've noticed that I have dimples, I suppose?" inquired the other
+gloomily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie could not deny it, though denial was evidently what the other
+craved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The latter sighed deeply.  "Then they're just as plain as ever, and
+would give me away first thing," she said.  "Dad used to say he had
+never seen such big dimples as mother's, and that mine were just like
+'em.  He said if I had straight yellow hair and blue eyes, any one that
+had seen her would know me.  Oh, dear, aren't you lucky to have nothing
+conspicuous about you?  I'm sure you're not the image of any one,
+Elsie-Honey, and you'll come to see me often enough to make up, won't
+you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, Elsie, unless he&mdash;Mr. Middleton&mdash;should object to my coming
+to New York alone?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd better begin right away calling him Uncle John, so as to get
+used to it as soon as you can," suggested the other.  "And I'm sure he
+won't object.  I'm sure from his letters that he's not an old fuss, and
+it's a straight trip with no changes from Boston to New York.  And
+Cousin Julia and I will meet you at the Grand Central!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She grinned at her own <I>cheek</I>, as she called it, and the other Elsie
+smiled happily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just the same, I'm more than sorry not to be able to come to Enderby
+to visit," Elsie Moss declared.  "You know it would be simply stunning
+practice, playing the stranger in my uncle's house&mdash;something like the
+real wife in 'East Lynne,' you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never saw 'East Lynne.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear me, I cried quarts and bucketsful over it.  It's the most tragic
+play!  If I had time I could show you how it goes.  I always act things
+out over and over after I've seen them, making up words where I don't
+remember them.  But, alas! we haven't any time to spare with what we've
+got ahead of us, have we, honey?  Now we must arrange for meeting
+Uncle&mdash;no, <I>I</I> must call him <I>Mr.</I> Middleton."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On a sudden the girl clasped her hands in apparent distress.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I never thought!" she cried.  "It won't even be safe for Uncle
+John to see me at the station in Boston.  Well, I shall have to drop
+behind and keep perfectly sober.  I'll just watch out to see that
+everything's all right with you, and then I'll skidoo.  Dear me, I hope
+I don't look so awfully unlike the Marleys as to frighten Cousin Julia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had she said the <I>Pritchards</I>, Elsie would have been in a quandary; as
+it was, her face brightened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She never knew the Marleys, and there aren't any now," she said.  "She
+knows only the Pritchards."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hooray!  I shall harp on the Marleys morning, noon, and night!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She'll like you," observed Elsie wistfully.  "You know she spoke in
+her letter of young life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I shall adore her, dear old thing!" cried the warm-hearted girl.  "And
+Uncle John will adore you.  He adored my mother, who was quiet and deep
+like you.  He was always sending her rare things, and pitying her
+because she was poor and longing to send her money, though dad wouldn't
+have that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The appearance of an expressman warned them that they were nearing
+Boston.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're perfectly sure that you're willing to exchange New York for
+Enderby?" demanded Elsie Moss suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, indeed, Elsie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you don't yearn for Cousin Julia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley half smiled.  "Oh, no," she declared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the other was determined not to take any undue advantage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now listen," she said; "if after you see Uncle John you don't fancy
+him, just say the word or nudge me or wink and I'll swap back without a
+word.  I'll simply step up and say, 'Oh, Uncle John, you've kissed the
+wrong girl!' though, of course, he may be too dignified to kiss at a
+train.  And then I'll introduce you properly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They sped on.  Soon a trainman entered to say that the next station was
+Boston and request them not to leave any articles in the car.  They
+said good-by to each other before the train stopped, kissing warmly
+like real friends.  Then Elsie Moss tied a large, dark veil over her
+hat and well down over her forehead and eyes.  It looked as
+inappropriate for the hot day as the scowling expression she assumed to
+cloak the dimples was ill suited to her charming little face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they alighted, and a handsome, distinguished-looking gentleman in
+grey clerical garb advanced to meet them, she fell behind.  Raising his
+hat, he took the hand of the girl who was not his niece.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And this is Elsie?" he said in a fine, kindly voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She murmured a weak affirmative.  He kissed her affectionately, took
+her portmanteau from the porter, and turned to the girl who had come
+from the car with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And this is your friend, Elsie?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss came forward, scowling so fiercely that the other, despite
+her blunted sense of humor, could scarcely keep from laughing out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My friend, Miss M-Marley," she stammered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Middleton shook hands with his sister's daughter, took her satchel,
+and asked how he could serve her.  The girl replied in a thin falsetto
+voice, which she realized immediately didn't go with the scowl so well
+as a gruff tone would have done, that she had only twenty-five minutes
+to get the train for New York and must say good-by at once and take a
+cab for the other station.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, he didn't let her go so easily.  Assuming charge in a simple,
+offhand manner, he found a taxicab which took them to the South
+Station, led her to the ticket-office, secured a chair, and put her on
+the train.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She kissed Elsie Marley again, squeezing her hand meaningly.  And she
+nearly forgot and showed her dimples, looking out of the window as her
+train pulled out, to see them together, her uncle with his hat in his
+hand, Elsie waving her pocket-handkerchief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's a darling," she said to herself as they moved toward the Trinity
+Place Station, "and it's mighty lucky for my career that I didn't see
+more of him.  But he'll be far happier with that lovely honey-princess,
+and I'm glad she's drawn a prize.  As for me, hooray for Cousin Julia
+and the footlights!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"I hope, Elsie, your friend wasn't in pain?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+with concern shortly after they were established in the train for
+Enderby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no," the girl assured him, trying, but vainly, to add "Uncle John."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought she might be suffering from toothache or neuralgia, wearing
+that scarf about her face on such a warm day&mdash;particularly as she
+frowned and screwed her mouth in a rather distressed way," he explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie smiled.  Indeed she almost laughed, partly because she was
+herself struck by the humor of it, partly because it would so amuse
+Elsie Moss when she wrote her about it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no," she repeated.  "Oh, no, Uncle John"&mdash;resolutely&mdash;"she was
+just&mdash;well&mdash;she was acting, I suppose.  She wants very much to go on
+the stage."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And doesn't lose any opportunity for practice?" He smiled, but rather
+ruefully.  "Poor child!  Somehow, of all ambitions, there seems to be
+more tragedy, more pitifulness, underlying that than any other.  Where
+one succeeds, so many fail&mdash;go down into darkness and obscurity.  Your
+mother had the fever at one time as a very young girl, Elsie.  As a
+matter of fact, she had some little talent in that direction, but
+fortunately we were able to persuade her to give up the idea entirely."
+He sighed.  "She was so tender-hearted and affectionate that she could
+have been induced to give up far more precious things than an ambition
+of that sort."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie was gazing out of the window.  He pointed out a country club and
+several fine estates at a distance, then asked:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is your friend going in for, Elsie, comedy or tragedy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie didn't know.  She explained that while Miss M-Marley seemed like
+an old friend, she had only met her on the train as they had left
+Chicago.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, that's just like your mother!" he exclaimed.  "She was just that
+way, quick to make friends, and yet as loyal and true as any slower and
+more cautious person could be."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again he sighed; then added in a lighter tone: "<I>She</I> wanted to play
+tragic parts&mdash;youth is apt to&mdash;but of course with those dimples she
+would have been doomed to comedy, if not farce."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed reminiscently at her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your baby pictures had her dimples in small, but I see that as you
+have grown thin you have lost them.  You scarcely resemble her at all,
+and yet already I see how very like her you are."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie could think of no response, and fearing that he was awaking
+painful feelings, Mr. Middleton changed the subject by inquiring kindly
+after her stepmother.  Elsie replied according to instructions that she
+was quite well and much gratified to have secured her former position
+in one of the San Francisco high schools for the coming year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he went on to ask about her journey and to exhibit points of
+interest along the way, he was so chivalrous and thoughtful that the
+girl realized that she would be considered and cared for as she never
+would have been with Cousin Julia, and was genuinely relieved.  Then
+her thoughts flew back to those hours with Elsie Moss between Chicago
+and Boston, which seemed to her the happiest she had ever known.  It
+came to her that if she could have the other girl's companionship,
+could see her every day, she didn't know that she would greatly care
+where she was.  Perhaps she could even endure hardship.  How serious
+Elsie Moss had been about her motto, "Per aspera ad astra."  For all
+her gayety, she felt she could go through hardship bravely.  Ah, she
+was a rare person!  For the first time in her life Elsie Marley was
+homesick&mdash;and for a stranger!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Happily, there was that about Mr. Middleton which reminded her of his
+niece.  She glanced at him from under her long, pale lashes.  A man of
+fifty, he was tall and thin, with a fine florid face set off by a mass
+of thick, white hair.  His eyes were brown and youthful, full of
+serenity and kindliness, with a shadow of the idealism that
+characterized his whole face.  His voice was good, his speech elegant,
+appealing particularly to one accustomed to the tones and inflections
+of the West.  Looking forward to meeting his wife, who would probably
+be equally pleasing, Elsie felt that in any event she should be as
+happy between visits as it would be possible to be anywhere without
+Elsie Moss.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A short drive through the quiet, shady streets of what seemed to be an
+old, historic town brought them to the parsonage, one of a group of
+handsome, rather stately buildings near and about a green common.  Of
+colonial style, built of brick, it had a portico with great Corinthian
+pillars, window-frames and cornices of wood painted white, and stood
+far back from the street with a beautiful lawn studded by great elms
+and a glimpse of a garden in the rear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The driveway led to a side entrance under a porte-cochère.  As the
+carriage drew up, Mr. Middleton glanced eagerly toward the door.  His
+face fell.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your Aunt Milly will be here directly," he said and ushered her in.
+As she entered the beautiful hall, Elsie couldn't help feeling how
+fortunate she was to escape the boarding-house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no one in sight.  Mr. Middleton looked about, then led her
+into one of the great front rooms on either side of the wide hall and
+asked her to make herself comfortable while he went to see if her aunt
+were ill.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is not very strong, as you know, Elsie, and the excitement may
+have been too much for her," he explained.  "She has looked forward so
+eagerly to your arrival."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately he did not await any reply.  Elsie felt suddenly stunned as
+by a blow.  Left alone, she gazed about her in amazement that was
+almost horror.  The large, square, corner room lighted by four great
+windows that reached from the floor to the heavy cornice was
+comfortably, even luxuriously, furnished, but&mdash;the girl could scarcely
+believe her eyes&mdash;it was the most untidy-looking place she had ever
+been in!  The heavy crimson hangings, faded by the strong summer
+sunlight, lost further color by their layer of dust, quite visible even
+at this distance and at first sight.  There were ashes on the hearth,
+though the heap of waste-paper, dust, and miscellaneous rubbish in the
+fireplace showed that it hadn't been used for some time.  The piano, a
+baby-grand, stood open, with dust on its dingy keys and more dust on
+its shining case.  The centre-table held a handsome reading-lamp and
+some books, but was littered with piles of old newspapers and magazines
+without covers.  A kitchen-apron was flung across an armchair; a dirty,
+paper-covered book lay on a little table with a plate beside it covered
+with cake-crumbs, and there were crumbs on the richly colored Turkish
+rug and on the arm of the tapestry-covered chair on the edge of which
+Elsie perched.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Surely there was some mistake, some monstrous mistake!  She had somehow
+been brought to the wrong house.  It wasn't possible that a gentleman
+like Mr. Middleton could belong to a household such as this, she was
+saying incredulously to herself, when a shadow fell athwart the
+threshold and she looked up to see Mrs. Middleton entering on her
+husband's arm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton was the key to the enigma, though Elsie's mind wasn't
+sufficiently alert to grasp the fact at the moment.  She stood beside
+her tall, immaculate husband, a short, rather stout, flabby-looking
+woman with a sallow face wherein keener eyes than Elsie's might have
+detected traces of former prettiness, and frowsy, ginger-colored hair
+that had been curled on an iron.  She wore a dingy pink tea-gown
+bordered with swan's-down, cut rather low and revealing a yellow,
+scrawny neck.  A large cameo brooch took the place of a missing frog,
+and a pin in the hem disclosed missing stitches.  Her hands were
+covered with rings, her feet thrust into shapeless knitted boots.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She smiled, cried, "Elsie!" in a weak, sentimental manner, and opened
+her arms wide as if expecting the girl to fly into them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie, who had risen, advanced stiffly and reached out her hand in
+gingerly fashion.  But Mrs. Middleton gathered her, willy-nilly, into a
+warm embrace, holding her close against the dingy pink flannel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie could not struggle against it, as she was moved to do; she could
+not burst into tears at the indignity; she could not rush out of the
+house and back to the train, as she longed to do, with the sense of
+outrage goading her.  She was forced to sit down weakly with the others.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton gazed at her fondly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear child!  Little orphan stranger!" she cried.  "How I have longed
+for this hour!  Indeed, I so longed for it that at the last moment my
+strength failed me, and when the train whistled I had to drop on my bed
+in exhaustion.  But enough of that.  Welcome to our home and hearts!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Murmuring some chill, indistinct monosyllable, Elsie glanced dumbly at
+Mr. Middleton, who was looking at his wife as tenderly as if she had
+been all that Elsie had expected her to be.  Were they both mad?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jack, dear, you have never asked Elsie to take off her things&mdash;your
+own niece!" exclaimed Mrs. Middleton reproachfully.  And she turned to
+Elsie with her sentimental smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These men, my dear!" she said, and coming to her side begged the girl
+to let her have her wraps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie wanted to cry out that she wasn't going to stay, that she was no
+kin of theirs, and was going away on the next train.  But she couldn't
+utter a word.  She removed her hat and jacket dumbly, wondering which
+dusty surface they would occupy.  As Mr. Middleton carried them into
+the hall, she could only guess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On his return, he noticed the kitchen-apron, picked it up and held it a
+moment irresolutely.  Then opening a door in the wainscot near the
+fireplace he flung it in.  Before the door went to, Elsie had a glimpse
+of worse disorder&mdash;of the sort that is supposed to pertain to a
+junk-shop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's Katy's apron," remarked Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  "Do you
+know, Jack, I feel sure she sits in here when there's no one around.
+Now that book on the table by the window must be hers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's no harm for her to sit here when the room is not in use,"
+returned Mr. Middleton kindly, "but when she goes, I wish she would
+take her things along."  And he picked up the novel and was about to
+consign it to the same dump when his wife held out her hand for it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What mush!" she cried as she fingered the greasy pages, while Elsie
+flinched inwardly.  And unobservant as the girl naturally was, she
+could not help noticing that Mrs. Middleton retained the book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't think, dear Elsie, that we're unkind to our poor but worthy
+Kate," the latter remarked, sitting down next to Elsie and taking the
+girl's limp hand in hers.  "As a matter of fact, she has a sitting-room
+of her own.  This house, you know, is very old.  It matches the other,
+newer buildings only because they were built to suit its style.  The
+original owners, the Enderbys, for whom the town was renamed, had many
+servants and provided a parlor for them.  Of course your uncle and I
+can afford to keep only one, but we gave her the parlor, hoping she
+would appreciate it.  But it doesn't look out front, so she doesn't
+care for it and uses it as a sort of store-room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if Elsie wouldn't like to go to her chamber now," Mr.
+Middleton suggested, remarking suddenly how tired the girl looked.  He
+had thought her surprisingly fresh after the long journey, but
+apparently only excitement had kept her up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie looked at him gratefully.  She was longing to be by herself in
+order to determine what she was to do.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Jack, that's exactly what the poor dear wants; I've been trying
+to get a word in to ask her," agreed Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  Elsie
+rose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Where did you decide to put her, Milly?  In the blue room?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear, but I'm not perfectly sure whether Katy got it ready.  Do
+you mind calling her?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He fetched the handsome, slatternly maid servant, who drew up the lower
+corner of her apron crosswise to disguise its dirt, but openly and
+unashamed, and only to uncover a dress underneath that was quite as
+untidy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Katy, this is our niece, Miss Moss, who has come to live with us,"
+Mrs. Middleton announced.  "Have you got the blue room ready for her?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Katy bowed low to Elsie before she replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No'm, not yet," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Katy, when I told you to be sure?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No'm, you didn't," responded the woman pleasantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear me!  Well, I meant to; I suppose it slipped my mind."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She turned to Elsie.  "I've been particularly wretched all day,
+scarcely able, with all my will-power at full strain, to hold up my
+head."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It seems to me," she addressed Kate reproachfully, "you might have
+done it anyhow.  You knew what Mr. Middleton was going in town for."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll get a place ready for her right now in no time, ma'am," Katy
+assured her cheerfully.  As she was leaving the room with an admiring
+look at Elsie, she glanced suspiciously at Mrs. Middleton, whose hand
+was hidden in a fold of her wrapper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is that my story-book you've got, ma'am?" she inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton drew forth the book, looked at it as if in great
+surprise, and gave it to Kate, who disappeared at once.  Mr. Middleton
+followed with Elsie's luggage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie, who did not resume her seat, walked to the window and gazed out,
+without, however, seeing anything.  Mrs. Middleton began to rhapsodize
+over the elms and oaks and some rooks in the distance that were really
+crows.  But before she had gone far, Katy appeared to say that the room
+was ready.  If she had not done it in no time, as she had proposed, she
+had certainly spent as little time as one could and accomplish
+anything.  Mrs. Middleton led Elsie up-stairs, threw open the door of
+the room with a dramatic gesture, kissed and fondled her, and finally
+left her to get a good rest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie closed the door after her, dropped into a chair and, burying her
+face in her hands, sat motionless.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+For some time Elsie could not think.  She could only sit there in a
+sort of dumb horror.  Presently she raised her head, opened her eyes,
+and deliberately surveyed the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Like the others she had seen, it was large and handsomely furnished.
+There was a great brass bed and heavy mahogany furniture.  The walls
+were hung with blue, the large rug was blue-and-gold, and the chintz
+hangings and covers blue-and-white.  There was a great pier-glass, a
+writing-desk, and a bookcase.  In spite of the fact that everything
+bore the appearance of having been hastily dusted, it was fairly neat
+and very attractive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still confused, with a stunned sensation that precluded decisive
+action, Elsie decided that she might as well remove the dust of travel,
+and rising, slipped off her blouse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she turned on both faucets in the bowl in the small dressing-room
+adjoining, a thick scum rose to the surface of the water, and she
+realized the bowl had not been washed for some time.  At first she
+gazed at the dust helplessly.  Utterly unused to doing anything for
+herself, she looked about anxiously.  Two towels, clean but not ironed,
+lay on the rack.  She hesitated, then grasping one of them as if it
+were the proverbial nettle, she attacked the bowl, gingerly at first,
+then with some vigor; and presently, with the aid of some dirty
+fragments of soap she found in the receptacle, using the second towel
+to dry it, she had the enamelled surface clean and shining.  With an
+odd sense of satisfaction, she threw the towels to the floor, opened
+her portmanteau, took out her own toilet-case, and proceeded to wash.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Refreshed physically and even a trifle in spirit, she slipped on her
+dressing-gown and sat down by the window to consider.  She knew now
+that she should have spoken immediately upon seeing Mrs. Middleton,
+thus avoiding more unpleasantness than the caresses.  Having delayed
+her explanation of the masquerade, she had made it the more difficult.
+Even now she dreaded shocking or even hurting Mr. Middleton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rose and moved about irresolutely.  The dress she had taken off lay
+on the couch against the foot of the bed, and though she had never been
+accustomed to caring for her clothes, she started instinctively to hang
+it away.  Opening the door into the clothes-press, she shrank back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A commodious closet with shelves and drawers, it was as much worse in
+its confusion and disorder than the cupboard down-stairs as it was
+larger.  Each hook bulged and overflowed with clothing: tawdry finery,
+evening-gowns, old skirts, wrappers, sacks, bath-robes, knitted jackets
+and shawls and miscellaneous underclothes.  The drawers were so crammed
+that none would shut.  The shelves were piled high with blankets,
+comfortables, old hats, a pair of snow-shoes, pasteboard boxes, and
+bottles without number; while on the floor were boots, shoes, and
+slippers in all stages of wear, overshoes, a broken umbrella, a
+walking-stick, a folding-table, and more boxes.  And everywhere the
+dust lay thick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Shutting the door hastily, Elsie flung herself upon the couch, covering
+her face and pressing her fingers upon her closed eyes.  What
+a&mdash;<I>heathenish</I> place!  She really didn't possess the sort of
+vocabulary to express the enormity of it.  How should she get away?
+Suppose there were no train to-night?  Suppose she should have to
+remain until morning?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If only it were a hotel!  If only Mr. Middleton weren't so fine, or if
+Mrs. Middleton had gone into Boston!  One look at her would have been
+enough: she would have known she could never endure her.  Better Cousin
+Julia with all her oddities.  She would have made the sign agreed upon
+and gone straight on to New York.  And then&mdash;poor Elsie Moss!  After
+all, Mrs. Middleton wasn't any real relative of hers, either.  She only
+hoped that the other girl might find Cousin Julia so very disagreeable
+that she wouldn't too painfully mind being dragged back here.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some one knocked at the door.  Feeling that she couldn't possibly
+encounter Mrs. Middleton at this juncture, the girl remained silent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's only Katy," said a pleasant voice, and Elsie bade her come in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The warm-hearted Irishwoman knew in an instant that something was
+wrong, and suspected homesickness.  She spoke fondly, as to a child,
+saying that tea was nearly ready, and added: "Have you got everything
+that you want, miss?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie could have laughed at the unconscious irony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The clothes-press is full of mussy things, and the wash-bowl was
+dirty, and there weren't any clean towels," the girl almost wailed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bless my soul, I guess that wash-bowl was forgot for a matter of a few
+days!" Katy exclaimed.  "Dear me, I'm so sorry.  But them towels was
+clean, only not ironed.  I hadn't got round to 'em yet, and I didn't
+know where to lay my hands on any that was put away.  There's a lot
+somewheres, for we keep a-buyin' and a-buyin'.  And I'll just go at
+this room the first thing after breakfast in the mornin' and make
+everything clean and shinin'.  I meant to 'a' done it to-day, but I
+didn't get a minute, and I thought one night wouldn't make much matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While Elsie was endeavoring to frame some sentence to inform Katy that
+she needn't take the trouble, the latter suddenly remembered something
+in the oven and disappeared.  Elsie rose and dressed.  She couldn't eat
+in such a place, but she couldn't get away without explaining and,
+perhaps, the tea-table would be a suitable occasion for that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Middleton met her at the foot of the stair and led her to the
+dining-room.  Another surprise!  The room was not only large, pleasant,
+and airy, overlooking a beautiful garden, but it was neat and tidy, and
+the table was spotless, with fine damask, delicate china, and beautiful
+silver.  The food was delicious&mdash;Elsie had taken her place
+perforce&mdash;and was particularly appetizing after five days on the train.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton still wore the pink wrapper, but she had little to say,
+and her husband was so elegant and attractive, was in such good spirits
+and talked so entertainingly, that Elsie almost forgot.  In any event,
+before the meal was over she had decided to remain overnight, and to
+postpone her confession until morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The evening passed pleasantly.  Mrs. Middleton excused herself directly
+after tea, and Mr. Middleton took Elsie out to show her the garden,
+which he tended himself, an old-fashioned garden with formal beds
+radiating from a sun-dial.  Thence they went to his study, an
+attractive room lined with books, which, though untidy, was not
+startlingly so, not, perhaps, far beyond that peculiar limit of
+disorder allowed to a student's sanctum.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here the Reverend John Middleton, unmistakably and infectiously happy,
+talked with his supposed niece for an hour.  Full of enthusiasm,
+quieter but almost as youthful as that of Elsie Moss, of ideas and
+ideals, he had not realized his want of companionship and sympathy, nor
+understood why he had looked forward so eagerly to the coming of the
+daughter of the sister who had been the companion and intimate friend
+of his youth and young manhood.  Believing he saw already much of the
+mother in the girl, he seemed to feel no need of preliminaries, of
+getting acquainted.  He strove only to make her feel at home, hoping
+there might be no strangeness even on the first night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His powers being by no means inconsiderable, he succeeded so well that
+Elsie Marley went to her room in a state of real exhilaration that was
+almost tumult.  The door of her inner nature, set ajar by Elsie Moss,
+had opened wide.  She had never in all her sixteen years been really
+roused out of herself until she met the former; and she had never come
+in contact with a nature so rich and fine as that of the clergyman.
+Further than this, something else stirred in the girl's
+heart&mdash;something better than the desire to hold this friend for her
+own.  Unawares, dimly, she felt his reaching out for sympathy, realized
+dimly that there was something that even a young girl could do for him.
+And suddenly a feeling of depression that was like regret or even
+remorse took possession of her.  The confession she had to make would
+hurt him deeply, even now.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her trunk had been brought in and the straps unfastened.  For an
+instant Elsie wavered.  Finally she got her key from her pocketbook.
+But even as she crossed the room, she thought of Mrs. Middleton, the
+dingy swan's-down and the caresses, and decided not to unlock the trunk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stood by the window looking out absently over the soft, starlit
+landscape.  She felt sorry for Mr. Middleton and sorry for Elsie Moss;
+and curiously enough those two were the two persons in the world in
+whom she had any real interest!  Perhaps the latter wouldn't mind her
+aunt as she did; and of course she would be, to use her own expression,
+"crazy over" her uncle.  Then, too, with all her charm and vivacity,
+she could do much more to brighten the monotony and squalor of his
+life.  And yet, her heart was set upon becoming an actress, and it
+would be much harder now to give it up than if she hadn't seemed to
+have a fair chance to pursue her studies.  Elsie remembered dimly tales
+she had heard of people dying from broken hearts.  Somehow, it seemed
+almost as if that vivid, sparkling Elsie Moss would be of the sort to
+take things so hard that&mdash;&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She broke off, turned from the window, and began to undress.  So far as
+Mr. Middleton was concerned, it occurred to her that possibly some one
+who hadn't any ambition might learn to do even better toward helping
+him than one whose heart was divided.  She said to herself that she
+wouldn't decide definitely against opening her trunk until morning.  If
+she should find, for instance, that Mrs. Middleton kept her room the
+greater part of the time, it might make some difference.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ready to put out the light, she noticed that the covers of the bed had
+not been turned down&mdash;an omission unparalleled in her experience.  With
+a sigh, she drew down the counterpane, only to discover, with actual
+horror, the bare mattress underneath.  The bed had not been made!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such was Elsie Marley's consternation that had she been a person of
+resource, she would have dressed and left the house at once; but if she
+possessed any such quality, it was wholly undeveloped.  As it was,
+however, she said to herself she could not even stay for breakfast.
+She would go at daybreak!
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Kate came to the door next morning just as Elsie had finished dressing,
+and, being admitted, asked if Miss Moss wouldn't come down and pour her
+uncle's coffee and eat breakfast with him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's sort o' hangin' off as if, perhaps, he was hopin' you might," she
+added, eying the girl admiringly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's purpose to go immediately had been with her as she awoke, but
+it didn't seem worth while to hold out at the moment: possibly she
+might have a favorable opportunity to explain at the table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But she resented Kate's beaming face, and looked reproachfully toward
+the bed, which told its own shocking story of having no linen nor
+blankets.  Still Kate was oblivious.  Elsie really hardly knew how to
+complain, but perhaps to learn that is easier than to learn to praise;
+and there was a certain amount of indignation in her voice as she told
+how she had been obliged to sleep on the couch in her dressing-gown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kate was quite as shocked as the mistress of a well-regulated household
+would have been.  As she accompanied Elsie down-stairs she was voluble
+in her sympathy, and promised all sorts of improvements for a future
+Elsie knew was not to be hers.  And yet the girl, who had always been
+on the most distant terms with her grandmother's servants who had been
+in the house for years, found herself confessing to this good-natured
+slattern that she had nevertheless slept soundly and felt refreshed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Breakfast was so pleasant as to cause visions of an unlocked trunk to
+float through Elsie's mind.  The dining-room was yet more attractive
+with the morning sun on the garden.  Mrs. Middleton did not appear.
+The girl found a curious pleasure in pouring out the coffee, which was
+curiously intensified when Mr. Middleton asked for three lumps of
+sugar.  And when he passed his cup the second time she was elated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While he seemed fully to appreciate the novelty of her company, he
+seemed also to take it for granted, as if they were to go on so,
+breakfasting together, indefinitely.  He chatted in his easy way,
+glanced at the paper, reading bits of it to her, commenting on the
+situation here and across the border.  Fortunately, her mind had seemed
+to quicken with her sensibility, so that she grasped, or partly
+grasped, ideas that might well have meant nothing to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He proposed to take her out to see the town after he had spent an hour
+in his study.  Though it would again postpone her explanation, Elsie
+decided she might as well go a step further and get a better idea of
+the place for which Elsie Moss was to exchange New York and her
+ambition.  The day promised heat; the girl was so tired of her
+travelling-suit that she was tempted to open her trunk and get out a
+linen frock and her Panama hat, but she wouldn't allow herself to yield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were out nearly two hours, strolling leisurely through the quiet
+old streets.  The church and parish-house and a large hall were across
+the common, the library and museum nearer the centre of the town&mdash;all
+dignified, rather stately, very attractive buildings in harmonizing
+styles of architecture, whose low and rambling character, with the ivy
+that well-nigh covered them, and the wonderful green of their lawns,
+gave them an air of age, particularly appealing to one whose home had
+been in the West.  Handsome houses and charming cottages bespoke their
+attention as they walked through the wide avenue with double rows of
+elms on either side, and grass-plots separating the walks from the
+highway.  Just to wander under that leafy arch of a June morning, with
+glimpses of blue sky and white cloud, was a sensation that made the
+thought of New York appalling.  Cousin Julia had, indeed, spoken once
+of going to the shore; but who wanted to go to the shore!  For herself,
+nothing seemed so attractive as tall old trees, abundance of green
+turf, New England, and&mdash;<I>Enderby</I>!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And all the while she became more aware of the unconscious appeal on
+the part of Mr. Middleton.  As they went on, more and more the girl
+felt how eagerly he had looked forward to the coming of his niece, how
+he had anticipated her companionship.  And she understood dimly that
+his eagerness to show her the finer points of everything was not only
+the desire to make her share his enthusiasm, but a desire to begin at
+once&mdash;to start out friends and companions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She returned only the more oppressed by the sense of remissness&mdash;of
+remorse.  Kate met her at the door of the chamber she had occupied and
+proudly ushered her in.  A real transformation had taken place.  Kate
+could accomplish wonders when she set out, and the great handsome room
+had been so thoroughly swept and garnished that everything was like
+new, only with the sense of the dignity of age.  The clothes-press,
+too, had been cleared out (at the expense of the corresponding one in
+the chamber opposite!); the little wash-room shone; there was abundance
+of towels and fresh bed-linen, and a vase of sweet peas stood on the
+freshly laundered cover of the dresser.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie turned gratefully to Kate, but spoke regretfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Katy, thank you, but I'm sorry you have taken so much trouble.
+I&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Moss, dear, I love to do it, and I'll keep it so all the time
+if you'll only stay," urged Kate.  "Now don't tell <I>me</I>, I've seen it
+in your eyes that you're homesick and don't like the look o' things,
+and then you ain't opened your trunk, and your dresses all packed in
+wrinkles like as not.  Do try it a bit longer, please, miss.  I promise
+you things'll be better all over the house.  You know there'd be more
+satisfaction keepin' things up for a pretty girl like you as would
+appreciate than for a woman as lays round all the time and don't take
+no interest, though believe <I>me</I>, she eats as good as any one, and I
+can't keep my story-books long enough to find out how they come out at
+the end if she gets her eye on 'em.  All she does is to throw things
+round for me to pick up, though I will say for her she's pleasant and
+good-natured, and always a born lady.  And Mr. Middleton don't hardly
+know whether things is upside down or right side up; but he's good as
+gold and lonesome, though he don't never let on.  You can be such a
+comfort to him; all he hears at home now is about her aches and pains.
+You couldn't guess how he's blossomed out since you come.  He ain't
+talked so much for years, and he was a-singin' to hisself this mornin'
+as he hung round wonderin' if you was coming to breakfast&mdash;<I>she</I> never
+does.  Now Miss Elsie, you jest stand by him.  Let me tell you, you'll
+run up against lots worse things if you set out to earn your own
+livin'."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie was tempted, but again the thought of Mrs. Middleton arrested
+her.  And by the time Kate shouted inelegantly up the stair that lunch
+was ready, the girl had decided to explain everything directly
+afterward and go to Boston to catch the same train Elsie Moss had taken
+yesterday.  And if Mrs. Middleton should appear and attempt to embrace
+her, she would say: "Wait, please, I have something to tell you that
+will change everything!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That lady stood at the newel-post awaiting her.  She wore a wrapper of
+lavender cassimere to-day, elaborately trimmed with lace and knots of
+pink ribbon.  Somewhat fresher than the pink one, it was not
+conspicuously so, and her hair was truly a "sight."  Elsie was dumb:
+she couldn't make the prepared speech nor any other.  She tried to keep
+at a distance by reaching out her hand formally.  But it proved
+useless, and again she was gathered to her hostess's heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The strangest feature was Mr. Middleton's behavior.  He seemed as
+surprised and delighted to see his wife appear at lunch, as fearful
+lest she overtax herself, as if she were her own very opposite.  The
+girl couldn't comprehend how one so intelligent, so refined, of such
+exquisite taste, apparently, could be so blunt in this one particular.
+She couldn't understand how he could endure, much less care for, this
+ugly, withered, yellow, untidy woman.  However, it made her own
+position somewhat easier.  If he were really aware how impossibly
+vulgar she was, and took it seriously to heart, Elsie wasn't sure if
+even thus early she should be able to leave him to bear such misery
+alone.  His unconscious loneliness was appealing enough; conscious
+unhappiness might have proved more than she could have withstood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was called from the table to the telephone.  Elsie hoped he wouldn't
+make any engagement for directly after lunch.  If he should, she
+couldn't risk missing her train.  She would speak out at once.  She
+would say: "Oh, Mr. Middleton, I'll say good-by, for I shan't be here
+when you return."  And then she would explain briefly and he wouldn't
+have time to take it hard while she was there to witness.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Returning to the table, Mr. Middleton announced with troubled face that
+Miss Stewart, the librarian, was ill, and he must find some one before
+three o'clock to take her place.  He glanced at Elsie hesitatingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose you are tired, Elsie, dear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no," she returned and added, almost unconsciously, "Uncle John."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I wonder if I can't work you in at the library for a day or so?
+It isn't at all taxing, indeed, it's really very pleasant.  It's open
+every day from three to six, and except on Saturday, when there's apt
+to be a crowd, people drop in in a leisurely way.  I could go over with
+you and get you started and stay until nearly four, when I have a
+committee meeting.  Would you be willing to try, dear?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'd like it ever so much," she returned, really captivated by the
+idea.  He looked relieved and smiled gratefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There, Jack, it's just as I told you it would be," exclaimed Mrs.
+Middleton, patting a pink satin bow complacently.  "I said to your
+uncle, Elsie love, that a girl of sixteen is almost a woman&mdash;I was only
+seventeen when I was married&mdash;and that he could make an assistant of
+you right away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her smile faded and her hand went to her heart in an affected way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My being such a sad invalid is a terrible drag on your uncle, though
+he won't confess it," she added feebly.  "I often and often drop a
+secret tear over it, I own; but now that there'll be some one to help
+with the little services that would naturally fall to a pastor's wife,
+I shall be quite content.  You know how the poet says that others shall
+sing the song and right the wrong?  'What matter I or they?'  That is
+how it seems to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Middleton gazed at his wife tenderly, but Elsie's youthful scorn
+increased.  She was not sufficiently mature to understand that it shows
+something of character to look on kindly while another younger, fairer
+person steps in to fulfil duties that should have been one's own, even
+though one may have repudiated them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Directly lunch was over, Elsie ran up-stairs&mdash;something she seldom had
+done&mdash;unfastened her trunk, took out an embroidered white linen suit
+and dressed quickly.  She could scarcely wait until time to go to the
+library.  She was ready to lose the train to-day, and even to-morrow if
+need be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the library, she found the procedure simple and easily acquired.  It
+was fascinating, also, as was the great airy room; and she wandered
+about through the stacks, and gazed at the books, magazines, pictures,
+maps and bulletin-board in a sort of dream.  It was a warm day and no
+one came in during the first half-hour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Middleton had scarcely left, however, when a little girl in a
+scant, faded frock that was clean, however, and freshly starched, came
+shyly in with a book&mdash;a child of nine or ten with an anxious expression
+on her old, refined little face which hadn't yet lost all its baby
+curves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, where's Miss Rachel?" she asked, the look of anxiety fading and a
+shy little smile appearing in its stead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I think you're ever 'n' ever so much nicer, and so pretty!" said
+the child.  Then her face clouded again as she opened the book that she
+held in thin little hands that were like claws.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The baby did it," she said sorrowfully as she exhibited a picture torn
+across.  "He isn't a year old yet and don't understand.  He isn't the
+least naughty, only <I>mischeevious</I>, you know.  Ma says I ought not to
+have been reading it while I was minding him, but you see I'm <I>always</I>
+minding him except when he's asleep&mdash;and then he wakes right up,
+mostly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sighed.  "Do you s'pose you can mend it?" she inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, indeed," returned Elsie promptly, and smiled involuntarily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The child fingered her frock.  "Miss Rachel would scold," she faltered,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Neither did she understand why tears
+should come to her eyes, except that the little girl was so small, so
+thin, so clean and sweet, and so very childish in spite of her
+responsibility.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She found some gummed paper, cut a strip, brought the torn edges
+carefully together and mended the picture as neatly as if she had not
+been a week ago as helpless an able-bodied girl of her age as there was
+anywhere to be found.  Her sense of satisfaction was certainly
+commensurate, perhaps extravagant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There!  Miss Stewart will never know," she said.  "Do you want another
+book now?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, please; but&mdash;is it right for Miss Rachel not to know?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie considered.  "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but at any rate she
+won't mind since it looks as well as before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I'll be very careful after this," added the child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She selected another volume from the children's shelf, and having had
+it charged, turned to go.  But somehow Elsie was loath to have her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why don't you sit down at the table and look at the picture papers?"
+she suggested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I've got to mind the baby," said Mattie&mdash;Mattie Howe was the name
+on her card.  "I must be home when he wakes up.  Good-by."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She started&mdash;came back&mdash;stood irresolute.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you for mending the book so good&mdash;so <I>goodly</I>," she said shyly,
+"and&mdash;I'd like to kiss you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a curious sensation that had no admixture of reluctance, Elsie
+bent over and received the kiss.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're prettier than the princess," the little girl declared, and ran
+away with her book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley hardly knew what would have happened if an elderly lady
+hadn't come in at that moment and asked for "Cruden's Concordance."
+She had some difficulty in finding it, but the lady was very pleasant
+and grateful, and after that there was a constant succession of
+visitors.  Many children came in, all attractive, to Elsie's surprise,
+though none so appealing as Mattie Howe; and older people in surprising
+numbers, considering Mr. Middleton's prophecy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But word had somehow gone round that the minister's niece was "tending
+library," and things being rather dull in the midsummer pause of most
+of the activities of the place, no doubt more than one came out of
+curiosity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a very friendly curiosity, however, expressed in the pleasantest
+manner, and Elsie found herself responding to their advances without
+knowing how.  She wondered at herself.  The girl did not realize that
+being in the library made a difference.  It was her first experience of
+work, or of doing anything whatever for any one else, so that even the
+service of getting out books for another established a sort of
+relationship between them.  At the close of the afternoon, though
+tired, she was strangely happy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But she couldn't understand it&mdash;didn't know herself.  She found herself
+wondering who the stranger was who had worn her frock and occupied the
+chair of the librarian that afternoon.  Grandmother Pritchard wouldn't
+have recognized her, nor Aunt Ellen.  Had she, in assuming another
+name, changed her nature also?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Shortly before the death of her aunt in California, Miss Julia
+Pritchard had made up her mind to give up her position at the city desk
+on her fiftieth birthday, and retire to some pleasant country town to
+pass the remainder of her life quietly, in friendly intercourse with
+her neighbors.  She felt that she had more than enough to "see her
+through," as the phrase is, very comfortably.  She had worked for over
+thirty years, her responsibilities and salary increasing periodically;
+and though she had lived and dressed well and given liberally, she had
+added each year to a small inheritance that had come to her through her
+grandfather, and had gained further by judicious investment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But when both her aunt and cousin died, and she was left guardian of
+the sixteen-year-old Elsie Marley, whose inheritance was small, Miss
+Pritchard decided to remain where she was a few years longer.  It
+wasn't imperative, indeed, yet she felt that the last little Pritchard
+should have the best chance she could give her, and until she should
+have put her on her feet, the woman of fifty, who was strong and well
+and at the height of her powers, would gladly remain in harness.  Her
+announcement to this effect was hailed with delight at the office, and
+another increase made in her salary so substantial that she declared
+she ought to adopt a whole family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though the sacrifice was greater than any one dreamed, nevertheless she
+made it quietly and cheerfully, expecting no reward nor desiring any.
+She didn't expect much of Elsie Marley, indeed, recollecting the
+atmosphere of the household in which the girl had been reared, which
+she had herself found impossibly stifling during a short visit there
+fifteen years before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At that time her Cousin Augusta had been living with her husband and
+baby in Portland, Oregon.  What with her knowledge of the Pritchards in
+general, however, her observation of that stereotyped family after a
+long interval of years, and their intense anxiety lest the one
+descendant of that branch become in any way a Marley rather than a
+Pritchard, she was able to gather a very fair idea of what Elsie's
+upbringing must have been.  Unless she might have inherited a sense of
+humor from the Marley side (which was unlikely, since no one possessing
+a sense of humor would have married Augusta Pritchard), the girl could
+hardly have escaped becoming a prig at the mildest.  Cold, colorless,
+correct, self-sufficient, Elsie Pritchard would doubtless make her
+mother's cousin feel keenly her fifty years, her lack of grace, and her
+general and utter lack of claim to the royal name she bore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the other hand, she was also, willy-nilly, Elsie <I>Marley</I>, and she
+was only sixteen.  She couldn't have, at that age, completely compassed
+the woodenness of her adult relations.  She might still be amenable to
+change, to development.  In any event, as Miss Pritchard remarked to a
+friend in the office, any sort of young female connection cannot but be
+welcome to the heart of a lonely spinster who reaches her half-century
+milestone on midsummer's day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard occupied two large, handsome rooms on the second floor
+of a boarding-house near Fifth Avenue, a few blocks from the lower end
+of Central Park.  In preparation for the young girl, she had the large
+alcove of the parlor shut off by curtains and her bed and
+dressing-table moved into it, and gave over her bedroom to Elsie.  She
+spent much time and thought and not a little money in making it an
+inviting and attractive place for a girl, and would have felt quite
+satisfied had it not been for her remembrance of the rather heavy but
+stately elegance of the mansion in San Francisco.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the June day on which Elsie was expected, Miss Pritchard confessed
+to the friend at the office to whom she had spoken before, that she was
+beginning to feel nervous.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I almost wish she weren't coming until a week later," she said.  "Do
+you know, I think if I had actually passed my fiftieth birthday, I
+might feel somehow more solid and fortified.  It's really an ordeal for
+an old-fashioned woman like myself to encounter the modern girl of
+sixteen.  Fifty might pull through, but oh, dear, what of forty-nine
+plus?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was interrupted by the telephone.  A telegram which had come to the
+boarding-house for her was read to her.  She was smiling as she hung up
+the receiver.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what do you think!" she cried.  "My young relative has decided
+for some reason to take a later train and has telegraphed me to that
+effect.  Now there's something rather alert and self-reliant about
+that.  That girl must have something in her, after all.  I can no more
+imagine her mother or any of the family getting off at any stage of a
+through journey than I could fancy myself not getting off for a fire or
+an earthquake or, perhaps, for a wild West show.  At the very least,
+there's a sort of suppleness of mind indicated."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stood that evening in the station watching the throng emerging from
+the coaches of the train her cousin had given as hers.  A tall,
+straight woman, large without being stout, her plain face, with large,
+irregular features, framed in plainly parted iron-grey hair, was
+singularly strong and fine, and her grey eyes betokened experience
+bravely met.  As she scanned the face of every young girl in the
+procession, there was something so staunch and true in her appearance
+as to make it almost striking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then on a sudden, right in the midst of it, for a moment she forgot all
+about Elsie Marley, and what she was standing there for, in the vision
+that confronted her and surprisingly and instantaneously took her
+romantic heart by storm.  A young girl came straight toward her&mdash;such a
+piquant, sparkling, buoyant young thing as she had never seen before&mdash;a
+small, slender, dark-eyed creature with short brown hair cut square
+like a little boy's and a charming mouth flanked by dimples that were
+almost like pockets.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So much she took in in that one long glance.  Then, recovering herself,
+fearful lest she had been lost to all else about her longer than she
+knew, she glanced anxiously about for the fair, pale little Pritchard.
+But the radiant child stopped short before her and looked up into her
+face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cousin Julia?" she asked in the sweetest voice Miss Pritchard had ever
+heard.  She smiled half-shyly and the dimples deepened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a single instant, Miss Pritchard stood still and stared at the
+girl, not so much incredulous as stunned.  Then she cried out:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie&mdash;Elsie Marley?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sure," said the smiling child, holding out her hand.  Miss Pritchard
+gathered her to her heart.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"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 satisfied to have it so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm certainly no Pritchard," returned Elsie coolly, and not without
+enjoyment, "begging your pardon, Cousin Julia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, of course, I ought to regret it, you being the last of the
+family; but I'm afraid I don't," returned Miss Pritchard.  "You see I
+rather dreaded your coming as that of a double-dyed Pritchard.  The
+Pritchards of my father's generation were pretty stiff, I confess,
+heavy and solemn and rather pompous.  My mother who was a Moore, as no
+doubt you have heard, had a strong sense of humor, and didn't bring me
+up in very great awe of the family.  She was thankful I didn't take
+after them, and so have I always been.  I often think, what a
+misfortune had I had to have a Pritchard as a bedfellow and roommate
+all these years, as I must have had if I had taken after my father&mdash;who
+was, I believe, however, the mildest of the Pritchards, and very much
+altered by my mother's influence.  And girls are usually like papa&mdash;as
+you are&mdash;and boys like mamma, they say.  Surely, no girl could be less
+like her mother than you, dear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie sobered.  One of the facts she most cherished was the knowledge
+that she resembled her adored mother in nature as well as in manner and
+personal appearance.  It would be hard, nay, impossible, to give over
+that solace.  But she told herself she must think <I>Augusta Pritchard</I>
+(what a name!) whenever Cousin Julia said <I>mother</I> to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, you don't remember your father, Elsie, but do you remember
+any other of the Marleys or know anything of them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just one member of the family," said Elsie, getting down from the
+window-seat.  "I've heard about her ever since I can remember."  And
+bowing low, she began to sing:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?<BR>
+The wife who sells the barley, honey?<BR>
+She won't get up to serve her swine,<BR>
+And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Elsie Marley has grown so fine<BR>
+She won't get up to serve the swine,<BR>
+But lies in bed till eight or nine,<BR>
+And surely she does take her time.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?<BR>
+The wife who sells the barley, honey?<BR>
+She won't get up to serve her swine,<BR>
+And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wonder and admiration in Miss Pritchard's eyes couldn't be hidden.
+Elsie threw herself down on the settee by her side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's the only Marley I've ever known, Cousin Julia, but she's rather
+a dear old body," she said and squeezed Miss Pritchard's arm
+affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"How very difficult it's going to be to explain now," Elsie Marley said
+to herself as she dressed on Friday morning.  "How I wish I had done it
+that very first hour.  Mr. Middleton would have understood, then, for I
+had just told him Elsie liked to act; and he wouldn't have cared.  He
+couldn't have been really hurt as I am afraid he will be now.  And yet,
+how can I help feeling glad I was here to take the library for him?
+And I did so enjoy doing it, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She decided that if Miss Stewart were able to go back this afternoon,
+she would leave directly after lunch and get the only train for New
+York that she knew&mdash;the one Elsie Moss had taken.  And if she couldn't
+possibly explain in any other manner, she would have to write a note
+and steal quietly away.  It wasn't a nice thing to do; yet she couldn't
+afford to let the difficulty of explaining the situation keep her here
+until Elsie Moss should have become so firmly established that it would
+be cruel to drag her back to Enderby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the other hand, as long as she had started in with the library work,
+if Miss Stewart wasn't well enough to attend this afternoon, she would
+remain one day more.  And if she found that that was to be the case,
+she would spend her morning writing the note to Mr. Middleton to fall
+back upon in case of need, and a letter to Elsie Moss warning her of
+the change.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she went down to the dining-room, Mr. Middleton had that same air
+of eagerness mingled with what seemed to Elsie assurance of the
+permanency of their relationship.  After a little he inquired whether
+her unfamiliar work of the day before had tired her overmuch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no&mdash;Uncle John, not at all," she replied, consciously hampered by
+lack of vocabulary or of tone to express enthusiasm that was new to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, then, what should you say to giving Miss Rachel another day of
+rest?" he suggested.  "I have been afraid for some time that she's
+rather letting people get on her nerves, and possibly a few days off
+would be a benefit for all concerned.  She has lived alone for years,
+and, good as she is, has grown narrow and notional as one inevitably
+will who hasn't other personalities in a household to rub against.  I
+dare say if she had her way she wouldn't allow a boy under fifteen in
+the library."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's afraid they'll soil the books?" Elsie remarked lamely, striving
+to be adequate to the occasion.  But somehow, he seemed rich enough to
+lend her something unawares.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear, that's it, of course, and perfectly natural and legitimate
+in its place such caution is.  But the trouble is, she puts it first
+and foremost.  We want certainly to keep the books as neat as is
+consistent with constant use, and it's always safe to ask to see a
+lad's hands; but there are different ways of going about the business.
+The main thing about a library is, of course, its usefulness to the
+people; perhaps, most of all to the younger among them.  You agree with
+me, dear, that that consideration comes before everything?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, indeed, Uncle John," she said primly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He smiled suddenly and very charmingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie dear, if I hadn't known that your step-mother was a
+schoolmistress, I should have guessed it," he declared.  "Externally,
+her influence upon you has almost blotted out your mother's.  I'm
+thankful you didn't stay with her long enough for it to go deeper,
+excellent woman as I know her to be.  As it is, your speech and manner
+conceal rather than reveal your likeness to your mother, but it
+struggles through for all that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He paused and his face grew grave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope&mdash;I trust, dear, you didn't feel&mdash;<I>repressed</I>?" he asked
+anxiously.  "You are so quiet and reserved and docile for a young
+girl&mdash;especially for your mother's daughter.  Your stepmother was&mdash;kind
+to you, surely?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, sir," she faltered, distressed at the dilemma.  Vaguely aware
+that she had an opening for her confession, she made no attempt to use
+it.  "I know I am&mdash;everything is"&mdash;she faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're just right, Elsie dear," he said kindly.  "Just be yourself.
+And if you have learned not to be spontaneous, try to forget it.  In
+any event, never repress any desire for gayety or romping or what-not
+in this house.  You don't at all need to be quiet oh your Aunt Milly's
+account.  She isn't strong and she is excitable, and yet she isn't
+somehow what is called nervous at all.  She doesn't mind noise or even
+tumult; indeed, she likes to feel that things are going on in the house
+even if she cannot share them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even now, Elsie understood that this was quite true in regard to Mrs.
+Middleton.  There was, in spite of what the girl called her falsity,
+something generous about her.  Elsie wasn't herself any the more drawn
+to her&mdash;or any the less repelled&mdash;but now she first had a slight
+inkling of any foundation for Mr. Middleton's strange infatuation.
+There was, somehow, in the midst of all that sentimentality, some
+genuine feeling which for him transmuted the whole into pure gold.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Well, for her part, she could stand it another day for the sake of
+going to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you going to do this morning, Elsie?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+as they returned to the house after a few minutes spent in the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie colored faintly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Write some letters," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Indeed, she spent the whole morning in the attempt, though she
+accomplished nothing.  She made half a dozen beginnings of the letter
+which was to set forth the scheme Elsie Moss had concocted and she had
+entered into; but none went further than three sentences, and it began
+to seem that that expedient were the more difficult.  In any event,
+before she made a seventh trial she turned to the note that was to
+acquaint Elsie Moss with the situation.  Here, she only failed the more
+dismally.  When it was time to dress for lunch, she seemed to be forced
+to explain to Mr. Middleton just as she was leaving, and to come upon
+poor Elsie Moss quite unexpectedly.  It seemed as if it would almost
+kill her to do either.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton did not appear at lunch and everything was so pleasant
+that Elsie's spirits rose until she was almost gay.  She talked more
+than she had done since she came&mdash;almost more than she had ever done
+before until she met Elsie Moss&mdash;and she was at once gratified and
+appalled to perceive that she was reminding Mr. Middleton of his
+sister.  Of course, his real niece would remind him still more, but
+Elsie knew that the wrench to his feelings before she should be
+established in the parsonage would be severe, even terrible.  If only
+Mrs. Middleton kept her room continually!  And yet, he might not like
+that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The library was only the more engaging that day.  Mattie Howe came in
+early and they went through a number of shelves in the children's
+department together in selecting her book.  Then Elsie took the little
+girl in her lap&mdash;in a curiously easy fashion&mdash;and they looked at the
+colored pictures in a large book that did not circulate until some one
+else came in and claimed the librarian's attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A roguish-looking boy with a tousled head entered, stared at Elsie in
+amazement, and went abruptly out.  Returning a little later with
+shining face and wet, parted hair, as he asked at the desk for a book,
+he spread out a pair of very clean hands in a manner intended to be
+nonchalant.  He was ready and eager to talk and very amusing.  Before
+Elsie got through with him, she had assured him that she meant to read
+"Robinson Crusoe" within the next fortnight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then a lad apparently of about her own age, a high-school boy, shy, but
+with very gentle manners, who started as if to retreat as he saw her,
+gathered his courage, returned his book, and stood there undecided.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you want another book?" Elsie asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you got anything about Edison?" he asked.  "I've got to write a
+composition about electricity, and I thought I might start with him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie consulted the catalogue, but greatly to her disappointment was
+unable to find anything.  The boy had such nice manners and such
+honest, deep-set eyes that she wanted to help him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You might start with Benjamin Franklin," she suggested, not very
+confidently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sure!" he returned, smiling frankly.  She got him a biography of
+Franklin, and he sat down at one of the tables with note-book and
+pencil and was soon deep in it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were a number of references to Franklin in the catalogue, and as
+Elsie went back to it to see if she might have made a better choice,
+she saw that one referred to the proper volume of a "Dictionary of
+American Scientists."  It came to her that she might discover Edison in
+the same place.  She was pleased to find several pages of a recent
+volume of the work devoted to that inventor.  She carried it to the boy
+and pointed out the pages with a feeling of satisfaction almost like
+triumph.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The afternoon flew.  She closed the library regretfully, for she never
+expected to enter it again.  For to-morrow was Saturday, and if she
+should stay beyond the afternoon, it would mean she could not get away
+until Monday.  And that she could never stand.  For she had gathered
+somehow that Mrs. Middleton made a special effort to sit up all Sunday
+except during the time her husband was at church.  If it was mostly a
+case of nerves, Miss Stewart might as well come back one day as another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But again at dinner Mrs. Middleton was absent from her place.  She sent
+a special request to Elsie to occupy it, and Elsie spent a very happy
+half-hour telling Mr. Middleton about the happenings of the afternoon,
+hearing his explanatory comment on persons and things, and serving the
+pudding.  And when he told her he had seen Miss Stewart, who thought
+she would hardly feel like coming back until Monday, and had assured
+her that his niece would be glad to take her place another day, Elsie
+was quite undisturbed.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley was very tired as she locked the door of the library
+Saturday night and started for <I>home</I>, as she caught herself calling
+the parsonage.  She had been there the greater part of the day.  She
+had spoken to Mr. Middleton at breakfast of going over to familiarize
+herself somewhat with the encyclopaedias and reference-books, and he
+had asked her to look up certain passages and verify one or two
+quotations for him.  The latter proved a more difficult task for the
+girl than the clergyman would have dreamed; but she was very happy in
+doing it, gratified, too, to realize that her handwriting was very
+clear as well as pretty.  And the single cause of her dismay when he
+thanked and praised her and referred to her mother&mdash;or his sister&mdash;was
+that she should not be on hand to help him another Saturday.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The afternoon had been a very busy one, every one in town, seemingly,
+old, young, and middle-aged, desiring a book for Sunday.  A goodly
+number of girls of near her age came in, sweet-faced girls who, though
+they couldn't compare with Elsie Moss (who was, however, in a class by
+herself), seemed more attractive than those she had seen at home.  The
+tall boy who was interested in electricity came again and greeted her
+shyly, though rather as if they were old friends.  Later, older girls
+and young men who worked in Boston during the week dropped into the
+library to inquire for the latest novel or to spend part of their
+half-holiday looking over the picture papers and magazines.  All were
+extremely cordial and friendly.  Without actually overhearing anything,
+Elsie, who wasn't at all quick in regard to matters of that sort,
+understood, somehow, that there was more or less comparison between
+herself and the regular librarian, which was not altogether
+complimentary to Miss Stewart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she went up the walk shortly after six o'clock, the girl saw some
+one gazing out of the window of the room she had first entered four
+days ago, and recalled her first view, which seemed now far back in the
+past.  There was no one there when she went in, however, and as she
+realized that the place had not been touched since her arrival,
+suddenly the glow of satisfaction that had cloaked her weariness
+changed to wrath.  She flew to her room for refuge.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And now real wrath descended upon her.  For she found it as she had
+left it that morning.  The bed was not made; her nightgown was on the
+floor, and the clothes she had worn yesterday scattered about on the
+chairs.  Her brown eyes looked darker and there was a hint of color in
+her cheeks as she ran down to the kitchen and confronted Kate amid the
+chaos and confusion of her own domain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Katy, my bed hasn't been made, nor my room done to-day," she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bless my soul, I clean forgot it," said Kate in real consternation.
+"I'll go right up this very minute as soon as I've cast my eyes on the
+oven, though, to tell you the truth, my feet ache like the toothache."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's feet ached, too, for the first time in her life.  Wherefore she
+partly understood.  Her indignation died out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, don't bother then, Katy," she said kindly, "I can sleep on the
+couch to-night.  And to-morrow, perhaps, you'll do it early before your
+feet get tired?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kate insisted upon going.  "No, you don't sleep on no sofy; not while I
+can crawl about," she declared, and Elsie followed her up-stairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Watching her from her chair by the window, the girl saw that she looked
+tired, indeed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I could have slept on the couch, Katy," she protested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kate looked at her&mdash;frowned&mdash;then smiled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, a body'd know you lost your mother young.  Now if I'd
+'a' forgot your uncle's bed, he'd 'a' made it hisself and said nothing.
+There's many young ladies as makes their own beds, and does all but the
+heavy sweepin'.  I don't suppose you ever did such a thing in your
+life?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie confessed that she hadn't.  She didn't say that it seemed a
+burden to turn down the covers.  Again Kate frowned and smiled.
+Clearly Miss Moss wasn't one to take a hint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How would you like to <I>learn</I>?" she inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I never thought," said Elsie.  "Why, yes, of course, if you'll
+teach me some time, I'll do it every day after I get so that I can."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the moment she had forgotten her stay was to be so limited.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bless you, you'll learn in no time; it's nothing to do," Kate assured
+her beamingly.  "Come here, right now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Somewhat taken aback, Elsie complied.  She was surprised to find that
+it wasn't difficult nor even unpleasant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see, Miss Elsie, I can't never go about my work and finish one
+thing before I take up another," Kate explained.  "I'm up and down
+these stairs, up and down, up and down, from mornin' till night,
+a-waitin' on the missus.  When it ain't eggnog, it's beef-tea or gruel,
+and then again it'll be frosted cake, icing that thick, upon my word
+and honor!  And once she gets hold of me, I have to stay and tell her
+all the news I get from the grocer and the butcher's boy, and who goes
+by and what they has on.  Not that I don't admire bein' sociable, and I
+can't help havin' a motherly feelin' for one old enough to be my
+mother; but I don't get no chance to redd up nowhere except the
+dinin'-room and his study.  And then you know, I ain't no general
+housework girl, anyways, I've always cooked before; but here I have to
+do everything, besides waitin' on a woman as isn't any sicker than what
+I be.  If you knew the money she spends on choc'late creams and
+headache powders and the trashy novels she reads, you'd wonder she
+ain't even yellower than what she is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next morning Elsie set about trying to do her own room.  Before she
+had reached the point of attacking the bed, she had decided that she
+could save herself a great deal of work by putting things away when she
+took them off or used them, instead of dropping them, as she had always
+done, for some one else to pick up.  Kate came in and insisted upon
+helping with the bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, Katy, don't you want to get ready for church?" Elsie suddenly
+thought to inquire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I went to early mass this mornin', miss.  I declare to goodness, I'm
+that shabby that I don't like to appear out in broad daylight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, Katy, what do you do with all your money?  Do you have parents to
+support?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No'm, I'm an orphan.  But I don't have any ready money, and I don't
+like to take what little I have out of the savings-bank.  I ain't been
+paid my wages sence Christmas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie was aghast.  "But why don't you ask for them?" she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do.  And she keeps a-promisin', but money slips right through her
+fingers.  I don't like to go to himself about it, because I hate to
+upset him, and then she's good to me, and I know them headache powders
+makes her forgetful.  I don't know where the money goes: she has a
+fistful the first of every month, but she owes bills to everybody in
+town except the undertaker.  What I'm afraid of is as some of 'em'll go
+to himself.  The ice man is gettin' as sassy as he can live."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie was shocked beyond expression.  The situation would have seemed
+inconceivable except that anything was conceivable in connection with
+Mrs. Middleton.  The girl had almost forgotten that she was departing
+shortly, but realizing it, she was the more relieved.  Only it would be
+all the harder for Elsie Moss.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still, even so, she found she couldn't dismiss the matter thus.
+Somehow her heart went out to that careless, slipshod, kindly, Irish
+Kate.  Before she went to church, she slipped into the kitchen and
+insisted upon her accepting fifteen dollars to get herself some clothes
+before the next Sunday.  And when Kate flatly refused to take the
+money, she developed a curious resourcefulness.  She declared that
+unless she took it, she should go to her uncle and ask him to inquire
+into the question of her unpaid wages.  And Kate succumbed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After service, Elsie sat down to write to Elsie Moss.  She didn't say
+anything she had meant to say.  She knew she ought at least to give her
+some intimation of the situation, lest the other should be wholly
+unprepared and enter perhaps upon some course that must be rudely
+interrupted by the end of another week.  But she wasn't clever enough
+for that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She spoke of the place and the people and how much she liked them.  She
+told of the three afternoons in the library, and remembering how the
+other had taken to the children on the train, tried, in her stiff,
+constrained way, to describe little Mattie Howe, who minded the baby
+all his waking hours and read a Prudy book a day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She couldn't even mention Mrs. Middleton.  She spoke freely of Elsie's
+uncle&mdash;almost enthusiastically, indeed&mdash;told how he had asked if she
+had toothache, and signed herself, rather abruptly, "Your loving
+friend, Elsie M&mdash;&mdash;."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The following morning she found a letter on her plate.  She had gone by
+the name of Moss nearly a week, yet it gave her a start to see the
+address and to break open the envelope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a bright, amusing letter, as informal as her own had been stiff.
+Elsie Moss found Cousin Julia no end jolly, a perfect brick.  The
+boarding-house was the most interesting place she had ever known, and
+the people just right; and though New York was stifling she loved it,
+and wasn't the least in a hurry to get to the shore.  She expected very
+soon to confide her ambition to Miss Pritchard&mdash;honestly, she was so
+dear and splendid, that it was the greatest wonder that she hadn't told
+her she wanted to be an actress before they left the Grand Central
+Station.&#8230;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm simply perishing to hear from you, Elsie-Honey," the letter
+concluded.  "Uncle's a darling saint, I know, but you must tell me
+about Aunt Milly so I can describe her to my stepmother.  I sort of
+glossed her over in this letter I enclose for you to forward so that it
+will have the Enderby postmark.  I came out strong on Uncle John and
+the station at Boston, however.  And tell me about the servants.  I
+know there's a servants' hall like in English books, so I suppose they
+have a lot.  If there's a butler, I almost envy you, for that would be
+good practice for me, because most plays have a butler and a French
+maid.  I shall probably be French-maided to the limit if I ever get a
+start, though I'd rather be a slavey or a chimney-sweep!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you leave your shoes outside the door at night?  I should never
+remember.  The first day I was here I made my own bed!  The chambermaid
+nearly fell over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do tell me a lot to write to auntie (that's my stepmother); I have
+always told her everything I'm thinking about, and now it will be
+rather difficult for I only think now about the stage and Cousin Julia
+and you, Elsie-Honey.  I hope you think of me?"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I think I can come earlier to-morrow afternoon and stay
+longer," said little Mattie Howe eagerly.  "It's been such a good week
+for drying clothes that mother's way ahead on her work, and she'll mind
+the baby herself.  Charles Augustus is going to take back the last load
+this afternoon with his cart."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's nice for you, Mattie, but I shan't be here.  Miss Stewart's
+coming back to-morrow," replied Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The child's bright, thin little face clouded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, dear, oh, dear, these changes are most too much for me, I
+declare!" she cried.  "I mean changes-<I>back</I> is.  The change that
+brought you here, Miss Moss, was just sweet.  Only I wish it had turned
+into a <I>stay</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie drew the little thing close to her.  At the moment she herself
+almost wished it had been a <I>stay</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder if that's my <I>hard</I>," prattled the child.  "Mother says
+everybody, even rich people, have hard things to bear.  Do you bleeve
+so, Miss Moss?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie looked startled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, Mattie, I hardly know," she faltered.  "Ye-es, I suppose every
+one does, really."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Even you, Miss Moss?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie couldn't answer.  On a sudden that first day she and Elsie Moss
+had been together came back to her.  She recalled Elsie's fresh grief
+for the death of her mother and her own sense of remissness, and the
+class motto that signified through hardships to the stars.  Since she
+had been at Enderby, things had been disagreeable enough almost to make
+up for her former immunity.  And yet, she hadn't been here ten days,
+and she didn't really have to endure it.  Furthermore, she was to
+escape from it very shortly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Mattie, I don't believe I have had so much that is hard as most
+people have," she owned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are like the princess, you see," murmured the child.  "But I
+s'pose you feel awfully sorry about your auntie being so poorly?  When
+mother was sick once I felt as bad <I>here</I> as if I had the stomachache
+hard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie evaded the issue by hoping politely that the little girl's mother
+was quite well now.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, Miss Moss, and does four peopleses' washings besides our
+own," Mattie declared.  "Father works steady most of the time, but
+there's five of us, counting the baby, and&mdash;sometimes he gets drunk.
+Not so very often, he doesn't, but nobody can ever tell when he will
+and when he won't, so mother has to help out.  Well, I must go now.
+When will I see you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Miss Stewart's return had been delayed
+from day to day and she had postponed making her decision as to her
+course until that matter was settled.  Only to-day had she learned that
+the librarian would resume her work to-morrow, Saturday, and she
+expected to give up her evening to forming her own plans.  Until this
+moment, she hadn't thought of Mattie as a complication.  It didn't seem
+possible that one could become so attached to a child of ten years
+in&mdash;it wasn't yet ten days&mdash;that one not only hated to leave her, but
+even felt remiss, almost conscience-stricken, in so doing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Won't you come to see us, mother and me and the baby&mdash;you'll just love
+him, Miss Moss, he can pat-a-cake and by-by and almost talk and lots
+else, too.  Won't you please come?" the child begged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even with her arm about the child's shoulders, the incongruity of
+calling upon a woman who took in washing came to Elsie Marley&mdash;likewise
+the fact that she wasn't likely to be in Enderby beyond Monday at the
+latest.  But she surprised herself and delighted Mattie by suddenly
+agreeing to come the next day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she spoke of it to Mr. Middleton that night at dinner, expecting
+him to be surprised and, perhaps, to protest, she found him interested
+and eager.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie, that's capital!" he exclaimed.  "She's the nicest sort of
+woman, Mrs. Howe is.  She's hardly more than a girl in spite of that
+little brood of five.  She gets out very little, and if you would go
+around once in a while it would mean a lot to her.  Besides, I'm sure
+you'll enjoy her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Elsie sat in her room by the window that evening, she wondered
+whether one visit from a person one is never to see again would mean
+anything to Mattie's mother?  Well, for that matter, whether it would
+or not, she had promised to make it and must keep her word.  And she
+mustn't allow her thoughts to be diverted by that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the opportunity she had sought to complete her plans was hers.  Mr.
+Middleton had gone out to attend a committee meeting directly after
+dinner.  Mrs. Middleton she hadn't seen all day.  The matter of the
+library had settled itself, and her way was clear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But somehow her thoughts didn't proceed as she had expected them to do.
+She had rather looked for marshalled ranks of reasons standing at
+either hand&mdash;those saying <I>go</I>, of course, largely predominating&mdash;which
+she would only have to review.  Instead her mind wandered, roving back
+to the conversation with Mattie, and the little girl's quoting her
+mother that every one has a hard to bear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Was it really true?  She supposed it must be.  Mr. Middleton, despite
+his serenity, looked as if he had undergone all sorts of things.  So
+had Elsie Moss.  Even poor old Kate had had her share.  On the other
+hand, there was Mrs. Middleton, there was Elsie's own grandmother and
+her mother.  And there was Elsie herself.  She had never had anything
+hard in her life until within a fortnight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How curious it was that Mattie should have put her finger upon Mrs.
+Middleton as being her particular difficulty, mistaken though her sense
+of the situation was.  Mrs. Middleton was truly the only <I>hard</I> Elsie
+had ever known.  Undergoing a certain amount of her society and
+submitting to her caresses, sometimes once a day, often less
+frequently, was the only ordeal she had ever undergone.  And severe
+though it was, there were wide spaces between, and those spaces were
+the happiest moments she had ever known.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now she was planning to throw away all the happiness, the delight,
+because of the discomfort.  It came to her rather vaguely that perhaps
+that was the way with people who seemed never to have had hardships.
+They evaded them somehow.  And she wondered if some one else had to
+shoulder them as so much extra burden?  It almost seemed so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And yet, why should she remain and endure that dreadful Mrs. Middleton?
+What good would it do?  Mightn't it, on the contrary, do real harm?
+The girl couldn't imagine it as being any easier as the days went by,
+but in case it should, what would it mean but that she herself was
+becoming coarse&mdash;even vulgar?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a sense, there wasn't any one now to care whether she was coarse or
+not.  Elsie Moss might, and Mr. Middleton.  He liked her as she was.
+He wouldn't like her to be different.  And yet, he not only endured
+Mrs. Middleton but actually cared for her, and he was as refined as any
+one she had ever known, besides being so much more interesting than any
+one except Elsie Moss.  Possibly he would rather have her altered
+somewhat than have the shock of learning the truth of the matter, and
+of having a reluctant, and perhaps unwilling, Elsie Moss in the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss, too, liked her as she was.  She had called her a princess.
+Surely she wouldn't endure any change.  And yet again&mdash;what if enduring
+Mrs. Middleton would mean actually doing something for the other Elsie?
+What if not enduring her&mdash;flying from difficulty&mdash;would mean
+disappointment&mdash;breaking her ardent heart?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clock struck nine, and immediately she heard Mr. Middleton enter
+the house.  He called to her and Elsie went down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He wanted to tell her of a plan they had been discussing at the meeting
+in regard to a course of lectures for the coming winter.  All
+eagerness, he reviewed the whole situation for her benefit, then went
+on to tell her of the lectures they had had in other years, and to
+compare those in prospect.  Elsie, who was already learning to talk, to
+express some of the interest she felt, enjoyed it the more that she was
+able to respond in a measure&mdash;quite enough to satisfy him completely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she went to her room again, it was only to postpone the decision.
+To-morrow she would go to see Mattie Howe without knowing whether it
+was a farewell call or not.  The next day, Sunday, she would decide.
+She promised herself solemnly that she would do so.  She would shut
+herself up in her room directly after dinner, and would not emerge
+until she had made up her mind.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Had Elsie Marley been possessed of more imagination, or had she been
+accustomed to use what she had, she might have been better prepared to
+meet little Mattie's mother.  The child was unusual and showed the
+influence of careful upbringing.  Further, Mr. Middleton had spoken of
+her as looking like a girl and as worth seeking out; and already Elsie
+had had a chance to discern that, broad and tolerant as he was, he saw
+things as they were (except in the case of his wife), never misstated
+and rarely overstated.  For all that, she set out on Saturday afternoon
+prepared to meet the typical washerwoman of fiction&mdash;worn, bedraggled,
+shapeless, and forlorn.  She was prepared to go into a steaming kitchen
+with puddles on the floor and dirty children all about, and have this
+red-faced personage take a scarlet hand out of the tub, dry it on a
+dirty apron, and hold it out to her.  And for her part she was prepared
+to take it, damp or clammy as it might be, without a squirm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wherefore, when Mattie ushered her proudly into a pretty, tidy
+living-room with a square piano in the corner, and she saw a tall,
+slender person with a plain, sweet, girlish face advancing to meet her,
+in spite of her resemblance to Mattie, Elsie had no idea who she might
+be.  She had a confused sense of some neighbor having been brought in
+to receive her, and a vague idea of asking to be taken into the kitchen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, mother, here's Miss Moss!" cried Mattie, then dropped her hand and
+exclaiming, "My goodness, there's that baby already!" fled into the
+entry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm so pleased to see you, Miss Moss," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "Sit
+there by the window where you get a view of the hill.  It's more than
+good of you to come.  I hope Mattie didn't tease you too much?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, indeed, she asked me very prettily," said Elsie.  "She's a sweet
+child."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's good as gold," said her mother.  "And she's perfectly wild about
+you.  She calls you the Princess Moss-rose and makes up stories about
+you after she goes to bed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie smiled and colored.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't tell her I told you," warned Mrs. Howe, "she'll be right back.
+She had the baby's clean dress ready to pop over his head the moment he
+woke up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie looked up quickly as if she were about to speak.  But though she
+said nothing, Mrs. Howe seemed to reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She takes most all the care of him when she isn't in school," she
+admitted.  "Some people think she's too young and that it's too hard
+for her.  But I hardly think so.  She's naturally thin, just as I am,
+but she's never sick, and she likes it, though, of course, like any
+child, she'd like more time to herself.  But she's a born mother.  And
+she really seems to make better use of her spare time than most of the
+little girls she plays with.  And though I suppose I ought not to say
+it, she and Charles Augustus are ever so much better-behaved and
+better-mannered than most children who have nothing to do but play&mdash;and
+sometimes it seems they're happier.  You see I taught school three
+years up in the State of Maine, which is my home, and I understand
+children pretty well, by and large."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mattie came in at that moment with the baby, a fair, rosy, fat little
+fellow in a starched white dress and petticoats.  She put him through
+all his tricks to please the visitor, and then asked Elsie if she
+wished to hold him.  Elsie accepted the honor, though she felt rather
+apprehensive.  It wasn't bad, however; indeed, the confidence with
+which the baby nestled into the arms that didn't know how to enfold him
+was rather sweet to the girl.  And when he made a sudden dash for the
+pink rose in her leghorn hat, she didn't mind it at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Watchful little Mattie minded, however, and took him away quickly lest
+he injure any of the princess's royal finery.  Then the mother took him
+from her, that the little girl might have the major part of Miss Moss's
+attention.  For the same reason she forbore to call in the other two
+children, little girls of five and seven, who were playing with dolls
+in the yard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But when Charles Augustus came home, his mother proudly summoned him
+into the parlor.  Elsie had seen him at the library&mdash;a solemn, big-eyed
+little fellow with a prominent forehead and spectacles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he had shaken hands, his mother told Elsie how much she relied
+upon his help.  He fetched and carried all the clothes she laundered,
+and had recently made a new body for his old cart which would carry a
+good-sized clothes-basket.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see how you do it&mdash;other people's washing," said Elsie
+suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I couldn't if Mattie and Charles Augustus didn't help me so much,"
+replied Mrs. Howe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl glanced about the pretty room, at the attractive mother in her
+neat, faded muslin gown, at the thoughtful children, and the rosy baby.
+How dreadful it seemed to wash soiled clothing for four strange
+families!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't you hate it?" she asked with a directness rare to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "I love to iron, especially pretty
+things, and I don't mind washing, now that I've got set tubs.  You
+wouldn't believe, would you, that your uncle is responsible for my
+having them?  He thought of it himself.  The first I knew of it was
+that the men came to put them in.  Isn't that just like him?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie agreed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But don't you get awfully tired?" she demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, yes, Miss Moss, I do.  But so does almost every mother of a
+little family.  You come to take it for granted, you know.  A mother
+rather sinks her life in that of her children, and&mdash;after all, she
+doesn't lose half so much as she gains.  And getting tired&mdash;why, I know
+just from what Mattie has told me about the way you do at the library
+that you understand the satisfaction of doing for others, and that
+getting tired's a part of it."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Reaching the parsonage, Elsie didn't go in, but sat on a bench in the
+garden for an hour, not thinking, hardly musing, but in a sort of spell
+as it were.  As she rose at the stroke of six, she was saying to
+herself: "I never knew life was like that!"  And she repeated it as she
+entered the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the hall-table was a letter from the Elsie in New York.  Taking it
+to her room, she perused it eagerly.  One paragraph she read over
+twice, and yet twice again at bedtime.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey," the passage ran, "I was so relieved and thankful to
+get your letter and feel convinced that you like Uncle John and Aunt
+Milly just as well as I do Cousin Julia&mdash;though I don't see how you
+can&mdash;quite.  It came to me the night before I got your letter&mdash;suppose
+you should want to swap back?  The cold shivers chased one another up
+and down my spine and nearly splintered it.  Of course, I should have
+done it without a word, but oh, Elsie-Honey, I don't mind telling you
+now that it would have broken my heart for sure.  For I'm simply mad
+about Cousin Julia&mdash;so dotty over her that I believe if she'd told me I
+couldn't on any account study for the stage, I should have kissed her
+hand like a meek lamb.  Instead of which she knows and approves&mdash;that
+is, she is willing.  Only an angel from heaven would really
+approve&mdash;and I suppose he (or she) wouldn't.  At any rate, my present
+job is trying to keep from bursting with happiness."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie, I rather want to hear that Elsie-Marley-Honey-thing again,"
+remarked Miss Pritchard.  "Would you mind doing it now?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two sat alone on the veranda of the hotel at an hour when other
+guests were resting after the midday meal.  Before them, beyond a
+stretch of mosslike lawn and a broad sandy beach, rolled the sea,
+brilliantly blue, with the waves curling dazzlingly white.  Miss
+Pritchard, comfortably dressed in a plain pongee-silk suit with a long
+jacket, was ensconced on a willow settee with some recent English
+reviews.  Elsie, perched on the railing, her back against a pillar,
+gazed at the far-away sky-line.  She wore a pale-pink linen frock.  Her
+small face with its dark eyes and big dimples, her bobbed hair, and her
+exceeding slenderness of form gave her such an appearance of
+youthfulness that she seemed a very tall child, rather than the small
+girl she was.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I like your manner of speaking of my specialty, Cousin Julia," she
+remarked.  "Pray tell me why you want to hear it again, if you have
+such scant respect for it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard smiled.  "If you must know, child, I want to listen more
+critically this time.  I'm quite sure I must have praised it far above
+its deserts.  And now that I understand the situation I ought to be a
+better judge."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Despite her lightness of tone, Miss Pritchard was really desirous of
+applying the test.  Less than a fortnight after the girl's arrival, she
+had learned of Elsie's desire to be an actress.  The knowledge came
+like a blow, it must be confessed.  Broad as she was, she couldn't help
+regretting that the girl's desires&mdash;and apparently her talent&mdash;seemed
+to lie in the direction of the stage.  Though she had declared she had
+no patience with Pritchard notions and pretensions, she couldn't help
+feeling that it was hardly decorous for the last of the Pritchards to
+become an actress.  Moreover, she feared that Elsie's capability did
+not point to what is called the legitimate drama; it looked from the
+first as if she would make straight for vaudeville and, perhaps, never
+go further.  After her training she might fill a soubrette's part
+acceptably for a few years, but Miss Pritchard sighed when she tried to
+look beyond that.  To her it seemed like a limited outlook with a
+closed door blocking the way at a point long before the age when one's
+career should have reached the apex.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Elsie's heart was set on it, and Miss Pritchard, despite her
+misgivings, was full of sympathy and entered cordially into plans and
+ways and means.  Her newspaper work had given her friends among
+critics, managers, and various theatrical people, and she helped Elsie
+select a school wherein to begin her studies.  That accomplished, Elsie
+reluctantly agreed to accompany Miss Pritchard to the shore to spend
+her six weeks' vacation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What I cannot understand," said Miss Pritchard at this time, repeating
+very much what she had said before, "is, how you ever did it&mdash;how you
+could possibly get any such idea into your head with your bringing-up.
+For the life of me, I can't imagine your family countenancing any such
+thing!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They didn't take to the idea with any enthusiasm," Elsie replied truly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You certainly are the strangest Pritchard ever.  You're less Pritchard
+than I, and that's saying a great deal," said Miss Pritchard with a
+sigh.  "Dear me, when I was at Aunt Ellen's when you were a baby, they
+were so worried for fear you should have any Marley traits whatever, so
+anxious for you to be all Pritchard!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you siding with them now?" the girl asked soberly.  "Are you
+disappointed in me, Cousin Julia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bless your heart, dear, I'm so satisfied that I'm frightened, and I
+think I'll throw my precious ruby ring into the sea.  I wish I could
+say that I'd like you to be just so far Pritchard as not to have any
+desire for the stage; but I somehow don't dare even say that.  You see,
+I couldn't risk losing any particle of Marley other than the
+stage-madness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie came to her side and kissed her warmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then suppose we chuck the Pritchards for good," she proposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard fairly gasped.  Such temerity took her breath.  But she
+didn't give expression to her amazement.  Already she had come to the
+conclusion that Elsie had not been happy at home; she who was so frank
+in all else was so brief and guarded in all her references to the
+family or her home life.  Now it seemed as if she must have been
+exceedingly unhappy, to be ready to renounce the Pritchards in that
+wholesale way.  And yet, how could any girl whose life had not been
+happy&mdash;nay, brimming with sunshine&mdash;be so gay and blithe and girlish
+and care-free as she?  Could the reaction from strict repression
+possibly have that effect?  Could the opportunity to realize her
+ambition work such a miracle?  Miss Pritchard shook her head.  It was
+beyond her, she confessed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now you're down, you may as well do your stunt and have it over,
+Elsie," she remarked.  And Elsie, standing back a little, repeated the
+performance in a manner that was only the more captivating.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, resuming her seat on the railing, she looked eagerly toward Miss
+Pritchard.  The face of the latter was a study.  With every line, every
+word, indeed, of the simple song, the actress in the girl had come out
+strongly.  Admiration of the grace and skill and charm of it all, and
+wonder at the extraordinary sweetness of the girl's voice, mingled with
+regret at the significance of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you know what you look like, Cousin Julia?" Elsie asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, my saucy Marley, I do not."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Like 'Heaven only knows'"&mdash;the girl heaved a tremendous
+sigh&mdash;"'whatever will become of the naughty Brier-Rose.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear, if you exhibit that sort of keenness," said Miss Pritchard,
+laughing, "I'll make a newspaper reporter of you, willy-nilly.  Then
+you'll be sorry for poking fun at your elderly relative."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's only that I'm so used to discouragement from my elders and
+betters that I'm familiar with the signs," returned Elsie.  "Like as
+not, if any one were to say, 'Hooray!  Bully for you!  Go in and win!'
+I shouldn't understand.  I should think they were kidding me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor child!" laughed Miss Pritchard, but she was really secretly
+touched.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment an artist Miss Pritchard had known for years, who always
+spent his summers at this hotel, appeared before them.  A man between
+fifty and sixty, it was said of him that he had never succeeded;
+younger, struggling artists said it was because of his handicap of a
+fortune.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Marley, I wish I could persuade you to sing that again," he
+said.  "I caught a bit and a glimpse at a distance&mdash;just enough to
+tantalize me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie, who admired Mr. Graham immensely, was seized with sudden
+diffidence.  He was a connoisseur in all matters of art.  Suppose he
+should say right before Miss Pritchard, that she was only a silly
+tomboy, or whatever such a gentleman would say to express that idea?
+She glanced irresolutely at Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go ahead, dear," said Miss Pritchard cheerfully, and turning to her
+friend: "My little cousin thought I was scolding her, Mr. Graham.  The
+truth is, I'm the one who should be scolded.  I chose the work I cared
+for at about Elsie's age and went in for it; and yet when she chooses
+hers, which happens to be the stage, I act the hen-with-the-duckling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, you're the only one that has ever let me even speak
+of it!" cried Elsie.  Tears suddenly filled her eyes, and smiling
+through them, she stepped back and began the song.  And this time she
+put in all the <I>frills</I>, as she expressed it.  She danced and acted and
+sang, and, as always, she was quite irresistible.  The artist was
+charmed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's good enough for the vaudeville stage just as it is," he declared.
+"There's only one fault."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, what is that?" the girl cried eagerly, with the artist's desire
+for criticism, even though destructive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your voice is too good&mdash;altogether too good.  You could do it as well
+and perhaps better with a voice far inferior to yours in range,
+sweetness, and tone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl gazed at him reproachfully.  She had always had that to
+contend with.  People had always tried to "buy her off," as she
+expressed it, by proposing that she become a singer instead of an
+actress.  Now, as always, she rebelled at the idea, and again her
+vision of a public singer came to her&mdash;a very stout blonde lady in a
+very low-cut gown with a very small waist (the picture had not adapted
+itself to more modern fashions), placing a fat, squat hand on her
+capacious bosom, and uttering meaningless syllables that rose to
+shrieks.  Anything but that, she said to herself!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Graham had fallen into a reverie.  His hand shaded his brow.  He
+frowned as he endeavored to recollect something.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just where did you get hold of that song?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My mother used to sing it," replied Elsie, and Miss Pritchard
+wondered.  So far as she had known, none of the Pritchards had sung,
+and it was difficult to fancy Elsie's mother warbling a ditty of that
+sort.  The birth of her child must have altered Augusta greatly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's an old nursery rhyme, I believe," the artist went on, still half
+in his perplexity.  "Isn't it singular about the name&mdash;or perhaps you
+were named for it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was named <I>after</I> it," responded Elsie demurely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He smiled, but he was only half attending.  He was reaching for
+something in the depths of his mind which he did not find, and
+presently he sauntered on with bent head.  Miss Pritchard took up the
+<I>Spectator</I>, and Elsie produced the "First Violin," and presently was
+lost in that.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The next day as the artist met Elsie on the beach on her way to the
+bath-house, his face lighted up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Marley, it all came back to me, after twenty years," he
+exclaimed.  "Something about you has haunted my memory ever since I
+first saw you last week, and the song yesterday made it more definite
+and more perplexing.  I woke in the night and it all came back.  I
+heard that very same song on the train going South as a young
+man&mdash;comparatively young, though you wouldn't call it so.  Do you want
+to sit down a moment and let me tell you?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I haven't even thought of it for a dozen years," he said when they had
+found a convenient bench.  "As I said, we were bound southward, and it
+was toward night.  The seat in front of me was occupied by an
+exceedingly pretty young lady and a gentleman who must have been her
+brother or her husband&mdash;girls married younger in those days&mdash;for their
+name, which escapes me, was the same.  Farther ahead, on the opposite
+side of the car, was a woman with an infant in her arms and a boy baby
+of under two years at her side.  As it grew late, the older baby grew
+tired and cross.  He wanted his mother, was jealous of the tiny one,
+and finally he just howled.  The young lady before me said a word to
+her companion and went directly over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That kid, Miss Marley, was dirty and sticky beyond words, and she was
+the daintiest, freshest, sweetest girl imaginable.  But she smiled and
+held out her arms and he just tumbled into them.  She hugged the little
+beggar close, never minding her pretty gown, and brought him back to
+her seat.  She seemed to know just what to do&mdash;took off his shoes,
+loosened the neck of his dress and all that, then cuddled him down and
+sang to him until he went to sleep and after.  Her voice was as sweet
+as yours, and she sang the very same thing, 'And Do You Ken Elsie
+Marley'&mdash;I think she sang it twice or thrice."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps it was Elsie's fondness for children; perhaps it was because he
+told the story so well; in any event, the girl was touched.  And as
+usual, to cover her feeling, she tried to smile, her dimples rather at
+variance with the tears in her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed at her curiously.  "Wait, Miss Marley, that isn't all," he
+exclaimed.  "As I recalled the young lady, I saw her face only dimly.
+Now do you know it suddenly comes to me that she had the largest,
+deepest dimples I had ever seen, one in either cheek.  And I remember
+vowing then and there, in my youthful enthusiasm, that if ever I
+attempted to paint Madonna she should have just such dimples; they
+struck me as somehow significant, perhaps symbolic."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's heart was beating wildly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder&mdash;could that have been your mother, Miss Marley?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl could not speak for the tumult within her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It seems as if their name began with M, though it couldn't have been
+Marley, else I should have noticed on account of the song," he went on
+kindly, realizing her emotion.  "May I ask what was your mother's
+maiden name, Miss Marley?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quite upset, Elsie started to tell the truth; said Mi&mdash;and stopped
+short.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Middleton!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pritchard," she said as quickly as she could get it out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Pritchard?</I>" he repeated as if he must have heard wrong.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Augusta Pritchard," the girl reiterated, her heart like a stone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The artist was puzzled.  But realizing that the loss of her mother
+might have been so recent as to be still a painful subject, he
+tactfully spoke of other things, cloaking his disappointment at not
+being able to work out his problem to final solution.  He feared lest
+he might somehow have blundered upon some sad family secret.  Even with
+twenty years between them, he couldn't believe that his senses had so
+deceived him, couldn't but feel that that young girl had been connected
+with this girl of the big dimples.  And he couldn't but believe that
+the girl knew it.  Only there was something that prevented her
+acknowledging it.  It might be tragedy; perhaps it was disgrace?
+Though, somehow, he couldn't think it.  Poor little thing!  He let her
+go on her way to her bath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Elsie returned to the hotel and went straight to her room.  She
+knew she would be undisturbed there, for Miss Pritchard had gone
+driving with old friends while she was to have had her swim.  The girl
+flung herself upon her bed and, burying her face in her pillow, shed
+the bitterest tears of her life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had denied her mother&mdash;that darling, adorable mother who had taken
+the sticky baby to her heart, and sung "Elsie Marley" to him, just as
+she had later sung it to her own little girl.  She had cast off her
+mother and taken on&mdash;<I>Augusta Pritchard</I>!  What a name to exchange for
+Elizabeth Middleton!  For even though the former were the mother of the
+lovely Elsie Marley who had gone to Enderby, she couldn't be compared
+with her beautiful mother.  And, of course, her denial was far worse in
+that she was dead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+How proud, how happy, how humble, she should have been to say: "Why, of
+course, that was my mother!  I knew it without the dimples!"  What a
+wretch she must be!  To have had such a mother as to have so impressed
+a chance stranger that he should wish to paint the Madonna in her
+likeness, and should have remembered her twenty years, and to have
+repudiated her utterly!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She felt that she could not bear it, could not endure such a weight on
+her heart.  But what could she do?  Say to Mr. Graham that it <I>was</I> her
+mother and her name <I>was</I> Middleton?  Then she would have to tell
+Cousin Julia everything, and she would send her away, send her off to
+poke and fret in Enderby, and serve tea in a conventional parsonage
+drawing-room.  And she would never be an actress, and the true Elsie
+Marley would be dragged on to New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would be hard on Elsie-Honey, for already she seemed just to love
+that poky parsonage, and was apparently quite as attached to Uncle John
+as she herself was to Cousin Julia.  And even Cousin Julia&mdash;already
+Elsie couldn't but realize that Cousin Julia had given her her whole
+heart; she wouldn't have liked the other girl so well in the first
+place, and now any such overturn would&mdash;it would just break her heart!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No, that couldn't be.  After all, she couldn't have done otherwise.
+She <I>had</I> to say what she did on account of the game.  Being cast for a
+part, she had to play it, even though it might be disagreeable at
+times.  And it <I>wasn't</I> worse because her mother was dead; being in
+heaven, her mother would understand and condone.  How did that hymn go?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat erect and sang, very sweetly, the stanza that applied:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"There is no place where earth's sorrows<BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Are so felt as up in heaven,</SPAN><BR>
+There is no place where earth's failings<BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Have such kindly judgment given."</SPAN><BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That comforted her strangely.  "Uncle John couldn't have administered
+first aid himself more successfully," she said to herself humorously as
+she dried her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bathed her face and, standing before the mirror, addressed the
+charming reflection in the pink frock.  She mustn't expect plain
+sailing all the time she warned her.  She must expect to be <I>up against
+it</I> frequently.  She must keep her class motto in mind and not expect
+everything to be dead easy.  It was hard not to be able to claim one's
+beautiful mother; but she was playing a part; she was on the stage in
+costume, and the part-she-was-playing's mother's name wasn't Middleton
+nor Moss and was Augusta Pritchard.  She must keep her motto in mind
+and say continually to herself: "Act well your part, there all the
+honor lies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That very evening at dinner some one asked her where she got her
+dimples&mdash;whether they were inherited?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Or, perhaps, Miss Marley's a freak like the white peacock at the
+gardens?" broke in a callow youth whom Elsie disliked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"From my mother," she said quickly, and Miss Pritchard, sensitive to
+the least sound of hurt in Elsie's voice, introduced another subject.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless, she wondered.  She hadn't seen Augusta Pritchard since
+the latter was a girl of nineteen, but she couldn't recollect that she
+had any dimples or shadows of dimples.  She couldn't even imagine the
+combination of dimples with her white, cold, rather expressionless
+face, nor reconcile them with the true Pritchard temperament.  It
+seemed inconceivable that Elsie could have inherited them except
+through the Marleys; and yet, of course, Elsie remembered her mother
+who had died only three years ago.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had to consider that the girl didn't like that fresh Jerrold boy
+and had been nettled by his remark.  Possibly in her indignation she
+had said what first came into her mind, though it didn't seem like her.
+Miss Pritchard sighed, for she had worshipped at the shrine of truth
+all her life, and strive as she would, she couldn't but feel a
+deviation from Elsie's wonted frankness here.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She pondered much upon the subject and later in the summer&mdash;on the
+evening preceding their return to New York, it was&mdash;as they were
+talking about Elsie's studying, Miss Pritchard suddenly became serious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie, there's something I want to say to you as an older woman to a
+young girl," she began.  "You will have one difficulty to contend with
+that I had in newspaper work, only in your case the temptation will be
+greater, and your task correspondingly harder.  There's a poem of a
+child-actor of Queen Elizabeth's time, little Salathiel Pavy, who
+constantly played the part of an old man.  The verses relate that he
+acted the part so naturally that the fates mistook him for an old man
+and cut off his thread of life in his tender years.  Now you, Elsie
+dear, concerned with make-believe&mdash;fiction&mdash;as you will constantly be
+in your study for the stage, eager, of course, to use every moment and
+occasion, with one subject dominating your thoughts, will need to be
+very, very careful with regard to your separate, personal life.  In
+other words, in good old-fashioned terms, you'll have to guard your
+soul.  Keep that good and pure and true.  Keep that sacred, above and
+apart from your work, and then whether you are ever a great actress or
+not, you will be a good woman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then half shyly, but beautifully, she repeated Matthew Arnold's
+"Palladium":
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Set where the upper streams of Simois flow,<BR>
+Was the Palladium, high 'mid rock and wood;<BR>
+And Hector was in Ilium far below,<BR>
+And fought and saw it not, but there it stood.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+It stood and sun and moonshine rained their light<BR>
+On the pure columns of its glen-built hall.<BR>
+Backward and forward rolled the waves of fight<BR>
+Round Troy; but while this stood, Troy could not fall.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+So in its lovely moonlight lives the soul.<BR>
+Mountains surround it and sweet virgin air;<BR>
+Cold plashing, past it, crystal waters roll:<BR>
+We visit it by moments, ah, too rare!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Men will renew the battle on the plain<BR>
+To-morrow; red with blood will Xanthus be;<BR>
+Hector and Ajax will be there again,<BR>
+Helen will come upon the wall to see.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Then we shall rust in shade or shine in strife,<BR>
+And fluctuate 'twixt blind hopes and blind despairs,<BR>
+And fancy that we put forth all our life,<BR>
+And never know how with the soul it fares.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+Still doth the soul from its lone fastness high,<BR>
+Upon our life a ruling effluence send:<BR>
+And when it fails, fight as we will, we die;<BR>
+And, while it lasts, we cannot wholly end."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose," observed the real Elsie Marley thoughtfully, drawing one
+of her long curls over her shoulder, "that if I'm going to be at the
+library regularly, I'd better put up my hair?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She addressed Mr. Middleton, but his wife, who had of late fallen into
+the habit of sitting downstairs in the evening, replied.  She had
+conceived a strong fancy to the girl, who secretly shrank from her, and
+bore herself toward her in a cold and distant manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie, love, it would be sweet to do it sort of <I>Grecian</I>," she
+cried in her sentimental fashion, "with a classic knot at the nape of
+your neck, and little curls hanging down behind your ears."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let her leave it as it is a little longer, Milly," her husband
+pleaded, "for it's just as her mother wore hers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was not the fact, even though Elsie had been truly his niece.  His
+sister had worn her hair in curls, but they had been many and riotous,
+and caught at the top of her head with a ribbon; while Elsie's two were
+fastened at her neck by a neat clasp, and hung as demurely as a braid
+would have done.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," assented Mrs. Middleton.  "Elsie's the picture of her
+mother, I suppose?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She reminds me of her mother more and more every day," he said, "but
+she doesn't look like her at all.  You remember I told you that
+Elizabeth had enormous dimples?  They were so large that I'm not sure
+that they wouldn't have disfigured another face; but they added the
+last touch to hers&mdash;made it irresistible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He gazed at the fire.  It was late September and a chill rain beat
+against the windows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose if Elizabeth had had a son, <I>he</I> would have inherited the
+dimples," he remarked.  "I believe they say girls take traits from
+their fathers and sons from the mother.  Curious, isn't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, my dear, if Elsie had had dimples when she came, she would have
+lost them ere this," said Mrs. Middleton with unusual energy.  "She's
+been put right into a treadmill, Jack.  Only sixteen, sweet sixteen,
+and she hasn't had any of the gayety a young girl wants and needs, but
+has just slaved from morning until night ever since she came to us.  At
+her age, she ought to be going to dances and lying late in the morning
+to make up sleep, and shopping and having beaux and all that sort of
+thing, just as her Aunt Milly did."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sighed deeply, clasping her ringed hands.  Elsie was indignant,
+even angry; but before she could protest, Mrs. Middleton went on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Instead of which, she started work at the library the first thing and
+has been off and on ever since, and is now going to do it permanently,
+besides teaching a class in the Sunday-school, looking after the
+choir-boys, running errands for you, and what not."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear Milly!" cried her husband, really distressed; and went on to
+explain that when they decided to open the library in the evening as
+well as the afternoon, some one had to relieve Miss Stewart for two of
+the afternoon hours, and every one had clamored for Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I love to do it," added Elsie, "and I'm so pleased that I am to
+have the hours when the children are out of school."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," agreed Mrs. Middleton, smiling; "dear lambs!  I should
+have felt just the same.  Indeed, you're so like I was at your age,
+Elsie, dearest, that I feel as if it were to <I>me</I> that you are really
+related."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie murmured a silent word of deprecation, forgetting, as she often
+did, that she wasn't related to Mr. Middleton, either.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The rain beat furiously.  The minister rose and put another stick on
+the fire.  He did not return to his seat but stood with his elbow on
+the mantel gazing at his wife.  Though thin, John Middleton looked
+strong and well, in part, perhaps, because of his florid complexion,
+partly because of his serenity.  But in moments of stress he had a way
+of seeming to grow worn and older under one's very eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He felt the cogency of his wife's words.  He had, indeed, he said to
+himself, taken possession of his sister's orphan child immediately upon
+her arrival, and had made a sort of drudge of her: he kept her
+constantly occupied, performing miscellaneous services for him&mdash;he
+wasn't sure that he could have demanded so much of a paid secretary.
+And she, like her mother, unselfish and devoted, had made no complaint.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He spoke before Elsie, who was slow of speech and was regretting that
+she didn't share the real Elsie Moss's gift of expression, was able to
+put her feeling into words that would convince him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No wonder you felt like putting up your curls and saying farewell to
+youth, Elsie," he said whimsically yet ruefully.  "Your aunt is just
+right, dear, and we'll make a change at once.  What should you say to
+going on to New York to make your little actress friend a visit, and
+then starting anew after you come back?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now the color flew to Elsie's cheeks and words came.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle John, I wouldn't go now for the world!" she cried in genuine
+dismay.  "I'm just longing to go to the library every day&mdash;I think it's
+just&mdash;splendid!  And I like it all&mdash;everything&mdash;so very much.  It isn't
+the least a treadmill, and I'm so happy doing it.  Please, please,
+don't take anything away; only give me more."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He felt the sincerity of her words, and again said to himself that the
+girl was her mother over again.  His wife went over to Elsie, and
+stroking back her hair, kissed her brow fondly.  And the color died out
+of the girl's cheeks and the glow from her heart as she shuddered
+within herself.  And presently when Mr. Middleton went to his study to
+work, she bade Mrs. Middleton a cool good night and fled to her room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat by the window some time, then went to bed; but though the sound
+of the rain was soothing, she could not get to sleep.  It came to her
+that it was very thoughtful of Uncle John to wish to send her to visit
+Elsie; and how she would have liked to go if it didn't entail leaving
+the library and all the fascinating round of her daily life, and
+leaving him to his wife's cold comfort.  How she would like to see
+Elsie Moss at this moment, to confide her troubles and her happiness to
+that sympathetic ear.  If they could talk together, she could make the
+other understand that even with Mrs. Middleton as a drawback, she was
+more content, happier, than she had ever been before.  And she couldn't
+help feeling that she was useful, too, in a measure&mdash;that she would be
+missed if she were to go to New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still she could not sleep, and presently she found herself puzzling
+over a problem that had been growing upon her and now bulked big.  The
+truth was that already the weight of the top-heavy household had fallen
+upon the girl's shoulders.  Utterly unprepared and ignorant, she had
+been thrust into a tangled labyrinth of domestic affairs.  The more
+familiar she had become with the internal working of the household, the
+more was she baffled and daunted.  And presently it seemed to her
+youthful inexperience as if it stood upon the brink of ruin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though the minister was unaware that the bills were not paid promptly
+at the beginning of each month, Mrs. Middleton owed practically every
+establishment in the place accounts that dated far back.  At this time
+the small sums she could pay on account when her funds came in were
+insufficient to satisfy any one, and one and another began to threaten
+Kate with going to Mr. Middleton and demanding a settlement.  They
+declared it wasn't respectable for him to be giving away so much money
+when he owed probably more than a year's salary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kate's only recourse was to her mistress, who would be temporarily
+depressed, now and then to the point of tears.  But shortly she either
+forgot all about it or postponed consideration until another month; and
+meantime she never parted with her last penny: she always kept enough
+on hand for an ample supply of novels, chocolate drops, and
+headache-powders, the latter being especially expensive, according to
+Kate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ignorant as Elsie was, it did not take her long to understand that the
+household was managed&mdash;or allowed to run on&mdash;with the utmost
+extravagance and waste.  She had prevailed upon Kate to set the greater
+part of the big house in order and to keep it tidy, and she tried to
+induce her to be less wasteful and reckless.  But the girl was
+developing a certain sense of justice, and she rather doubted her right
+to insist.  Devoted as Kate was to Mr. Middleton, and attached, in an
+apologetic, shame-faced way, to her mistress, overworked and unpaid,
+save for the sums Elsie forced upon her, how could she demand that Kate
+be more scrupulous about details?  It would seem that she had all she
+could carry without that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl fell asleep at last, and woke next morning with the pleasant
+reflection that she was to begin to-day at the library as a regular
+salaried assistant.  Second thought was still more cheering.  As soon
+as the minister was out of the house, and she heard Kate go down-stairs
+from Mrs. Middleton's room, she betook herself to the disorderly
+kitchen.  At her entrance Kate rose suddenly and went and peered
+anxiously into the oven&mdash;which was empty.  Elsie would have liked to
+tell her that she didn't begrudge her those stolen moments for resting
+her tired feet, but she hadn't yet learned to express her new
+sensations.  It was sufficiently difficult to explain her errand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Katy, here are your wages for last week," she said rather brusquely,
+trying to press the money into her hands.  "Mrs. Middleton will&mdash;I hope
+she'll pay you in full very soon, but at any rate she&mdash;that is, you're
+going to get your wages regularly every week, and I'm going to see to
+it so that it shan't be neglected.  And always come to me if there's
+anything to ask.  Please don't go to her unless about the back pay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, you're so good!" cried Kate warmly, believing she had
+arranged it with Mr. Middleton.  "I'm sorry I complained.  You must 'a'
+known I didn't mean half what I said.  I wouldn't really 'a' gone to
+himself about it.  But honest, I ain't got a whole pair o' stockin's,
+and can't wear them pumps I got last summer on account o' the holes,
+and her a-growin' yellower every day and a-layin' round and eatin'
+chocolate drops and headache-powders that cost good money and ain't no
+benefit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stuffed the money into a drawer of the table with a miscellaneous
+assortment of less valuable things.  While Elsie was wondering if she
+could speak about the condition of the kitchen, which Elsie Moss would
+have pronounced unspeakable, Kate drew near to her with real appeal in
+her blue eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And, Miss Elsie, I wish you hadn't let what I've confided to you sort
+o' set you against your aunt.  Everybody has their failin's, they do
+say, and after all if she don't do worse than eat choc'late-creams and
+munch headache-tablets, why, she's pretty harmless as ladies go.  Mis'
+Jonathan Metcalf as goes to his church is just as yellow and I don't
+know but what yellower, and bedizened as well, and a regular shrew in
+her own house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Katy, I don't know what you mean," Elsie returned with dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you call her Mis' Middleton, when you speak of her, with your
+voice like a buzz-saw, and it ain't because you're high and mighty with
+me, 'cause you ain't.  You're like a sister to me, and I ain't once
+thought of up and leavin' sence you come as I did frequent before.  And
+besides, when you talk of himself, you always say Uncle John.  And
+she's good at heart, Miss Elsie; honest, she is.  She'd be just as good
+as himself if she knew as much.  Her heart's in the right place, and
+she takes to you and don't mistrust you don't to her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,
+as you call it," said Elsie, rather neatly as she believed.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-130"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-130.jpg" ALT="&quot;Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen, as you call it.&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="428" HEIGHT="587">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 428px">
+&quot;Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen, as you call it.&quot;
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, there's plenty of time for that," Kate assured her cheerfully; "if
+not to-day, why there's another comin'."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The kitchen wasn't <I>redd up</I> that day nor the next.  It remained,
+indeed, a sight to make a good housekeeper weep, and closets,
+cupboards, clothes-presses, and the celebrated servants' parlor
+remained untidy conglomerations of rubbish; but the general appearance
+of the place continued to improve.  Kate's gratitude for the regular
+receipt of her wages was continual and practical.  A chance visitor now
+could enter any room in the front of the house at any hour, and there
+was much comment among the people upon the change.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was generally agreed that Elsie Moss must have been very carefully
+trained by her stepmother to bring about such a marvel.  And presently
+some of the creditors of the household began to wonder if her influence
+couldn't be extended.  One and another began to drop hints to Elsie
+which became so broad that even one quite unaccustomed to any such
+thing could not fail to understand.  The butcher's wife, the grocer's
+sister, and the draper's head bookkeeper had all but informed her in so
+many words that unless their respective relatives or patrons were paid
+in full by the 1st of November, they would present their bills to Mr.
+Middleton, if they had to do so in the vestibule of the church.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And they were only three out of a number that seemed legion.  Others
+spoke more plainly to Kate, and Elsie began to dread seeing certain
+people enter the library during her hours there.  The days being
+shorter, the Howe baby went to bed at five o'clock, and little Mattie,
+who had taken a violent fancy to Elsie, used to run to the library the
+moment he was off her hands, remaining until six to walk home with her.
+And Elsie, who was devoted to the child and never tired of her company,
+was also relieved because her presence protected her from any but
+veiled hints.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The situation wore upon her, and finally she decided to have a frank
+talk with Mrs. Middleton.  She wasn't, it is true, on terms of
+frankness with her, and in a sense it wasn't her place to interfere.
+But she knew that Mrs. Middleton wouldn't want the bills presented to
+her husband any more than Kate did&mdash;nor, indeed, than Elsie herself.
+Not that she would have cared, except for Mr. Middleton's sake.  It
+would serve Mrs. Middleton right to be brought up short, but she
+dreaded the thought of his being so distressed; she didn't want him to
+give up the few little comforts he allowed himself, and she knew it
+would hurt him cruelly to have to retrench in his giving.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She wrote to Mr. Bliss, her lawyer, asking him to send her five hundred
+dollars, mailing the letter to the other Elsie to be forwarded from New
+York.  That seemed to her inexperience a large sum and able to work
+wonders.  But before her letter had reached New York she began to feel
+as if it wouldn't be sufficient to make everything straight for a new
+start; and before there was time for an answer from San Francisco, she
+was sadly convinced that it would be only a drop in the bucket.
+Whereupon she decided that if Mr. Bliss sent it to her without comment,
+and didn't evidently consider it a very large sum, she would ask him to
+duplicate it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a certain relief, she put off the frank talk with Mrs. Middleton
+until she should have received the money.  It did not arrive so soon as
+she expected it, and she was still waiting when Kate came to her in
+excitement one morning saying that the iceman wouldn't leave any ice
+unless he were paid cash.  Elsie produced her portemonnaie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, I hate to take your money," protested Kate with tears
+in her eyes.  "I wouldn't 'a' come to you only I'm strapped myself,
+what with buyin' the hat with all them plumes, and the missus after
+borrowin' my last five-dollar bill."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Katy Flanagan, what made you let her have it?" cried the girl almost
+fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Miss Elsie, the truth is, I couldn't resist her.  There's
+something about her, you know&mdash;a-askin' so airy like, and forgettin'
+how&mdash;goodness, the man'll clear out with his ice if I don't fly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thereafter, Elsie paid also for the ice and the milk, leaving, out of
+her allowance and the money she received for the library work, barely
+enough for postage.  But she didn't mind that; it was really a slight
+sacrifice.  She cared so much for the work at the library that she
+would have paid for the privilege of doing it; and she had come so well
+provided with all the accessories of clothing that she hadn't even to
+buy gloves for another year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Looking forward, she began to speculate on the possibility of starting
+anew after finances were once straightened out.  It appeared doubtful,
+she being herself more ignorant than Kate, but presently a happy
+suggestion presents itself to her.  One afternoon she asked Mrs. King,
+a kind, motherly, grey-haired lady who taught domestic science at the
+high school and came to the library frequently, whether there were any
+book to teach one how much to spend each week on different articles for
+a household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I'm so glad you spoke, for I've been wanting to tell
+you about our seniors in domestic science this year at the high school.
+I think I have the nicest class I've ever had.  We meet three times a
+week at eleven o'clock, and I have wondered if you might not like to
+join?  Knowing that your aunt is an invalid, I thought you might want
+to take the care off her shoulders, and I feel sure our course would
+help you.  You know all the girls, I think, and I should be more than
+pleased to help you make up what they have been over already."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie could scarcely express her delight.  She spoke to Mr. Middleton
+that evening.  He had no idea of her ultimate purpose; indeed, he did
+not realize the confusion in which he lived, and was rather amused at
+the idea, but considered it an excellent method of getting better
+acquainted with the young people, and was pleased at her eagerness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She entered the class at once, found the study delightful and very
+helpful, and the days fairly flew by.  She was, after all, only
+sixteen, and extraordinarily immature in many ways; and it was not
+perhaps remarkable that after a few lessons, with extra help from Mrs.
+King, she began to feel quite capable of shouldering the housekeeping
+at the parsonage.  But the more ready she felt, the less did she desire
+to propose it to Mrs. Middleton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such a step was not made easier by the fact that the latter took a keen
+interest in her lessons at the school.  She endeavored, not always
+successfully, to draw the girl out upon the subject, questioning her
+with some felicity, praising her ambition, and taking it for granted
+that she was an unusual pupil and a great addition to the class.  And
+she constantly bemoaned the fact that it had been necessary for Elsie
+to go outside for the instruction that she would herself have delighted
+to give her, had her strength permitted.  Nothing could have gratified
+her more, she declared, clasping her hands and raising her eyes to the
+ceiling, but she didn't even dare allow herself to dwell upon it.  For
+she had just enough strength to manage her own household (as every lady
+should do), and she hadn't the moral right to use it for other purposes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime, three weeks had passed since Elsie had written to ask her
+lawyer for the five hundred dollars, and she began to feel troubled.
+Of course, she had to allow for letter and answer going through Elsie
+Moss's hands, but three weeks should have covered that.  She watched
+the mails anxiously.  As she returned from the library on the
+twenty-fourth day since she had sent her request, she decided that
+unless she should hear that night, she would have Elsie Moss telegraph
+from New York.  For the end of October approached, and she felt she
+couldn't face the crisis of the 1st of November, without the aid and
+the moral support of the money.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was surprised to see the doctor's motor-car standing at the door,
+and startled when Kate, wild-eyed and dishevelled, met her at the
+threshold.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Uncle John?  Has anything happened?" she faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, it ain't him.  He's in the city, pore lamb, and it's myself is
+thankful you'll be here to tell him.  It's her.  Riggs was here
+a-dunnin' me for his money soon after you left, and nothin' would do
+but that I should go up to her whiles he waits in the kitchen.  And a
+lucky thing it was, too, for there he was to go for the doctor&mdash;we both
+forgot clean about the telephone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what is it?" cried Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I found her on the floor like a log, Miss Elsie.  She ain't dead at
+all, but she ain't come to, and maybe won't from taking of too many of
+them headache-powders as I knew was no good but didn't think no harm
+of."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On a sudden, without warning, Kate dropped her head upon Elsie's
+shoulder and began to sob wildly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Katy, don't," begged Elsie, truly distressed.  "You and I must
+keep up for the sake of&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of himself, miss, I know," sobbed Kate, "but, oh, I feel as if it was
+my own mother&mdash;or my own baby, I don't know which."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss's school was quite unlike her expectations, and her
+companions not at all like those of her eager dreams.  Just as at art
+school one begins, she knew, with the study and copying of the antique,
+so the girl had supposed that in studying for the stage, one would
+approach it through the masterpieces of the drama.  On the contrary,
+she didn't so much as hear the name of Shakespeare or of any other dead
+or classic dramatist during the first two months; and though she had to
+work as hard as she had expected to do, it sometimes seemed as if it
+were practice that didn't really count.  The drill seemed to be all in
+the way of suppleness of limb and facility of facial expression without
+intellectual stimulus; indeed, it almost seemed as if the whole
+tendency of the school was rather narcotic than stimulating.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Further, the girls with whom she came in contact shared her ideals as
+little as their pasts had anything in common with hers.  Many of them
+were not older in years, but one and all were incomparably older in
+other ways and painfully sophisticated.  Pretty in a coarse way,
+painted and powdered, bold and often vulgar, they were almost without
+exception girls whose whole lives had been spent in the atmosphere of
+the stage, and that in its cheaper and poorer aspects.  One or both
+parents, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle had figured in shows or
+exhibitions of some sort, and they had fallen into the profession in
+that manner.  None had, like Elsie, chosen it as a calling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Disappointed as she was, disheartened utterly at moments, the girl
+hugged her class motto to her breast and struggled on.  So deep was her
+purpose, so strong her interest, that she not only pressed doggedly on,
+but forced a certain amount of satisfaction out of the struggle.  How
+it might have been had she not possessed in Miss Pritchard a solace and
+refuge, it would be difficult to say.  Elsie herself hardly knew how
+much courage and strength she gained during the evenings and other
+fragments of time spent with her.  Looking forward to that
+companionship gave her patience to endure many a difficult hour which
+perchance she had not endured otherwise.  But with that always before
+her, despite the hardships that were so different from those for which
+she had been prepared, she was nevertheless wonderfully happy&mdash;perhaps,
+happier than she had ever been before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sometimes, when the day had been unusually trying, she would greet Miss
+Pritchard at night with a warmth that almost frightened the latter,
+clinging to her as if she would never let her go.  But she never
+confessed any of her troubles connected with the school.  She talked
+much of it, but it was always of the most interesting occurrences and
+of amusing incidents.  For her heart was in the matter as much as ever,
+and Miss Pritchard wasn't so favorably inclined toward it as to make it
+prudent to let her know of the disadvantages.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it was terribly hard for one of her nature to have no one in whom
+to confide, and she longed for Elsie Marley.  If she could have talked
+things over with Elsie Marley it would have made it easier.  Simply to
+unburden her heart would mean much.  Ever since she had been in New
+York she had longed to see Elsie again; and with this added reason, and
+a desire to learn more of her life in Enderby than she could gather
+from her stiff and rather non-committal letters, she began to feel,
+about the time that she forwarded a letter to Elsie's lawyer in San
+Francisco, that she must induce her to come to New York for a visit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A letter from her stepmother seemed to render it almost imperative.
+Mrs. Moss, who was devoted to Elsie and missed her sadly, was greatly
+troubled by the irregularity of the girl's letters and hurt by their
+want of frankness.  Knowing that John Middleton had not approved of
+Elsie's father marrying her, she began to fear lest he be trying to
+turn his niece against her.  Now she had written to protest against the
+perfunctory letters, which, instead of allowing her to share in any way
+in Elsie's life, shut her out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie was deeply moved and full of compunction.  She loved her
+stepmother dearly and thought of her constantly, faithful soul that she
+really was.  She was always wondering how <I>auntie</I> would take this or
+view that; but the very topics she was moved to enlarge upon in her
+letters were those which circumstances forbade her to mention.  All her
+interests were connected with Miss Pritchard, of whose very existence
+Mrs. Moss was unaware, with the school, and less directly with Elsie
+Marley, whose name she was masquerading under.  Leaving all these out
+of consideration, and depending almost wholly upon the fragments she
+received concerning life in the parsonage at Enderby, a brief letter
+once in three or four weeks was the utmost the girl could compass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately upon receipt of her stepmother's letter, she determined to
+ask Miss Pritchard if she might invite her friend Elsie Moss to come on
+for a week or a fortnight.  As she waited for Miss Pritchard to come
+from the office that night, however, it suddenly occurred to her to
+wonder if it would be quite safe.  Despite her enthusiastic admiration
+of Elsie Marley, which had not in the least abated, and despite the
+unfavorable impression she had of the Pritchards, which only deepened
+as the days passed, she had come to feel that in personal appearance
+and somewhat in manner her friend must resemble her kinsfolk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In which case it would be as dangerous for the well-being of the one as
+of the other for her to be brought in contact with Miss Pritchard.
+For, stiff as were her letters and non-committal, Elsie knew that there
+was little difference in the strength of attachment that held the wrong
+Elsie to the place she had usurped in either instance.  Whatever she
+might do, therefore, she mustn't bungle or err in that respect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Pritchard estate was not yet settled.  The house had been sold and
+such personal effects and heirlooms as were to be kept for Elsie Marley
+put in storage for the time in San Francisco.  Elsie Moss understood
+this, and knew that Miss Pritchard did so; but she felt that the latter
+wondered that she had no relics or keepsakes with her.  She had had to
+confess one day that she had no photographs of her family she would be
+willing to show, leaving Miss Pritchard to make such inference as she
+would.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That evening at the dinner-table&mdash;she felt it would be easier to
+approach the matter in semi-public&mdash;Elsie asked her if she happened to
+have any old Pritchard photographs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear, I have an old album in the chest by the window that has
+pictures of Aunt Ellen, Cousin Ellen, and Cousin Augusta.  There are
+half a dozen, I think, of Cousin Ellen, and three or four of your
+mother, but no baby picture of you, nor any other, if that's what
+you're looking for.  After my father died we began to lose connection
+with one another, and after that visit I made when you were a baby, all
+communication ceased.  So I got no photographs after that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I wasn't thinking of my kid pictures, Cousin Julia.  I was
+just&mdash;wondering," the girl returned.  "Would it be an awful bother to
+get out the album?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No bother at all, child.  To tell the truth, I love to get it out, for
+there are a lot of other pictures besides the Pritchards that I like to
+look over.  There's a picture of my Cousin Arthur Moore, who fell in
+the battle of Lookout Mountain, that I'd like you to see."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the old-fashioned, velvet-bound, nickel-clasped book was produced,
+Elsie almost forgot her immediate purpose in her interest in the
+likenesses.  But one of Ellen Pritchard at fourteen, Miss Pritchard's
+cousin and supposedly <I>her</I> aunt, brought her up sharply.  For Elsie
+Marley was the very image of it.  Rearrange her hair, put her into the
+beruffled skirt and polonaise, and she might have sat for it.  Or part
+this girl's hair and gather it loosely back, dress her in a tailored
+suit and correct blouse, and she would be Elsie Marley.  What a
+frightful thing this family resemblance was!  Elsie stifled a sigh.
+Her cake was dough, sure enough!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Partly to ease her dismay and postpone considering her problem until
+she should be alone, the girl gave herself up to the study of the other
+pictures.  It wasn't difficult to lose herself, for she found them of
+absorbing interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the Pritchards, Elsie's grandmother was the most striking
+personage.  The strength and sagacity of her handsome face, which the
+expression of pride could not conceal, related her to Miss Pritchard
+unmistakably.  Pride, mingled with frailty and general lack of other
+expression, characterized the invalid daughter; and pride that was
+arrogance, the bored face of Augusta Pritchard, who was supposed to be
+her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was late when the girl finally closed the album.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Many thanks, Cousin Julia," she murmured rather absently, a far-away
+look in her dark eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a little she rose and began to wander about the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cousin Julia," she said presently, "I can't help wondering&mdash;honestly,
+don't you ever wish I looked more&mdash;I mean that I looked any like them?
+They're mighty aristocratic-looking guys after all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear, when you talk like that you know as well as I that you're
+fishing," insisted Miss Pritchard.  "I have told you that I'm too
+well-satisfied.  I have to watch out for flaws."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, don't you ever think, anyhow, that such <I>whopping</I> dimples
+are&mdash;almost vulgar?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I adore them," responded Miss Pritchard calmly.  "But anyhow, you
+know, they are supposed to be Pritchard.  Didn't you tell that
+what's-his-name boy you got them from your mother?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie colored.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I loathed that gump," she said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard did not press the matter, though she wished very much
+Elsie had explained or made other amends.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, how perfectly gorgeous!" cried Elsie, "but oh, I
+don't need it, and&mdash;oh, please take it back.  You just shower things on
+me, and I feel so wicked to have you spend so much on me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie, child, don't you understand yet how happy I am to have you to
+spend it on?" returned Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was quite true that the latter was constantly bestowing not only
+small, but rich and costly gifts upon the girl who had come to live
+with her and for whom she had come to live.  In this instance it was an
+opera-cloak of rose-colored broadcloth, wadded, and lined with white
+brocaded satin, soft and light and warm.  The two went often to the
+theatre, and it would be useful, though Miss Pritchard herself had
+never owned such a garment, and it was certainly rather elegant for a
+girl of sixteen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, Elsie," Miss Pritchard went on, "I want to ask you something&mdash;I
+have more money than I know what to do with.  Whom should I spend it on
+if not on you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie winced.  Her little face grew wistful.  "Then it's because I'm a
+Pritchard you do it?" she demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard laughed.  "My dear, how you pin one to cold facts.  If
+you must know, then, it's because you aren't a Pritchard.  It's because
+you're yourself, through and through, and haven't a trace nor a look of
+the Pritchards that I love you so and long to have you happy here with
+me, who am not a Pritchard either.  No doubt your family rubbed that
+fact in sufficiently, so you didn't expect me to be.  To tell the
+truth, I could never abide the Pritchards.  I was such a misfit when I
+visited Aunt Ellen's years ago, that I rather dreaded your coming,
+though I did feel that being so young you might not be inveterate, and
+that we might manage to hit it off, as they say."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immensely cheered, Elsie kissed her warmly.  Miss Pritchard threw the
+cloak over her shoulders, produced a rosy silk scarf to tie over her
+bobbed hair, and they were off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The conversation came back to Miss Pritchard next day as she sat at her
+desk near a great window whence the streets below were like canyons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear me, how little Elsie must have had in her life to be so absurdly
+grateful as she is," she said to herself.  "And what a life those women
+must have led her to make her so ready to refuse what meant so much to
+her if it came to her as to a Pritchard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Which suddenly reminded her of the Pritchard family lawyer and a letter
+she had found on her plate that morning with the name of the firm Bliss
+&amp; Waterman on the envelope.  Not caring to open it before Elsie, she
+had brought it to the office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Breaking the seal, she was amazed to learn that the lawyer wished to
+consult her in regard to a request for five hundred dollars Elsie
+Marley had recently made.  He would not, of course, hand over a
+comparatively large sum like that without her guardian's sanction, and
+he felt constrained to add that certain outstanding obligations against
+the residue of the property had recently come to light which might
+curtail the income for a year.  He still felt that if Miss Pritchard
+remained willing to pay Elsie's general expenses, that the allowance
+which they had agreed upon and which he had sent regularly ought to
+cover pin-money and something more.  Elsie had made no explanations.
+Of course, if the money were for educational purposes, he would arrange
+to send it.  If Miss Pritchard would kindly make the situation clear to
+him, he would follow her instructions, but he awaited her reply before
+acting upon her ward's request.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard felt absolutely at sea.  She was as puzzled as she was
+troubled.  Elsie had seemed so frank and open, and, despite her
+generous nature, had seemed so frugal in her expenditure, making a
+little go much further than Miss Pritchard herself could do, that she
+couldn't imagine her demanding this sum without consulting her in
+regard to it.  She knew exactly what Elsie paid at the school&mdash;she had
+insisted upon paying her own expenses out of five hundred dollars she
+had brought with her and deposited.  She knew, too, practically every
+penny she spent in other ways, the total of which was always far below
+the amount of her allowance; she knew her associates, and could have
+accounted for every hour of her time.  She could almost believe that
+Mr. Bliss had made a blunder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After pondering upon the subject all day, she telegraphed him not to
+send the money, and decided to question Elsie that night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had no opportunity that evening, however.  A certain Madame
+Valentini, a former prima donna who had been a famous soprano in the
+early days of "Pinafore," and who came to Miss Peacock's each year for
+opera, had arrived during the day, and she and Miss Pritchard being old
+friends, the evening was devoted to her.  Madame Valentini was
+white-haired now, and very stout, with chin upon chin; and the real
+Elsie Marley would have thought her vulgar, for she rouged her cheeks,
+laughed out heartily and frequently, and wore colors and fashions
+ill-suited to her age and size, with jewels enough for a court-ball.
+But she was full of life and spirit, warm-hearted, invariably cheerful,
+an amusing and fluent talker, and musical to the ends of her be-ringed
+fingers and the satin tips of her shoes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Like every one else at Miss Peacock's, she took to Elsie at once.  She
+understood that the girl was studying for the stage, but recognized in
+a twinkling that she had a singing voice, and finally prevailed upon
+her to try it.  She herself played the accompaniment with a skill that
+was a revelation to Elsie, who had never enjoyed singing as she enjoyed
+it that night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she had done, the prima donna threw her arms about the girl and
+drew her to her bosom.  Elsie Marley must have shuddered, but her
+namesake, thrilled with singing to the sympathetic accompaniment,
+kissed her warmly on her unnaturally pink cheek.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, my angel, what a voice, what a voice!" cried madame.  "Entrancing!
+marvellous!  It's simply perfect in tone and quality, and correct
+practice would increase its range.  And when you put on a little more
+flesh (here, even Elsie Moss groaned silently) you'll get volume, too.
+Stop everything, child, and cultivate it.  It's worth millions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie flushed.  She couldn't help being pleased by the extravagant
+praise, but she couldn't bear to be advised to give up the dramatic
+stage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The older singer turned to Miss Pritchard.  "My dear Miss Pritchard,
+why do you let this charming child waste her time learning to do
+vaudeville stunts that any limber-jointed, pretty-faced chit could do,
+with a glorious voice like that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It seemed wonderful to me, and Charley Graham confirmed me in the
+belief," Miss Pritchard owned, "and Elsie herself confesses that people
+have always advised her to study singing rather than acting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only because they thought it was more respectable," protested Elsie,
+pouting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, foolish child, wouldn't you far and away rather be a singer&mdash;a
+famous singer?" demanded madame.  "You'd get into grand opera, you
+know.  You'd be lovely as Juliet or Butterfly even now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'd rather be an actress," pleaded the girl so sweetly deprecating
+that Madame Valentini hardly wondered that Julia Pritchard should give
+her her way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So long as she remained at Miss Peacock's, madame devoted much time,
+very happily, to Elsie's musical education.  She made the girl sing for
+her every day, giving her assistance that was really invaluable.  She
+took her to the opera twice a week, where she was a wonderful
+companion, calling attention to fine points that all but a connoisseur
+must have missed, and discussing all sorts of pertinent musical topics
+between the acts.  And she rejoiced with Miss Pritchard because of
+Elsie's obvious enjoyment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime, Miss Pritchard found occasion to speak to Elsie on the
+subject of Mr. Bliss's letter.  She handed it to her; the girl read it
+quietly and passed it back without speaking, yet meeting her eyes
+frankly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I confess, Elsie, I can't conceive how you should want so large a sum
+at this time," Miss Pritchard began.  "I trust you so thoroughly that I
+believe it must be for something worth while&mdash;at least you think it is,
+child.  And I feel that you so trust me that you will explain to me if
+you can.  In any event, I have decided to give it to you out of my own
+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?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A check?" repeated Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cash, please, Cousin Julia," returned the girl, her dimples almost
+visible.  Then she looked straight into Miss Pritchard's eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please tell me&mdash;are you doing this, too, because I'm not a Pritchard,
+or as my guardian?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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&mdash;in any event she
+returned promptly: "As your guardian, Elsie, Pritchard to Pritchard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+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&mdash;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 seemed a great pity that
+there should be any concealment between herself and the other Elsie.
+As things stood, she was sufficiently involved in concealment, to give
+it no worse name, without that.  It had been understood that she should
+read all the letters that came before sending them on to Enderby; but
+to keep one and never mention it, necessary though it was, and demanded
+by circumstances, seemed somehow almost like stealing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And the worst was that circumstances might go on making demands, and
+she might have to do yet more reprehensible things&mdash;things that weren't
+merely <I>almost</I> like wrong-doing.  Some day she might have to lie right
+out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Well, as to that, what had it been when she said that her mother's name
+was Pritchard?  That had been acting&mdash;a part of her rôle.  And then, of
+course she constantly deceived Miss Pritchard, in a way, though not
+dishonestly.  That was acting, too.  She and Elsie Marley had entered
+into a contract, indeed, each to act the part of the other.  They
+weren't hurting any one: each fitted into the wrong place as she
+couldn't have into the right.  And yet in very truth it was very much
+like plain lying!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Moss flinched.  Then she recollected how once at home some of the
+girls of her class at school had been discussing a subject given in the
+rhetoric they studied under "Argumentation"&mdash;"Is a lie ever
+justifiable?"  These girls of the "Per aspera ad astra" motto had
+decided the question in the affirmative.  They had agreed that lying to
+a burglar wasn't wrong&mdash;it might prevent him from robbing a widow or
+one's own mother&mdash;the same with regard to a murderer, an insane person,
+or one sick unto death.  And one and all had declared with spirit that
+if they lived in England and a hunting-party should come along with
+their cruel hounds and ask which way the fox or hare had gone, they
+would point in exactly the wrong direction.  Elsie herself had declared
+that she would have said that the little creature hadn't come this way
+at all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not that that was exactly similar.  The girl owned that however she
+might please Miss Pritchard, and Elsie Marley might gratify Uncle John,
+in each case it was the girl herself who benefited chiefly by the
+scheme, and for whom it had been arranged and carried through.
+Pleasing Uncle John and Cousin Julia was what is called in chemistry a
+by-product.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Furthermore, there was the question as to whether Cousin Julia, in any
+event, would value satisfaction secured thus by indirection?
+Absolutely straight-forward, as she was, mightn't she judge their
+action severely, label it plain deceit, and&mdash;oh, no! she couldn't
+refuse to have anything further to do with her!  It began to seem as if
+even failure in what she had always considered her life-work wouldn't
+be so terrible as that.  The girl didn't put it into so many words, but
+as the days passed she seemed to have a vague sense of another
+life-work which might consist in growing up toward Miss Pritchard's
+standards of what is fine and good and worth while.  But Elsie wouldn't
+dwell upon it, for she couldn't, of course, begin to approach any such
+goal&mdash;she couldn't even make a start&mdash;without confession.  And
+confession wouldn't mean only the loss of her chance to realize her
+ambition; it would mean the loss of Cousin Julia herself.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Meantime, when the sum of money reached Enderby, Mrs. Middleton still
+lay unconscious&mdash;at death's door, it was said.  And one whispered to
+another that it was, perhaps, better so, that it would be a blessing to
+the minister if she were to be taken away.  She had been worse than a
+drag upon him all these years.  Foolish, idle, lazy, extravagant, she
+had exaggerated her physical delicacy and given herself up to indolence
+and self-indulgence, running the household into debt until it was a
+disgrace to the minister and to the church.  Mr. Middleton, dear saint,
+hadn't known order nor comfort nor companionship for years until his
+niece had come.  And when all was said, she could do better for him
+without her aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However that might be, the minister himself took his wife's sudden and
+terrifying illness sadly to heart.  He hung over her bed and haunted
+her room, watching and praying for the return of consciousness and
+life.  Not, perhaps, his peer in the first place, Mildred Middleton had
+not grown, had not kept pace with her husband, and she had truly of
+late fallen into deplorable habits for the head of a household.
+Nevertheless, he believed in her; loved her for her real warmth of
+heart, which her veil of sentimentality did not in any degree alter for
+him, for her optimism, her absolutely unfailing good nature, and for an
+intuitive womanliness he believed to be eminently her gift.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And presently when she rallied, his heart grew light, indeed.  The
+doctor said it might be long before she would get her strength back,
+but he believed it possible that when she had regained it, she would be
+better than she had been for years.  He told the minister quietly that
+it was fortunate she had been stricken as she had.  The
+headache-powders she had been taking constantly contained a drug that
+had been slowly poisoning her.  A little longer and her heart would
+have been permanently affected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime, before this, while she lay unconscious, the bills had begun
+to pour in.  Along with the domestic science, Elsie had taken up
+bookkeeping at the high school, and fortified by that knowledge and the
+possession of the five hundred dollars, she summoned her courage, went
+to Mr. Middleton and asked if she might take the accounts in hand this
+month in Aunt Milly's place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pleased by her thoughtfulness, he proposed that they should do them
+together.  Elsie begged to be allowed to try them alone, just for once,
+but he insisted upon sharing the task, though he confessed that she
+would find him very rusty about such things, his wife having taken them
+off his hands for so many years.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's heart sank.  She knew that practically every tradesman had sent
+a bill in full, and apprehended that the totals would be appalling.
+She feared, too, that it would be awkward about the five hundred
+dollars.  But there was nothing to do but to comply with his desire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At his bidding, she brought the collection into the study that evening.
+He got out a check-book and they sat down, Elsie at the desk, and he by
+the side with one of the sliding shelves drawn out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none of them," he remarked, and took up the pile of envelopes.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-162"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-162.jpg" ALT="&quot;You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will have none of them,&quot; he remarked." BORDER="2" WIDTH="433" HEIGHT="583">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 433px">
+&quot;You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will have none of them,&quot; he remarked.
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"We'll begin with the top one&mdash;Mason," he said.  "Fill in the date and
+name&mdash;James S.&mdash;and now, let's see the sum."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He drew out the bill, glanced at it, then looked sharply as if it were
+hard to decipher.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A hundred and seventy-five dollars!" he exclaimed.  "Of course that
+can't be.  It should be a dollar and seventy-five cents, I suppose, and
+yet&mdash;it's quite plain&mdash;see&mdash;one hundred seventy-five and two ciphers.
+There's some mistake.  I'll just put it aside and telephone in the
+morning.  Leave that and start another, dear.  Andrew White's the
+next&mdash;no middle letter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He opened the next with the same confidence.  Eighty-six dollars was
+large for a milk bill.  He glanced at it doubtfully.  <I>Bill rendered</I>
+indicated that it wasn't all for this month.  It must have slipped by,
+somehow.  And of course Mrs. Middleton had to have egg-nog and cream
+and all that.  He bade Elsie draw the check, feeling that they must
+have paid the largest first.  But Elsie's heart sank as he took up the
+next envelope with Berry's name in the corner.  Berry was the grocer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Four hundred ninety-two dollars!" he gasped.  "Wait, Elsie, we'll look
+them all through before we do any more.  There's something wrong.  Now
+this goes back&mdash;let me see.  Bill rendered&mdash;bill rendered&mdash;it seems to
+go back a year or more.  I wonder if perhaps your aunt has asked for
+statements for a year in order to see what her expenditures amount
+to?"&mdash;He shook his head&mdash;"No, here's a credit.  And this is plain
+enough 'Amount due November 1.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He opened the others one by one.  None was so large as the grocery
+bill, though that of the market was above four hundred dollars, and the
+others large, the sum total being, as Elsie had foreseen, appalling.
+It did not take long to discover that Mrs. Middleton was behind in her
+accounts for a year or more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It must have been hard for her husband to understand what had become of
+the monthly household allowance she had had in cash regularly.  Credit
+was given here and there, indeed, but always in small sums.  It must,
+too, have been hard for John Middleton to face the facts, but he stood
+the test.  He looked weary and worn&mdash;he certainly grew haggard and
+seemed to grow old; but no word of impatience escaped him.  Indeed, he
+did not appear to have an impatient thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This has all been too much for your aunt, Elsie," he said finally.
+"She wanted to spare me, and when the task got beyond her strength she
+wouldn't give in.  She has been a greater sufferer than any of us
+dreamed.  Apparently she has had those terrible headaches almost
+constantly, hiding the pain from every one and trying to get relief by
+taking those strong tablets.  And no doubt these accounts gave her no
+end of pain and worry, and got into confusion in spite of her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He bowed his head in his hand and sat thus some little time, aware of
+Elsie's silent sympathy.  He smiled wearily when he raised it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'll give it over for to-night, Elsie.  I'll see what I can do
+to-morrow and then we'll tackle them again.  I think I shall be able to
+do something, but we may have to go carefully for a time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He hesitated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Kate's the most faithful soul in the world, but I doubt if she gives
+her orders carefully," he remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I've started in giving them since Aunt Milly's illness," said Elsie
+shyly.  "Katy doesn't mind.  I learned how at school, and I keep them
+in a little book so as to compare them with the bills at the end of the
+month."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie Moss, you are certainly a trump!" he cried.  "Do let me see your
+book, dear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She produced it and he examined the neat items with interest, praising
+her warmly and seeming greatly cheered already.  And then the girl made
+an effort and mentioned a sum of five hundred dollars which she had on
+hand and wished he would use.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear child!" he cried, smiling tenderly, "I wouldn't touch your
+money for the world.  The truth is, I ought to pay you a salary as
+housekeeper and pastor's assistant, though I couldn't begin to
+compensate you for the better part.  You have been like the daughter of
+the household, or such a sister as your mother was."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The following day Mrs. Middleton regained consciousness, and the next
+day the minister went into Boston and made arrangements to secure the
+money to meet his obligations by reducing his life-insurance policy
+one-half and disposing of some bonds.  That evening they drew checks
+and settled everything in full.  Thereafter Elsie gave the orders,
+checked the accounts at the end of the month, and made out the checks
+for Mr. Middleton to sign.  On the whole she did remarkably well and
+reduced the general expenses considerably.  She made mistakes, but they
+were few; for her mind was of the type that takes to figures and
+details, and she was naturally methodical and accurate.  Mr. Middleton
+smiled at the neat little packets of receipted bills, docketed and
+filed, but he was extravagantly grateful to her for all that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton gained slowly.  One day, a fortnight or more after she
+was convalescent, the minister came to Elsie with a good-sized check in
+his hand made out to her.  The girl looked at him in amazement, filled
+with vague dismay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For your winter clothes, Elsie," he explained.  "Aunt Milly reminded
+me.  In fact, she rather scolded me for not thinking of it earlier.
+And she suggests that you get one of the schoolgirls and go into Boston
+for a day's shopping on Saturday."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie paled&mdash;she had begun to show a pretty color of late.  This was
+her first realization of the discomfort of a false position.  Long
+since, Mr. Middleton had come to seem her real uncle, and her affection
+for him was as deep as if he had truly been; indeed, nowadays she
+seldom realized that the relationship was not real.  But to accept
+money from him&mdash;from that she shrank instinctively.  And that proved
+the difference.  For though not in the least drawn toward Cousin Julia,
+for all the other Elsie's enthusiasm, she could have accepted a larger
+sum from her without a qualm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Uncle John, I really don't need a thing!" she cried beseechingly,
+and he had to smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nonsense, my dear, I have the word of your aunt that you will need
+everything.  Kate has told her that during the summer all the fashions
+have flopped completely over, so that last year's clothes wouldn't even
+keep one warm.  Biases and bulges that formerly came at the top of the
+gown now come at the bottom; sleeves are big where they were little,
+and vice versa, and collars the same.  As for hats&mdash;there the
+transformation is so great that I pause before it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie laughed.  "Well, if it's so bad as that, I'll spend my five
+hundred dollars&mdash;blow it in, as&mdash;as my friend in New York would say."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, Elsie, I see through you now!" he exclaimed.  "You think I can't
+afford it, because of those big bills.  As a matter of fact, I could do
+it easily even if you weren't managing things so economically.  And,
+besides, Aunt Milly has set her heart on it.  And oh, Elsie, I'm so
+thankful to keep her with us that I should like to do something
+extraordinary, something really rash and extravagant.  Please head me
+off by letting me do this simple, natural thing which is less than
+just, and which will please Aunt Milly more than anything I could do
+for her.  Why, my dear Elsie, pray why shouldn't I do it?  Wasn't your
+mother my only sister and dearest friend?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On a sudden Elsie buried her face and wept&mdash;the only tears she had shed
+since her coming to Enderby.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap22"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Touched and perplexed, Mr. Middleton gave over for the moment; but
+presently he had his opportunity to be extravagant.  As soon as his
+wife was able to leave her room, the doctor ordered her to pass a
+portion of every day out-of-doors.  This was partly to strengthen her
+lungs and partly for the moral effect.  Doctor Fenwick feared that if
+she should revert to the long days upon her couch or bed with the
+novels and chocolates, the headache-powders or a substitute would
+follow, soon or late, with more perilous results.  She submitted to his
+dictum with resignation, being, indeed, rather captivated by the idea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her husband and Elsie went into Boston and selected a rich and warm fur
+coat, fur-lined gloves and overshoes, and three warm, dark-colored
+serge dresses which were a great improvement upon the wrappers.  On the
+day after she received them, Mrs. Middleton spent two hours on the
+porch with ill-concealed delight.  And, thereafter, rising and
+breakfasting with the others, she passed the whole of every forenoon
+out-of-doors, not only with beneficial results but with continued
+enjoyment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The sentimental aspect, of course, appealed to her strongly.  Sometimes
+she pleased herself by fancying that the doctor had discovered that one
+of her lungs was quite gone and the other a mere fragment, and feared
+to tell her.  On such days her voice was feeble but breathed the same
+sweet patience that her face wore.  Again, it was her heart "outwearing
+its sheath," as she put it.  Always, however, she felt herself an
+interesting and picturesque invalid, and her martyr-like expression
+scarcely disguised her enjoyment of the rôle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unconsciously, her somewhat torpid mental powers quickened.  The house
+being on the main highway, there was always something to look at
+against the background of the beautiful common, and she conceived a
+vivid interest in the passing show.  An active in lieu of a passive
+mind did its part in the improvement of her health.  The tables were
+turned.  Now it was she who told Kate that the Berrys had a fine new
+motor-truck, and had apparently disposed of their dappled greys to the
+grain-man&mdash;she only wished <I>they</I> traded with the grain-man&mdash;couldn't
+one buy oatmeal of him?  And Rachel Stewart actually had a new dress in
+which she looked very trim, though it was too long right in the back.
+Perhaps Elsie could speak to her about it at the library?  Little
+Robbie Caldwell had begun to go to school alone since the new baby had
+come.  And they had a new perambulator and had given the old one to the
+Howes, which would make it easier for little Mattie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+People passing began to run up and ask the minister's wife how she did.
+She was never very well; but she was so sweetly patient and so truly
+grateful that they lingered and their visits became frequent; children
+came on Saturdays and made children's long flattering stays; and
+presently there was never a morning when she did not have some one, and
+often she was not alone at all.  And thus it came about that for the
+first time she came to know many of her husband's parishioners with
+some familiarity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+More than one reversed their judgment, and almost every one revised it.
+Mrs. Middleton was sentimental&mdash;there was no gainsaying that; she was
+rather gushing.  Yet she was truly kind-hearted, generous to a fault,
+thoughtful in many ways, with really keen intuition in certain
+directions.  As people came again and again, she guessed many a hidden
+trouble or vexation, and her sympathy was warm and very grateful; while
+now and again she had a flash of inspiration that was marvellously
+helpful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one's revision of judgment was more sweeping, perhaps, than that of
+Elsie Marley.  Somehow her former shrinking had quite disappeared
+during the long illness, and the change in Mrs. Middleton's appearance
+helped bridge the way to a better understanding.  The old wrappers and
+tea-gowns had gone to the ragman.  The new afternoon gowns Elsie had
+selected were yet prettier than the morning ones and very becoming.
+The out-of-door air had already almost made over her complexion: her
+skin looked healthy, her color was good; and with the new fashion of
+wearing her hair, she began to look attractive and almost pretty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had not curled her hair since her illness, and now it was soft and
+smooth and seemed warmer in color.  The nurse having parted it one day
+when Mrs. Middleton was convalescent, and coiled it upon her head
+simply, had declared it made her look like a Raphael madonna.  The
+allusion was far-fetched, but it touched Mrs. Middleton's sentimental
+fancy, and she adopted that style of hair-dressing permanently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the morning, Elsie attended to her household duties and helped the
+minister.  She fell now into the habit of spending the early part of
+the afternoon with Mrs. Middleton, going over to the library just
+before four.  Doctor Fenwick having suggested knitting as a soothing
+indoor occupation, his patient sent for an immense quantity of
+wool&mdash;enough to keep half a dozen pairs of hands busy all winter&mdash;and
+began to make red-white-and-blue afghans for the Labrador Mission.
+Whereupon Elsie proposed reading to her while she worked.  Mrs.
+Middleton was delighted, but when Elsie got "Adam Bede" from the
+shelves, she confessed that it tired her head.  "Henry Esmond" was
+likewise too heavy, and Elsie groaned inwardly, expecting to be asked
+to read some of the paper-covered novels she was addicted to.  She said
+to herself she simply couldn't: she had never in her life read any such
+trash and she would have to excuse herself.  Then, looking up,
+something made her change her mind and decide to be a martyr.  But
+before she could speak Mrs. Middleton herself had a happy inspiration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie, I know what I'd just love to hear," she cried, "and what my
+poor head could take in as it couldn't Thackeray to-day, though when
+I'm strong I dote on him&mdash;I always took naturally to the classics.  But
+now I feel like one of Miss Alcott's books.  I suppose you have read
+them over and over?" she asked rather wistfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie confessed that she had never done so, but would be glad to make
+their acquaintance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Middleton was truly amazed&mdash;as was the minister, indeed; for his
+sister had known them almost by heart.  They had the whole set in the
+house, and Elsie began with "Little Women" that afternoon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the first time she was reluctant to go to the library when the hour
+approached.  It was hard to stop reading.  And they laughed together in
+an easy, natural way that was quite new to their intercourse as each
+exacted a promise from the other not to look at the story again until
+they should go on with it together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They went through the whole set that winter and sighed when they had
+come to the last volume.  Perhaps no single thing had influenced Elsie
+Marley more than the reading those sweet, wholesome stories at that
+time and in that manner.  She had already changed much, and was perhaps
+just ready for the influence.  Reading them with Mrs. Middleton, she
+was drawn to her as she would never have believed it to be possible, as
+they laughed and cried together over the pranks and trials, joys and
+sorrows of those New England boys and girls of a singularly happy
+generation.  And, unawares, she was strengthened for the hour of trial
+that was to come to her as it comes to every one that tampers with the
+laws that are inherent in the structure of the universe.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Meantime, circumstances were leading on toward that hour.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap23"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Late one afternoon early in December, Miss Pritchard telephoned to
+Elsie to say that she would not be home to dinner as she was going
+directly from the office to see a friend who had been taken suddenly to
+a hospital.  She was to dine in town on her way back and would be late
+home.  Mr. Graham, whom Elsie would remember, had spoken of calling in
+the evening, and Miss Pritchard asked her to explain the circumstance
+to him and keep him until her return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she turned away from the telephone, Elsie sighed deeply.  Mr.
+Graham's name stirred up uncomfortable recollections.  In any case,
+much as she had admired and liked him, she would have dreaded meeting
+him again; and to entertain him alone for an indefinite period, with
+his undivided attention focussed upon her, seemed an ordeal not only to
+be dreaded but truly to be shunned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suppose he should refer again to her darling mother&mdash;as he surely
+would!  Acting or no acting, the girl felt that she couldn't deny her
+again.  Should she do so, it would be like the Palladium ceasing to
+stand and Troy falling.  And yet, what was she to do?  If she didn't
+hold to her statement of the summer, wouldn't she hazard spoiling
+everything, not only for herself, but for the Elsie at Enderby?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Too wretched to allow herself the comfort of the window-seat in the
+bow, Elsie dropped down on the floor before one of the long, low
+windows of the adjacent side of the room, and gazing drearily out into
+the dusky street, tried to prepare herself for an impromptu scene with
+the coming guest wherein the matter of extraordinary dimples or sticky
+babies might come up at any moment and be skilfully parried.  But
+stage-fright, confusion, and tears threatened imminently, like an ugly
+nightmare, and she said to herself there was no use, she simply dared
+not face it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The temptation came to her to avoid the whole encounter by going to bed
+at once.  She certainly felt queer&mdash;almost faint; and when she should
+be missed at the dinner-table and some one came up to see what had
+happened, she could truly say she didn't feel able to see Mr. Graham,
+and send word that he was to wait for Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she considered the suggestion, reaching the point where Cousin Julia
+came in, the girl's heart smote her.  Cousin Julia would be
+startled&mdash;yes, frightened.  What a wretch she was deliberately to plan
+to cause her utterly gratuitous anxiety!  And how practised, how
+<I>grounded</I>, in deceit she had grown, to turn thereto so readily for
+help out of difficulty!  How very far she was getting from her class
+motto, "Per aspera ad astra"!  And she recollected a word, strange
+hitherto to her, which Cousin Julia had used in the summer.  She had
+mentioned her hope, as she had looked forward to the coming of the real
+Elsie Marley, that she shouldn't have, at sixteen, become <I>inveterate</I>
+in the ways of the Pritchard family.  Well, wasn't she fast becoming
+<I>inveterate</I> in the ways of deceit?  Wasn't she, perhaps, already
+inveterate?  Truly, she must be perilously near it.  And oh, wasn't
+this a far, far worse sort of <I>inveterateness</I> than the Pritchard sort?
+And if Cousin Julia had dreaded that, how, pray, would she feel in
+regard to this?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rising suddenly, Elsie rushed into her own room as if she were running
+away from the visions she had conjured.  As she made herself tidy for
+dinner, her desperation grasped at a third expedient, a middle way.
+Couldn't she get around the difficulty by preventing or forestalling
+the introduction of any doubtful topic into the conversation?  During
+the time that would elapse between Mr. Graham's arrival and Cousin
+Julia's return&mdash;three-quarters of an hour at the longest, she
+supposed&mdash;she would keep him from bringing up any matter of
+resemblances, of big dimples, of madonnas, or sticky babies.  She would
+monopolize the conversation, so far as she could, and direct it all the
+time.  At the risk of utterly losing the good opinion of one of Cousin
+Julia's most valued friends, of appearing forward, conceited, tiresome,
+she would rattle on like the empty-headed society girl in certain
+modern plays.  She would introduce utterly impersonal subjects, such
+as&mdash;at the moment she couldn't think of anything but prohibition, which
+would last about two minutes&mdash;and chatter foolishly and fast upon them,
+one after another.  Then, if she exhausted them and all else failed,
+she would make such pointed and brazen references to her own singing
+that he would be obliged to ask her to sing&mdash;and once going, she could
+easily keep that up until Cousin Julia came to the rescue.  And she
+certainly wouldn't sing "Elsie Marley" nor anything that would in any
+way remind Mr. Graham of it.  Either she would shock that elegant
+gentleman's taste with the ugliest of ragtime, or she would inflict him
+with a succession of the operatic selections she had taken up with
+Madame Valentini.  The latter choice would probably, upon Miss
+Pritchard's arrival, serve to bring up the unhappy matter of her
+abandoning the stage for music, but that would be a minor evil.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Graham appeared promptly at the hour Miss Pritchard had predicted,
+and Elsie greeted him in the rôle she had chosen and proceeded to give
+him a gushing account of their journey back to New York at the end of
+the summer.  The artist, who had looked forward to seeing again the
+charming little creature who had been such a vision of grace and
+loveliness as she had sung and danced on the hotel veranda that summer
+day, was surprised and dismayed at the change, the almost distressing
+change, that had come upon the girl meantime.  At first he took it for
+granted that it was the coarsening effect of studying for the stage,
+but very shortly he had decided otherwise.  Whatever his skill in
+reproduction, Charles Graham had the eye, the mind, and the heart of
+the portrait-painter; and now he read the little actress's behavior
+with a good measure of precision.  Her restlessness, her chattering,
+the high, unpleasing pitch of her naturally lovely low voice, her
+assumption of the manner and speech of the blasé young person of the
+stage, he saw to be primarily the cover of nervousness.  He understood
+that the girl was troubled about something, was perhaps suffering, and
+tried to conceal it in this way.  Moreover, he felt that, whatever it
+was, she was bearing it altogether alone, hiding it from everybody.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So far, so good.  But presently he jumped to a false conclusion.  As he
+referred casually to Miss Pritchard as an <I>inveterate</I> optimist,
+suddenly all the color died out of the girl's face, the shadow in her
+eyes became momentarily genuine distress, and the bravado dropped from
+her manner.  It struck him that there was some misunderstanding between
+his friend and her young cousin.  And the pain this realization brought
+him was curiously acute.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, my dear child," he exclaimed earnestly, "hers is no cheap
+optimism.  Miss Pritchard's wise, sane outlook upon life is the
+courageous, positive optimism of the seasoned soldier.  She has known
+hardship and suffering, and it is victory over them that makes her
+serenity and strength so impressive."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the artist paused, he glanced with searching kindness at the girl
+who was such a mere child, after all.  But he seemed to feel a touch of
+hardness or of obstinacy in the way she set her lips.  He couldn't bear
+the idea of her misunderstanding Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder, Miss Marley, if you ever heard about Miss Pritchard's
+love-story?" he asked rather hesitatingly.  "It all happened of course
+before you were born; but your family may have spoken of it to you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie raised her eyes quickly, regardless of the fact that there were
+tears in them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, Mr. Graham, I never knew&mdash;anything about it," she almost
+gasped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I believe I will tell you," he said gravely.  "If ever you
+should&mdash;well, it makes one understand why Miss Pritchard so impresses
+even a chance stranger with the strength of her personality."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He sighed.  "It was years ago.  Miss Pritchard was a newspaper woman at
+the time&mdash;the most brilliant reporter, man or woman, in the city, we
+thought her, in the little coterie of journalists and artists to which
+we both belonged.  More than one of us would have given all he had to
+win her love.  I don't mind saying to you, Miss Marley, that it was
+because I could not win it that I have never married.  She bestowed it,
+however, upon an older man and a more brilliant than any of us.  At
+that time he was city editor of one of the big dailies; he had invested
+a moderate inheritance wisely, and was worth millions when he died.
+Miss Pritchard was in her late twenties, and though she was called
+plain, possessed rare beauty of expression that is of course the
+highest beauty of all; and it was no mere girl's heart that she gave
+that man.  She loved him with the intensity and maturity of a generous,
+noble woman.  He returned the love and he appreciated her fineness; and
+yet he was unworthy of her.  In the course of his business life, at a
+certain stage of his career, he did something which, while it wasn't
+dishonorable, wasn't strictly honorable.  By means of this action,
+which no one else of the few who knew it deemed reprehensible, he
+gained prestige for his paper as well as for himself; but he lost Julia
+Pritchard.  Had he yielded in a moment of temptation, though it would
+still have hurt her cruelly, I believe she would have overlooked his
+fault.  But the act was deliberate; and though he regretted it bitterly
+and to his dying day, it was only because Miss Pritchard looked at it
+as she did.  Of the act itself, he never repented."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+When Miss Pritchard came in, she noticed at once that Elsie looked very
+pale&mdash;almost ill.  After greeting her old friend warmly, she turned
+anxiously to the girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has it been a hard day, honey?" she asked tenderly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, Cousin Julia," Elsie returned mournfully.  And Mr. Graham
+felt not only that his suspicion had been correct but that his relating
+the story had truly had the desired effect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think I'll go now, and&mdash;write a letter," the girl faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go by all means, dear," Miss Pritchard bade her, "but don't write the
+letter to-night unless it's imperative.  I have tickets for 'The
+Good-Natured Man' for to-morrow night, so if you can put off the
+letter, hop right into bed and get a good rest in order to be fresh for
+it."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap24"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It was Sunday afternoon, nearly a week later.  Elsie sat alone by the
+window with a writing-tablet in her lap, gazing out at the row of
+houses across the street.  But though the new-fallen snow on roof,
+cornice, and iron grating transformed the familiar scene, and though
+snow in such profusion and splendor was a new and wonderful experience
+to her, the girl wasn't really seeing the landscape any more than she
+was writing a letter.  Realizing the fact after half an hour of stony
+silence, she rose, dropped her writing materials, and crossing the
+room, threw herself down on the hearth-rug with a gesture of despair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It wasn't merely because she couldn't write the letter&mdash;which, by the
+way, was that which she had given as an excuse for withdrawing on the
+evening of Mr. Graham's call.  It was true that writing to her
+stepmother&mdash;something that had been growing increasingly difficult for
+some time&mdash;had become practically impossible since that evening.  But
+that was, in a way, a minor detail.  For everything, <I>everything</I> had
+become impossible since the hour she had heard his recital of that
+experience of Cousin Julia's youth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no use," the girl cried out within herself, "I simply cannot
+stand it.  I can't go on so.  Cousin Julia's gone to a funeral.  I'll
+have one while she's gone and bury everything deep down.  There's
+nothing else to do.  Now that I know for deadly certain that Cousin
+Julia would hate me if she knew, I can't go on being&mdash;as I am.  Why,
+what <I>he</I> did wasn't dishonest.  It was only, as Mr. Graham said, less
+than honest.  And look at me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was true that Cousin Julia hadn't <I>hated</I> him, even when he wasn't
+sorry about the wrong itself, Elsie repeated; for this was by no means
+the first or second time she had gone over the matter since that night;
+indeed, she had scarcely thought of anything else since.  Still, she
+wouldn't have anything more to do with him, and must have despised him,
+which was worse.  And it was also true that she would even have
+forgiven him utterly if he had sinned in a moment of temptation.  And
+again the girl lamented bitterly that she hadn't done something even
+worse if it could have been committed in hot blood, and therefore
+followed by repentance, confession, and forgiveness.  Only last evening
+Cousin Julia had read some verses from Browning which had filled her
+heart with a longing that was like remorse&mdash;something about a "certain
+moment" which "cuts the deed off, calls the glory from the grey."  Were
+her wrong-doing only of the sort to be neatly cut off in that manner,
+how gladly would she own up.  How certain would she be of obtaining
+full forgiveness, and how blissfully could she go on thence-forward!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But hers wasn't that sort.  Hers was the sort that goes on and on and
+on.  After making the beginning, there was no hope, any more than there
+was of stopping a ball when one starts it to rolling down a steep,
+smooth hill.  And besides, it was of the very nature of that which had
+hurt Cousin Julia so cruelly in the case of her lover of twenty-odd
+years ago.  For it was for Elsie's own advantage that she had entered
+upon the course of deceit, and it was she that was profiting by it,
+daily and hourly.  She had imposed herself upon one whom she had no
+claim whatever upon for the sake of making things easier and pleasanter
+for herself&mdash;of gaining her own way.  And wasn't she continuing the
+imposition largely for the same reason?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No, she wasn't doing that&mdash;at least not now.  Absolutely selfish as her
+motive may have been in the first place, these last days had shown her
+that another element was now involved.  Her longing to be an actress
+remained the same.  Her distaste for the idea of life at the parsonage
+in Enderby had been increased almost to horror by the glimpses she had
+had through her friend's letters of what seemed to her its dreary and
+complacent domesticity.  Nevertheless, at this moment she felt that she
+would give up the former and accept the latter without a murmur if she
+could thereby measure up to Cousin Julia's standard, and yet, in the
+process, hurt neither her nor Elsie Marley.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there was no blinking the fact that Cousin Julia's heart was so
+bound up in her that the discovery of her duplicity would wound her
+cruelly; indeed, Elsie couldn't bear to contemplate what it would mean
+to her.  As for Elsie Marley&mdash;she was apparently, for her part, equally
+bound up in the Middletons, and the shock and change would be terribly
+painful to her.  Moreover, she was, in a way, almost as innocent as
+Cousin Julia herself.  Her masquerading was only masquerading.  She had
+only accepted, in her sweet, docile manner, her part in the plan that
+Elsie had made to further her own interests.  The wrong was all her
+own, truly; but any attempt to undo it would hurt the innocent Elsie at
+least equally.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What could she do?  Was she really, as it seemed, bound hand and foot?
+The girl wrung her hands, and there was no thought of the dramatic in
+the gesture.  Must her punishment be to keep on and on with her
+wrong-doing, with the consciousness, increasingly more painful, of
+deceiving Cousin Julia, of being, not only <I>not</I> the person she
+believed her to be, but exactly the sort of person she most despised?
+Could that be her fate?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Looking ahead, Elsie said to herself she couldn't stand it&mdash;not now.
+Before, she had had her uncomfortable moments; but since that talk with
+Mr. Graham she had had no moment that wasn't agony.  He had roused her
+out of her dream of making things right by calling them so.  And yet,
+less than ever since that knowledge had come to her, was she ready to
+hurt Cousin Julia, as confession or discovery would hurt her.  Could it
+be that it was impossible for her to straighten out her own conscience
+without wounding the hearts of others?  Was there no way whereby she
+could make things right without involving Elsie Marley and Cousin Julia
+in misery?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Staring wretchedly into the fire, the girl was unaware that she was
+grappling with a big moral problem: that her personal perplexity was a
+part of the old problem of evil: that what daunted her was the old
+paradox that has confronted mankind since before the time of Job.  She
+understood dimly that the lines between good and ill do not converge
+any more than unmoral geometrical parallels; but she still felt that it
+must be possible to limit the consequences of wrong-doing to the
+evil-doer so that the innocent should wholly escape.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But what, short of her own death, would bring that about?  In that
+event, indeed, Cousin Julia's natural grief would not be bitterly
+painful; and Elsie Marley would simply go on as she was.  But she
+wasn't likely to die, and besides, wretched as she was, she didn't want
+to.  And even if she did, she wouldn't be so wicked or so cowardly as
+to do anything to hasten her end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But her consideration of that solution of her problem made way for
+another.  On a sudden a substitute solution presented itself to her
+mind.  Having gone so far, it was but natural that the girl's dramatic
+instinct and her familiarity with romance and melodrama should suggest
+something that would answer the purpose of death without occasioning
+the same measure of pain&mdash;namely, her own disappearance.  And the
+suggestion no sooner appeared than it was accepted.  Before Miss
+Pritchard returned the idea was already so familiar as to seem to be of
+long standing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her mind was quick and her invention fertile, and before she slept that
+night her plans were well along.  She was to lose herself
+utterly&mdash;where and how she would determine later.  She would, at the
+proper moment, disappear absolutely and mysteriously, yet not without
+leaving behind her satisfactory and reassuring explanation for the two
+persons to whom it would mean most&mdash;nay, three&mdash;she mustn't forget her
+stepmother.  She would write to Elsie Marley that she had felt obliged
+to take the step for the sake of her own future, and would entreat her
+to go on as she was and never to let any one know what had happened.
+And she would leave a long letter for Cousin Julia to discover on her
+return from the office the day of her departure.  She would tell her
+how she loved her&mdash;better than any one else she had ever known except
+her mother&mdash;and how she had never been so happy in her life as with
+her.  Then she would make the same enigmatical but satisfactory
+reference to her future and how it made the step imperative, adding
+that if Cousin Julia could understand, she would agree that she
+couldn't have done otherwise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she had reached this point, Elsie's heart sank.  Disappearance
+might be preferable to death, but it seemed as if it were going to be
+quite as painful.  But only for her, and after all, that was where the
+pain belonged.  The girl cried herself to sleep that night, but she
+woke next morning with a sense of relief so active and positive that it
+seemed like refreshment and almost like joy.  She realized why it was:
+her mind hadn't been wholly at ease before since the day in the summer
+when she had first seen Mr. Graham, and for the past days she had lived
+in torture.  The removal of the burden was almost like unsnapping the
+cover of a Jack-in-the-box.  She was going to be good and straight and
+honest again.  She was going to make amends, so far as in her lay, for
+the wrong she had done.  She was going&mdash;<I>away</I>!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here Elsie faltered.  But she sprang from bed before depression could
+swoop down upon her.  And while she was dressing a suggestion came to
+her that sent her to the breakfast-table with a serene and even joyful
+face.  It had come to her that she would better not attempt to carry
+out her resolve until after Christmas, lest she mar Cousin Julia's or
+Elsie Marley's enjoyment of the day.  She would act immediately after
+Christmas, beginning the New Year with a clean slate.  And meantime she
+would devote herself to making every one she knew as happy as possible,
+particularly Cousin Julia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she would be happy herself.  There would be sufficient unhappiness
+coming to her later to pay her in full for all the mischief she had
+done; and she saw no harm in putting the matter from her thoughts for
+the interim, and making the most of the eighteen days.  Then, Christmas
+being over, one day, or two at most, would suffice her to decide where
+to go and to make her preparations.  Another day would give her time to
+write the letters with due deliberation, and on the third she would be
+off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wherefore, her resolve being fixed and her conscience accordingly
+clear, she adventured the first precious day with a light heart.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap25"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley had never been happier than as she prepared for her first
+Christmas at Enderby.  But that festival seemed the high-water mark of
+her happiness.  The close of the day found her strangely depressed and
+thereafter she had more frequent periods of being ill at ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had learned to knit and had spent most of her leisure time for
+several weeks in making a soft white woollen shawl for Mrs. Middleton,
+into which went a rather surprising amount of affection.  She went into
+Boston with one of the high-school girls and bought a charming little
+plaid woollen frock for Mattie Howe and a beautiful doll to fill the
+little mother's arms when they were not occupied with a real baby.  For
+Charles Augustus, she selected an harmonicon, and toys for the other
+three Howes.  She wanted to get a warm winter coat for her staunch ally
+Kate, the jacket she wore being short and so thin as to require an
+undergarment that spoiled what little shape it had.  On the day before
+she was to go into town, she consulted Mrs. Middleton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus far Elsie hadn't accepted a penny of pocket-money, and the
+Middletons were filled with dismay to have her spend her own money so
+lavishly.  But Mr. Middleton had told his wife that he meant to give
+Elsie a check for Christmas, which being also her birthday, made a
+large one legitimate.  Consequently, at this time Mrs. Middleton did
+not remonstrate.  She only called herself heartless for not noticing
+poor Katy's need and so forestalling Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After she had sufficiently exclaimed over it, she asked what the girl
+meant to get.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought of black broadcloth, rather plain.  Should you think that
+would be right, Aunt Milly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite right, dear.  It would be, of course, the proper thing," Mrs.
+Middleton returned, "but I can't help wondering whether Katy herself
+wouldn't fancy something not so plain and rather more stylish.  After
+all, we can hardly expect her to share our quiet tastes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie didn't resent the <I>our</I> nor question the fact.  She was only very
+grateful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Aunt Milly, I'm so glad I spoke to you!" the girl cried with
+unwonted warmth, for she felt immediately the cogency of Mrs.
+Middleton's remark.  "What do you think she would like?  I might have
+her go in with me and pick it out herself, only&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Only half the fun would be lost not to have her surprised on Christmas
+morning?  I don't know what she would like, I'm sure, but leave it to
+me and I'll find out from Katy herself and without letting her mistrust
+anything.  Leave it to your Aunt Milly, dear.  She is of so little use
+that she has to seize upon whatever she can discover."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And truly she learned the desire of Katy's heart and reported to Elsie
+that night.  Green was Kate's first choice for color and blue next, and
+she admired especially a long, loose garment with "one of them fur
+collars that folds up like an accordion or a gentleman's opera-hat."
+And Elsie succeeded in finding the very thing&mdash;not a difficult task,
+Kate's choice being the latest fashion and very common.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though her gifts gave extraordinary pleasure in every instance, the
+reaction upon Elsie herself was yet greater.  Her satisfaction was
+increased by the fact that Mr. Middleton told her it was the happiest
+Christmas he remembered, and that her being with them was largely what
+made it so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Besides which," he added, "I realize that most of the other factors
+and changes that contribute are really due to you and to your
+influence, Elsie dear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That was very precious to Elsie, but it couldn't ward off the reaction
+that was to follow.  The lavishness of the Middletons' gifts to her,
+which they justified by reminding her that it was her birthday (she had
+quite forgotten that Elsie Moss celebrated hers on Christmas!), quite
+weighed down her spirits.  On a sudden she seemed to herself to be
+accepting what didn't belong to her, what wasn't meant for her.
+Despite the placid way in which she had gone on acting the part of the
+real niece, she pulled up and shied, so to speak, at this instance of
+extravagant giving and a false birthday.  It seemed as if she could not
+bear it, could not accept the money, the jewelry, furs, books, and
+other gifts showered upon her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But there was no way out.  She had to accept everything, and she had to
+keep everything but the money.  That she sent directly to Elsie Moss,
+explaining that she couldn't possibly accept it, as it was especially
+for her Christmas birthday.  But Elsie Moss, probably with her friend's
+recent request for the five hundred dollars in mind, sent it directly
+back.  Whereupon she wrote again, saying that she had more money than
+she knew what to do with, and that she would be broken-hearted if Elsie
+returned it a second time.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The letter in which Elsie Moss returned the money was written on the
+very day when the girl had planned to write the letter announcing her
+disappearance.  It was only a short note, however, and contained
+nothing of that nature.  Her next letter, in which she reluctantly
+agreed to accept half of the Christmas-birthday gift, was long and
+surprising, but delightfully so rather than mysteriously or painfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her Christmas had been quite as happy as that of the other Elsie.
+Indeed, her greater capacity for blissful and ecstatic joy would have
+rendered it even happier but for the valedictory character all its
+details held secretly for her.  Her youth and temperament, however,
+which had carried her through the days following her momentous
+decision, upheld her spirits even when she approached the brink of the
+crisis.  Her determination to right the wrong she had done at what she
+believed the first possible moment had cleared her conscience so
+completely that in the interim she had been able to enjoy the fruits of
+that wrong-doing as never before since the very first.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had herself made her gift for Cousin Julia and little things for
+Miss Peacock and nearly everybody in the house.  On Christmas Eve she
+sang in the parlor for Miss Peacock, the servants, and those remaining
+in the boarding-house over the holidays.  First she went through the
+carols.  Then she sang the favorite song or songs of every one present,
+including several of Miss Pritchard's.  And though the programme was
+haphazard it wasn't motley&mdash;only simple and old-fashioned and full of
+sweetness and melody.  The girl must have been dull indeed not to have
+guessed something of the exquisite and genuine pleasure she gave.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In truth she lay long awake, thrilled by the remembrance.  It had been
+her swan-song, she told herself, half-tremulously, half-buoyed by the
+excitement of it all.  For she was passing out of their lives, in very
+truth&mdash;even out of Cousin Julia's, and&mdash;forever.  And Cousin Julia,
+who, Elsie knew had basked in the enjoyment of the others, would have
+it for a happy memory, when&mdash;&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But she mustn't go further now.  It was hardly safe.  To-morrow was
+Christmas Day.  Until the day after, she wasn't going to think ahead.
+Only on the 26th of December would she begin to make definite, final
+preparations.  She wouldn't spoil tomorrow by looking beyond it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Christmas was a wonderful day.  Elsie did not realize how delirious her
+enjoyment was nor how painfully she was keyed up because of her
+underlying apprehension of coming agony.  Neither did she understand it
+when she waked suddenly from sleep the following morning, feeling so
+exhausted as to be almost ill, and with a terrible sinking at heart
+which settled into depression the like of which she had never
+experienced before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It might have seemed that she was in no condition to complete the
+proposed plans.  But as a matter of fact, there was little to do.
+Though the girl hadn't deliberately or consciously looked ahead, the
+matter had been in her mind; and now when she came to consider the
+question as to where she should go, she found it practically settled.
+When she brought up the idea of going to California and trying to get a
+chance as a moving-picture actress, she was ready with the objection
+that the films were most likely to reach New York and that her dimples
+would give her away at once.  Her wisest move would be to take refuge
+in some place equally distant from her stepmother in San Francisco and
+from New York.  Which, of course, was no other than Chicago.  She had
+enough money to take her thither and take care of her until she should
+get a start&mdash;in some vaudeville house as she hoped.  And then she would
+be truly lost&mdash;forever, in all probability, and perhaps in more senses
+than one.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard was struck by the change in Elsie that morning at the
+breakfast-table.  The child looked almost ill.  She said nothing to
+her, however, feeling that it was the reaction from the excitement of
+Christmas, and believing she would be better for the distraction of the
+school.  But she couldn't dismiss the matter from her mind all day, and
+the more she thought of it the more serious it seemed.  She realized
+that Elsie hadn't looked merely tired or even exhausted.  It was worse
+than that.  For the first time since she had come East, Miss Pritchard
+thought she saw in the child indication of genuine, positive suffering.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She decided that she herself had been gravely remiss.  The strain of
+giving herself so generously and whole-heartedly had worn upon the girl
+disastrously, and&mdash;she had had warning and hadn't heeded.  Until
+recently, it is true, Elsie's blithe buoyancy had seemed always the
+normal, unconscious, almost effortless efflorescence of a lovely
+nature, as natural as playful grace to a kitten, as simple as
+breathing.  But once or twice back in the fall, Miss Pritchard had been
+startled into wondering if the sweet instrument wasn't in danger of
+being strained through constant playing upon it, and to be fearful that
+Elsie might truly be rarely sensitive in a personal, as she seemed to
+be in an artistic, way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first time when this had presented itself to her mind had been a
+matter of a month or six weeks previous.  At that time she had seemed
+to discover a shadow in the sparkling eyes and a transient pensive
+droop of the lips.  Then on the night of Charley Graham's visit, she
+had been frightened by the worn look upon the beloved little face, and
+had feared some definite trouble.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not long after the affair of the five hundred dollars, and Miss
+Pritchard had wondered if the difficulty might not be somehow connected
+with that.  She had just reached the decision to question the girl when
+suddenly the weariness, the sadness, the pensiveness, the shadow,
+vanished utterly, leaving Elsie not only herself again, but even more
+glowingly and infectiously happy and buoyant than before.  And from
+that moment until this morning at the breakfast-table she had remained
+so.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was natural that now Miss Pritchard's mind should hark back to those
+former suspicions.  All day she vacillated between the fear that Elsie
+was beset by some secret trouble or by the solicitations of some
+unscrupulous person, and the apprehension that she was on the verge of
+nervous exhaustion.  Her face was anxious indeed as she left the office
+that night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She opened the door of her sitting-room with strange sinking of heart.
+Then she almost gasped.  Her breath was almost taken away by sheer
+amazement.  Elsie was waiting for her&mdash;yet another Elsie.  For, radiant
+and sparkling as the girl had been, she had never before been like
+this.  She was fairly dazzling.  If Miss Pritchard hadn't been almost
+stunned, she would have made some feeble remark about getting out her
+smoked glasses.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap26"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"My dear child, what has happened?" Miss Pritchard cried as Elsie
+relieved her of her wraps and bag, and she dropped weakly into a chair.
+"I believe your dimples have actually doubled in size since morning.
+It's positively uncanny, you know, anything like that.  Suppose it
+should go further?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Like the Cheshire cat's grin?  Well&mdash;we should worry, Cousin Julia,
+dearest.  But&mdash;what do you think has happened, truly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your friend from Enderby hasn't appeared?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, this is another sort of bliss.  This is&mdash;well, dearest darling,
+it's just that Mr. Coates has started me on something that&mdash;that I
+could go on the stage with!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard's face fell.  "Oh, Elsie, child, what do you mean?" she
+asked anxiously.  The dimples disappeared but though Elsie spoke
+quietly, still there was that wonderful lilt in her voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just this.  He called me into his office this morning and spoke to me
+about&mdash;my specialty, you know, 'Elsie Marley, Honey.'  One day back in
+the fall I was showing off with that to some of the girls that were
+eating their luncheon together, and he happened by and made me repeat
+it.  To-day he said he had had it in mind ever since, and had found
+that he could adapt it and change the music and make it into a regular
+vaudeville feature.  He thinks it's a real crackerjack.  He's going to
+begin right away to give me training in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment Miss Pritchard couldn't speak.  Then she had to stifle
+what started to be a groan.  "Oh, my dear child!" she exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It seemed such a lovely ending to a lovely Christmas," said Elsie
+wistfully.  The girl was absolutely carried away by the excitement of
+it.  It didn't even occur to her&mdash;until she was in bed that night&mdash;what
+the "ending" of the lovely Christmas was to have been&mdash;the ending that
+alone was to justify her enjoyment of the holiday and of the days since
+she had weighed her action in the balance and found it wanting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, really when you understand, it's simply wonderful,"
+she went on eagerly.  "I'm the only one picked out thus far, and you
+know most of the others are related to the profession, too.  And even
+if that thing is so old, I can't help liking it.  Most of the things
+<I>are</I> rather awful, I must confess."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the first year&mdash;the first six months!  I never dreamed of such a
+thing!" Miss Pritchard cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Neither did I, darling dear; that's what makes me so wild with joy,"
+said the girl softly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Touched and almost remorseful, Miss Pritchard kissed her fondly.  But
+she couldn't restrain a sigh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Surely it doesn't mean&mdash;going on the stage?" she inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no indeed, Cousin Julia, at least not right off.  Only&mdash;well, just
+being ready if anything should happen, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then suddenly at the thought of that wonderful eventuality, the girl's
+dimples came out and her eyes so shone that Miss Pritchard felt as if
+she should burst into tears.  It seemed as if she couldn't bear it!
+Again she lamented inwardly.  Why should the child have had that crazy
+desire for the stage?  Why shouldn't it have been a passion for
+music&mdash;for opera, indeed?  Nearly every one who had heard Elsie sing on
+Christmas Eve had spoken to Miss Pritchard of the girl's wonderful
+voice, and the question of her cultivating that instead of working for
+the stage; and Miss Pritchard had yesterday decided to make a fresh
+plea to Elsie to that effect.  What joy would it not be to share the
+child's enthusiasm, had it been a matter of music!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, it would be worse than futile to drag in any such thing at
+this moment, she saw clearly.  Carried away by her delight, Elsie would
+have no ears and no heart for anything else.  Miss Pritchard told
+herself she must wait for the infatuation to cool&mdash;and when that might
+be, she couldn't in the least foresee.  Would it ever happen in truth?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she couldn't possibly force herself to rejoice with Elsie, and
+couldn't bear not to share in her joy, as they had come to share
+everything, she suddenly proposed attending a concert that evening to
+be given by a visiting orchestra from the Middle West.  Elsie entered
+into the plan with spirit, and they went off gayly together.  Miss
+Pritchard knew that Elsie was dreaming dreams to the strains of Bach
+and Schumann, and wished with all her heart they were another sort of
+vision; still, it was a happy evening for both where it had threatened
+to be uncomfortable.  But on the night when Elsie Moss had expected to
+lie awake in agony because of the imminence of her parting with all she
+loved most, she had only a brief moment of compunction, which she
+dismissed easily, falling asleep in the midst of radiant and enchanting
+visions of life on the stage.  It was Miss Pritchard whose rest was
+troubled.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap27"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The answer of the real Elsie Marley to the letter in which her friend
+enthusiastically related her advance toward the stage might have
+indicated how far she had gone since the day on the train when she had
+opined that the girl who thinks of becoming an actress has to undergo
+much that isn't nice.  It so sympathized and rejoiced with the other in
+her happiness that it was solace and inspiration at once to Elsie Moss,
+who was living at a high and unhealthy pitch of excitement, and
+welcomed, indeed craved greedily, anything in the way of approval or
+sympathy.  For the girl feared that if ever she should stop to
+consider, she should find her heart a black well of wickedness.  But
+that she wouldn't do.  She <I>would not</I> stop to consider.  She had her
+chance now, the chance she had waited for all her life, and she wasn't
+going to hazard it.  She was going to make the most of it, let her
+conscience go hang!
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+For her part, the real Elsie Marley was led at this time to consider,
+and the more seriously.  To her inexperience, it looked as if Elsie
+Moss were very near the stage, as if another year might find her a
+fixed star in that firmament.  And what then?  She would be independent
+of Cousin Julia and the boarding-house, and might she not want to
+resume her own name and make herself known to her own relations?  Or
+would she, out of her abounding affection for Cousin Julia, suffer the
+present state of affairs to continue?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl pondered long and rather sadly over the dilemma, but always
+inclined to the belief that the latter was really the only possible
+sequel.  It wasn't that the question of what would become of her in the
+former instance was all-important; it wasn't that Elsie Moss would
+probably not think of any other course of action.  It was the fact that
+some one very much like herself was needed here at Enderby.  Mr.
+Middleton depended upon her.  Mrs. Middleton would hardly know how to
+get along without her.  Katy counted strongly upon her sympathy and
+co-operation.  And even Mattie Howe and Dick Clinton would miss her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And, after all, didn't the fact of Elsie Moss's securing her heart's
+desire almost immediately, together with the working out of her own
+presence at Enderby to the satisfaction of a few very dear people,
+quite justify the exchange they had made?  Hadn't it really proved a
+beneficent idea?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Arrived at this point, the girl was reassured.  The only difficulty was
+that the question didn't stay settled.  It came up again and yet again
+and the whole argument had to be redebated.  And finally she came to
+the conclusion that her wisest plan was to ward it off.  Like the other
+Elsie, she decided to avoid meditation and plunge into action.  And
+though the sort and amount of action to which she was limited wouldn't
+have seemed action at all to the other girl, it answered her purpose,
+nevertheless.  Elsie Marley threw herself into the performance of the
+various duties she had assumed with more fervor than ever, and
+presently had recovered a good measure of her former serenity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it seemed only to have been regained to be threatened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One night early in February, when Miss Stewart relieved her and she
+left the library, she found Dick Clinton waiting outside.  He often did
+this, for he and Elsie had become good friends since the day he had
+first appeared at the library and asked for help.  She had seen him at
+all the parties of the high-school pupils which she had attended, and
+had gone coasting on his double-runner with other girls a number of
+times.  And no Sunday passed that he didn't seek her after service and
+walk home with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was strangely silent to-night.  His first shyness having worn off,
+he had since always had plenty to say.  Elsie was always quiet, and not
+a word was spoken until they were next door to the parsonage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Miss Moss, would you just as lief walk back a little way?" he
+asked suddenly.  "I had something I wanted to say to you, and there's
+the parsonage and I haven't begun.  I won't make you late for your
+supper&mdash;or dinner, whatever it is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rather surprised, Elsie complied willingly, and they had no sooner
+turned than he began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's something I've done," he blurted out.  "I feel sort of&mdash;like
+thirty cents, you know.  I should sort of like to know&mdash;what you think
+of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Whatever it is, I don't believe you need to feel that way about it,
+Dick," she said gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do, just the same, though I'm not sure I should have before I knew
+you, Miss Moss, you're so awfully sort of square, you see," he owned.
+"I'm glad anyhow it ain't so bad but what I can tell you.  This is what
+it is: one of the other fellows that's about my height and build wanted
+to go to the motor-show in Boston last week and his dad wouldn't let
+him.  He's simply wild over aeroplanes, and there was a model there,
+and when the last night came, he got me to help him out.  He pretended
+to go to bed about a quarter of nine.  Instead, he sneaked me up the
+back-stairs and left me in his room, and he caught the nine o'clock for
+Boston.  I went to bed and put out the light.  After a while his mother
+put her head in the door and asked if I was asleep, and then came in
+and kissed me.  About two o'clock he came back, climbed in the window,
+and I vamoosed.  It seemed all right, and I couldn't have refused him,
+and yet I felt queer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should think you were innocent enough.  It seems to me the other boy
+had all the responsibility of it," Elsie observed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's just what I thought.  And I'm dead sure it would only have
+seemed fun last winter.  And I'd have to do it again if he asked me.
+But&mdash;you know that little Howe kid that's trying to stretch himself out
+to get big enough to be a boy scout?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, indeed, Charles Augustus Howe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he's always asking me things, and taking my answers so solemnly,
+and yesterday he wanted to know if I thought it was wrong to tell a lie
+to yourself in the dark.  I tried to reason out the thing with him
+and&mdash;great snakes, but it made me feel queer all over!  Talking to that
+kid about truth and honor and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I
+sort of hypnotized myself; but afterward it made me feel cheap.
+And&mdash;and there you are!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you didn't get anything out of it for yourself, Dick," said Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing but feeling cheap before that kid."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I don't believe it's wrong for you&mdash;only for the other boy," she
+averred.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They turned.  Nothing more was said until they reached the parsonage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Much obliged, Miss Moss," the boy said quietly.  "And that's good to
+remember&mdash;not getting anything out of it for yourself.  Good night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She heard him whistling cheerily as he went on his way.  But her own
+heart was heavy.  Not to get anything out of it for oneself!  Oh, what
+would Dick Clinton think, what would every one think, to know that she
+wasn't Elsie Moss at all!  He had been sadly troubled because he had
+played the part of another one night&mdash;a silent part that required no
+spoken words.  What would he think to learn that she was an interloper
+at the parsonage?  It was in part, it is true, for the sake of another.
+But it was also in part&mdash;in large part, now&mdash;for her own sake.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap28"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+One evening in the early spring, during the interval between the films
+in a motion-picture theatre on lower Broadway, a thrill of excitement
+went through the audience, which was of the sort that desires to live
+on thrills.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps to-night, however, there was reasonable excuse for genuine
+anticipation.  For the song-dance specialty that was about to take
+place was of a different order from anything that had been known in
+that theatre heretofore.  There was real grace and beauty in the
+dancing, genuine melody in the voice of the singer, and something sweet
+and wholesome about the whole performance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The act was entitled "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  And one
+whispered to another that the best of it was, that that was her real
+name&mdash;honestly it was&mdash;at least it had always been her stage name, so
+that probably the song had been written especially for her&mdash;and she
+that young&mdash;and it wasn't real ragtime either.  And her dimples were
+real too; possibly they were enlarged and deepened by the make-up, but
+she had them off the stage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Heavy applause greeted the entrance of the actress.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was only a slip of a girl&mdash;a mere child she looked, partly, they
+said, because of her hair&mdash;the "Castle bob," you know.  She tripped
+lightly before the footlights, smiled charmingly as she put the
+question of the first line, and sang the song through with dancing
+between the stanzas and dramatic rendering of the lines.  She smiled
+and sparkled and dimpled; but though she was so pretty and piquant and
+coquettish, so graceful and vivacious, so completely the actress, there
+was a look of youth and innocence about her that pleased the blasé
+audience, and touched one alien member of it to tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once and again was Elsie Marley recalled to repeat the act.  The young
+actress had other things prepared, but though they might be well
+received, they were followed by clamor for "Elsie Marley, Honey," until
+only the forcible resumption of the pictures availed to quiet it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And on Saturday night at the end of the second week, even that did not
+avail.  The last appearance of that bill having been announced, the
+audience could not let Elsie Marley go.  Finally, the manager came out
+and announced that Miss Marley had been engaged for another week.  And
+again, while there was intense satisfaction elsewhere, to one person
+the statement was like a blow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In truth, on the day when Elsie had announced the opportunity that had
+been offered her of appearing in a "specialty" on the stage of a
+second-class cinema theatre, Miss Pritchard had been aghast.  The
+chance had come through the school in the person of Mr. Coates, who had
+first seen possibilities in the song the girl had known since
+childhood, and who had developed it to its limit, and trained her in a
+more artificial though still charming rendering, the music having been
+adapted more nearly to music-hall ragtime.  When he had announced to
+her what he had known from the first&mdash;that she was to go upon the stage
+with it&mdash;Elsie had been so elated that Miss Pritchard had been
+powerless before her.  She couldn't be a wet blanket; neither, however,
+could she force herself to express any gratification.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And when first she had seen this last member of her family before the
+footlights of the cheap little theatre, with the bad air, the mixed
+audience, and the poor pictures, she felt she couldn't endure it.  The
+image of the stately, aristocratic Aunt Ellen Pritchard rose before her
+vision, overwhelmingly severe and reproachful.  It would actually have
+killed her to witness once what Julia Pritchard had to witness every
+night for two weeks&mdash;or so she thought at first.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On this Saturday night when the engagement was extended, they were
+later than usual in getting to their carriage.  Elsie was wrapped
+snugly in the rose-colored opera-cloak.  Her eyes were very bright, her
+cheeks flushed.  She had not really required any make-up, but they had
+insisted upon deepening the color of her lips and darkening the lower
+eye-lids.  Miss Pritchard, too depressed to force any semblance of
+cheerfulness, saw her dimples appear and disappear in happy reverie.
+She sighed.  Through it all, the child was absolutely enchanting to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie, catching the sigh, snuggled up to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I'm so happy, so happy I'm afraid I'll just burst
+like a circus balloon.  Oh, dear darling, you're so good to me.  And I
+suppose you're sick to death of the same old thing, and dread the
+thought of another week of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As a matter of fact, Miss Pritchard was as captivated by the song
+specialty as any of the audience.  She confessed that it wore well.
+"But, oh, Elsie," she couldn't forbear adding, "I do wish you weren't
+going to have another week in that cheap place."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but Cousin Julia, one can't begin at the top," remonstrated the
+girl.  "Why, I'm the luckiest guy ever was.  How much do you suppose
+I'm going to get for this next week?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard had no heart for guessing.  The sum the girl mentioned
+was indeed surprising, but it only seemed to remove her further from
+her and from the family they both represented.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should be only too glad to do it for the experience alone," Elsie
+rattled on, "and of course what I get is only what is over and above
+what they pay the school.  And I shall get other chances, Mr. Coates
+says, and&mdash;oh, Cousin Julia, I don't dare tell you&mdash;you don't"&mdash;there
+was a catch in her voice&mdash;"you don't sympathize.  You were so
+different!  And now you're just like&mdash;well, almost as bad as the
+others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard drew the little rose-colored figure close.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I do sympathize, dear little cousin," she said, "only&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She could not go on.  And they went the rest of the way in silence.  It
+was the first time that anything, recognized by both of them, had come
+between them.  As the excitement that had buoyed her up for the evening
+began to die away, Elsie's heart was like a stone.  Later it would
+ache.  She wondered rather drearily how it would be after she was in
+bed.  Even now she recognized something that would have been absurd if
+it weren't so terribly serious.  To think of her demanding sympathy
+from Cousin Julia&mdash;of appearing almost aggrieved not to receive it&mdash;she
+who should be cowering beneath her scorn!  How was it that she should
+so forget, should feel and act as if everything were true&mdash;and square?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was being on the stage, she supposed, a real actress at last.  At
+last!  Why, it was almost <I>at first</I>.  Who had ever been so fortunate
+as she!  To be on the stage in New York well within a year of her first
+entering the city!  And only to think that this might have been the
+last night of her engagement!  How terrible that seemed now!  How would
+she ever live without the evening to look forward to?  How blissful to
+have another week before her&mdash;six more appearances before that vast,
+applauding throng!  How happily would she go to sleep tonight to the
+music of the lullaby of the thought: "Another week at the Merry Nickel,
+another week at the Merry Nickel!  Bliss!  Bliss!  Bliss!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And yet it wasn't at all a blissful face which Miss Pritchard bore in
+memory to her own room that night after she had kissed Elsie, put out
+the light, and opened the windows.  Since the girl had been at the
+theatre, Miss Pritchard had dropped into the habit of going in to her
+the last thing every night and tucking her in as if she had been a
+child.  For somehow she had seemed, since striking out into
+professional life, only the more a child, more innocent, more
+appealingly youthful, more than ever to be sheltered and guarded.  She
+had tried her wings, it is true; she believed she had proved them (and
+perchance she had!); but more than ever was she a precious and tender
+nestling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she sat by her window in the darkness, Miss Pritchard shook her head
+sadly.  She said to herself this couldn't go on&mdash;this state of things
+couldn't continue.  Despite Elsie's elation over the fact that she was
+booked for another week at the theatre, she looked more mournful and
+wistful and worn than ever.  Some strain was wearing the child out.  It
+wasn't the work, nor yet the excitement, for she lived on them, and not
+altogether unhealthily.  There was no other possible explanation: it
+was nothing less than the strain of combating her own disapproval,
+tacit or expressed.  Elsie was too warm-hearted to enjoy her legitimate
+happiness alone, too sensitive not to suffer from want of sympathy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The change in the girl had begun to be apparent directly after
+Christmas.  Elsie hadn't been herself since that time, which proved
+beyond peradventure that Miss Pritchard's suspicion was correct.  The
+joyous, sparkling little creature whom she had found in her room on the
+day after Christmas, bubbling over with excitement, eager to share her
+good news, had become thin and wan.  Her charmingly brilliant little
+face was not only peaked, but in repose was generally wistful or
+plaintive.  Many a time one could have looked on it without suspecting
+the existence of dimples.  Only in the evening did she resemble her
+real self.  From dinner until the moment she lay in her bed, she was
+the Elsie Marley she had been (with negligible interruptions) since the
+night when she had walked straight into Miss Pritchard's heart before
+she had known who she was.  At other times she was a pale shadow, the
+little ghost of the girl she had been or should be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard sighed deeply.  If it were for want of
+sympathy&mdash;approving sympathy&mdash;the child drooped and pined, must she not
+have it, willy-nilly?  But again she sighed, and yet more deeply.
+Whatever her effort, was such a thing possible?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As for Elsie herself, the lullaby didn't prove a lullaby at all, and,
+as usual these days, the girl cried herself to sleep.  Every night, of
+late, the reaction came.  Every morning she awoke with a sense of a
+heavy burden weighing her down.  All day her heart ached, though dully
+and vaguely for the most part; for if the pain threatened to become
+acute, she could still drug it with anticipation of the excitement of
+the evening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the weeks that had passed, Elsie hadn't once faced her conscience.
+She had never squarely confronted the situation which was now so much
+further complicated.  When the unexpected and thrilling opportunity had
+come to her the day after Christmas&mdash;the very day that was to
+consummate her renunciation&mdash;the girl had been completely carried away
+by it.  She hadn't repudiated the decision she had come to so
+painfully, she had simply disregarded it&mdash;ignored it utterly as if
+there had been no such thing.  And she had gone on ignoring it.  In the
+very first of it, the excitement of working directly for the stage had
+rendered her oblivious of everything else.  Then when certain faint
+murmurings of conscience began to be audible, came the actual prospect
+of the Merry Nickel to stifle them, and then there was the stage itself
+and the actual footlights.  Nevertheless, avoid the issue as she would,
+more and more had her daylight hours come to be haunted with
+misgivings, and now her heart was never light except in the evenings.
+And combat any such direct thought as she might, she felt dimly that in
+giving over her purpose to square her conduct with the right, she had
+doubled and trebled the original wrong.  Unvowing a vow must be
+equivalent to signing a covenant with the powers of darkness.  Now and
+again lines from the poem Cousin Julia had repeated to her so
+impressively that she could never forget it, came to her suddenly in
+uncanny fashion.  At such times, if questioned, Elsie would have
+acknowledged that her Palladium had indeed fallen, with all the awful
+consequences.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lines from another and more familiar poem came to the girl the next day
+as she sat in the afternoon with Miss Pritchard in their sitting-room,
+the snow falling outside as if it were December.  As she gazed at the
+steadily falling, restful, soothing curtain of flakes which deadened
+all sound and veiled all save its own beauty, unconsciously she was
+repeating verses of a poem she had learned as a child.  But as she came
+to the words, "I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn," she recollected
+herself.  And somehow her mind turned instinctively to Miss Pritchard's
+lover.  It was because he, too, was dead, she supposed, and this snow
+was rounding above his grave.  But before she made the natural
+application or drew the familiar comparison between his failure and her
+own, Elsie clapped the lid down on her thoughts with a thud.  Turning
+resolutely to Miss Pritchard, she asked her, with strange intonation,
+if she thought the snow would continue all night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I rather hope so," Miss Pritchard returned in a quiet voice that was
+like a part of the silent storm, "for it's so late that we can't expect
+another snowfall, and it seems really a privilege to have it now&mdash;like
+plucking violets at Thanksgiving."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a little, her gaze, too, lost itself outside.  Then she turned and
+looked at Elsie with a kindness in which there was something wistful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know what you have been thinking, dear," she said.  "You're thinking
+that I'm not consistent nor fair&mdash;and you're right.  I am neither.  I
+agree with you absolutely.  Having in the first place consented to your
+studying for the stage, I should have looked ahead and faced just this.
+As you say, one can't begin at the tip-top&mdash;nor yet at the top.  One
+must make use of humble stepping-stones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But it seemed that the struggle she had been through to bring herself
+to this attitude had been in vain.  On a sudden she lost all that she
+had gained.  Her heart sank as Elsie's face brightened eagerly&mdash;became
+transformed, indeed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The trouble is," she went on sadly, "that the stepping-stones&mdash;oh,
+Elsie, I'm so afraid the stepping-stones will only lead on and on and
+on&mdash;never higher.  They'll be and remain on a dead level, and you will
+step from one to another, one to another, year after year, over the
+same dreary waste.  I hate awfully to say all this, dear, but when
+those people refuse to allow you to do anything but the Elsie-Honey
+business over and over, it comes to me what a fate it would be to be
+doomed forever to that one stunt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia!" Elsie cried deprecatingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear, that's what I am exactly, an old killjoy; but truly I
+cannot help it, though I have tried.  I have struggled hard against my
+prejudice.  Elsie, last night you stopped yourself as you were about to
+tell me something, but I fear I can guess what it was like.  Some one
+suggested your going on the road, as they say, with that one thing as
+your repertoire&mdash;making a tour of the cheap moving-picture houses of a
+certain section?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie grew very pale; her lips trembled.  One interested wholly in her
+dramatic career, seeing her at that moment, might have concluded that
+the girl had it in her to develop a capacity for tragedy as well as
+comedy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cousin Julia," she said with tremulous dignity, "I don't want you to
+come with me this week.  I can go back and forth in a carriage by
+myself.  I've got to go through it, for I promised and they will have
+made arrangements, but&mdash;please don't come with me any more."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gazed at Miss Pritchard through reproachful tears, but when she saw
+tears streaming down Miss Pritchard's plain, staunch face, she ran to
+her arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear, it's only because I love you so, because you are the very
+apple of my eye, that I talk so," the latter declared, and the warm
+words went straight to the girl's sore heart.  "I know I'm not just,
+but dear, we won't let anything come between us&mdash;ever.  I'll do my best
+to see your side of it, and you must be patient with me.  It's hard, I
+know, for youth to bear with age, for inexperience to hear the ugly
+words of experience; but now we'll just go through the week together
+and await what comes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What came demanded further patience on her part and increased Elsie's
+infatuation.  Before the end of the week the young actress had an offer
+from a rival establishment which would take her to the edge of summer
+at a salary that fairly made her gasp.  The second theatre was perhaps
+a shade better, but not sufficiently so to reconcile Miss Pritchard to
+it.  But she held her peace.  Whereupon the first manager increased the
+sum offered by his rival, and, Miss Pritchard still tolerant, Elsie
+agreed to remain there until June.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap29"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard acknowledged to herself that Elsie Marley had the right
+stuff in her.  She did not grow careless, never let herself down.  The
+audience was uncritical and wildly demonstrative, but the girl did her
+level best at every performance.  Up to a certain point, she even
+improved.  The possibility of so doing in this case was limited, but
+having reached that point she held it.  Further, her wonderfully sweet
+voice seemed to grow sweeter every day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therein lay Miss Pritchard's one hope.  Presently, she sought out an
+old friend who had been a musician of note and later a teacher and
+musical critic on an evening paper, and confided her difficulty to him.
+Hearing her story, he was interested and very sympathetic.  He advised
+her to drop the concert idea and dwell wholly upon the possibility of
+opera as a lure: only the dramatic form and setting could compete
+successfully in a case of stage-fever like that.  And where Miss
+Pritchard had hoped only to be allowed to bring Elsie to him, he being
+an old man, he agreed to go to the theatre and hear the girl when she
+would be off her guard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll go any night you say, Miss Pritchard," he proposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't make <I>me</I> choose, Mr. Francis," she begged.  "There's so much at
+stake that if I knew when you were to be there, I should be so nervous
+I couldn't sit still."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You <I>nervous</I>, Miss Pritchard!" he exclaimed incredulously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Alas, yes, Mr. Francis," she acknowledged, laughing.  "These young
+people with their careers are too stimulating for spinster cousins who
+have never had anything more exciting than night-work on a city paper.
+Well, I dare say I have only my come-uppings.  You see, I was afraid
+Elsie wouldn't be lively enough!  I had visions of an extremely proper,
+blasé young person moping about, and rather dreaded her.  Getting Elsie
+was like finding a changeling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Rather too much of a good thing?  Well, we're all that way, Miss
+Pritchard.  If we're looking for a quiet person, we want a peculiar
+sort of quietude; and the lively ones must be just so lively and no
+more.  Do you remember in one of the old novels, where a sister
+enumerates in a letter to her brother the charms of the young lady she
+wishes him to marry?  At the end of the list she adds that the lady has
+'just as much religion as my William likes.'  Now isn't that human
+nature and you and I all over?"
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+As she left the house, a suggestion came to Miss Pritchard in regard to
+a lesser matter she had had in mind.  Elsie having agreed to drop
+everything for July and August and go into the country with her, she
+had been studying prospectuses and consulting friends as to the
+whither.  Seeing Mr. Francis, suddenly recalled a summer twenty years
+before when he and his sister had passed a month at a place called
+Green River in eastern Massachusetts, and she had driven over a number
+of times from a neighboring town to dine with them.  It came to her
+suddenly that Green River was exactly the place she had been looking
+for, and she believed it must be near Enderby, where Elsie's friend
+lived.  And now she couldn't understand why she hadn't thought before
+of going where the friends might meet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Making inquiries, she discovered that the name Green River had been
+changed to Enderby, and that Enderby Inn was considered quite as good a
+hostelry as the Green River Hotel had been.  She wrote at once to the
+proprietor to see if she could engage rooms, saying nothing to Elsie
+lest the plan miscarry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So eager was she, that when she found a telegram on her plate next
+morning (almost before her letter had left New York) she opened it
+anxiously, uncertain whether such promptness meant success or failure
+for her.  But it was from Mr. Francis, asking her to lunch with him.
+She got through the morning in almost a fever of suspense.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had gone to hear Elsie that very night of Miss Pritchard's call, and
+told her without preface that the girl had a marvellous voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, Miss Pritchard, can't you shut down at once on that vaudeville
+business and set her to studying under a first-rate teacher?" he
+demanded.  "She ought not to lose a minute.  Of course she is rather
+small&mdash;too bad she isn't taller&mdash;but for all that I believe such a
+voice will carry her anywhere.  I shouldn't wonder if she should turn
+out a star of the first magnitude."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He named a teacher with a studio in Boston who could take her as far as
+she could go in this country.  He usually went to Naples in the late
+spring with a pupil or two, but would be at his home near Boston all
+summer this year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course the fact that Enderby was within easy reach of Boston added
+to Miss Pritchard's excitement.  That night she received word that she
+could have accommodations at the inn, and a letter following next day
+offered her a choice of rooms.  She engaged a suite of three with a
+bath, though aware that the single rooms would be satisfactory.  And
+she smiled at herself for assuming airs already, as guardian of an
+operatic star, engaging royal apartments for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Filled with enthusiasm, she announced to Elsie that night that she had
+secured quarters for them at Enderby for the two months.  At the first
+breath the girl was quite as surprised and delighted as she was
+expected to be.  The delight was, it is true, but momentary, though it
+sufficed to irradiate her face and fill Miss Pritchard's heart with
+generous joy&mdash;also, to hide from the latter the fact that it was
+succeeded by profound dismay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Those dimples!  Those awful dimples!  As she thought of them, Elsie
+Moss was overwhelmed by consternation.  Of course she couldn't go to
+Enderby.  She couldn't let Uncle John get even a second glimpse of her
+face.  She fled from the room in a panic which Miss Pritchard believed
+to be excited eagerness to impart the good news to her friend at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though, as the days had passed, Elsie had persisted in her refusal to
+face her conscience or look into the future, she had been vaguely aware
+of a day of reckoning ahead.  She had dimly taken it for granted that
+when she stopped she would have to consider&mdash;there would be nothing
+else to do.  When she should be out from under the influence of this
+powerful stimulant, she foresaw herself meeting perforce the questions
+she had evaded.  But also she had foreseen herself with two clear
+months before her and with Cousin Julia beside her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now, on a sudden, all was changed.  She seemed to have no choice.  She
+had no control over her future.  She had delayed so long that the
+choice was no longer hers.  Her path was sharply defined.  There was
+nothing she could do except to disappear on the eve of Miss Pritchard's
+departure for Enderby.  And at that time there would be nothing to
+sustain her, no moral or redeeming force about an act that was
+compulsory.  It was like being shown a precipice and realizing that at
+an appointed time one must walk straight over its verge.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap30"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXX
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss, who had loved her brilliant, impulsive little stepdaughter
+like her own child, had given her up unwillingly.  But it had been her
+husband's wish that Elsie should go to her uncle; the latter could give
+her advantages her stepmother could not afford; and she supposed it was
+right and natural for the girl to be with her own people, even though
+they had been strangers to her up to her sixteenth year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first her loneliness found some solace in Elsie's letters.  They
+were short, but seemed brimming over with happiness.  Mrs. Moss didn't
+get any dear idea of the household at Enderby, but it was apparently
+all that the girl desired.  Then gradually the letters began to fall
+off, and before Christmas-time she felt a decided change in them.  They
+had become unsatisfactory, perfunctory; the girl seemed to be slipping
+away from her.  She began to wonder if Elsie were not concealing
+something, and soon after Christmas was forced to the conclusion that
+she was unhappy and would not acknowledge it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She endeavored to regain the confidence that had been fully hers; she
+tried in her own letters to prepare the way, to make confession easy,
+but she received no response.  In such circumstances letters are at
+best unsatisfactory, and it was maddening to Mrs. Moss that she was at
+such a distance that her warm words must grow cold in the five or six
+days that elapsed between the writing and the reading.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Christmas passed, and the winter, and she was unrelieved.  She was busy
+with her teaching, but except when engrossed by that, was haunted by
+anxiety and apprehension.  She had finally decided to go East during
+the long summer vacation, ill as she could afford to make the journey,
+to investigate for herself, when one night after school she dropped in
+to see a friend, and while waiting picked up a New York paper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some one in the house had that day returned from a journey East, and
+the paper was dated five days earlier.  It happened to be folded with
+the page given over to amusements uppermost.  Glancing carelessly over
+columns that devoted a paragraph each to an amazing number of cinema
+theatres, her eye suddenly caught the familiar name, <I>Elsie Marley</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a vision of her stepdaughter as she had sung the old rhyme, she
+mechanically followed the words until the word "dimples" arrested her
+attention.  Then she read the paragraph with beating heart.  She read
+it twice before she fully comprehended&mdash;understood that Elsie Marley
+had completed her sixth week at the Merry Nickel in her song-dance
+specialty, "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  Miss Marley was
+declared to be more popular than ever; managers were clamoring for her
+and she had engagements a year ahead.  The notice added that despite
+the fact that her voice was so wonderful, her dancing and acting
+inimitable, some people declared that it was her dimples that wrought
+the spell&mdash;that she might stand dumb and motionless before the
+footlights if she would only smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss's first clear sensation was indignation toward Mr. Middleton.
+She felt she could never forgive him for allowing this situation to
+come about without warning her.  Then she realized that this was the
+key to the whole situation.  She had not heard from the girl for six
+weeks&mdash;just the length of time she must now have been at the theatre.
+Excusing herself before her friend appeared, she hastened home in a
+tumult of emotion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She did not know which way to turn.  She couldn't bear the idea of
+Elsie being on the stage of a motion-picture theatre; it seemed as if
+it would break her heart.  And still worse was the knowledge that the
+girl had deceived her; that she had written empty, non-committal notes
+calculated to make her believe she was staying quietly with her uncle,
+when she was all the time preparing for this.  And she had always been
+so frank and upright, so easy to appeal to and to persuade!  It seemed
+to Mrs. Moss that she must have come under unfortunate influence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her first impulse was to write to Elsie; her second, to Mr. Middleton;
+but she did neither.  The situation was now too critical to be handled
+from a distance.  There were only two weeks more of school.  She
+secured accommodations on the railway for the evening of the last day
+of the term.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the sixth day after, she appeared without warning at the parsonage
+at Enderby.  A pleasant-faced woman who might be Mrs. Middleton, though
+she did not look like an invalid, sat on the veranda entertaining a
+little girl with a big baby in a perambulator.  She asked at the door
+for Mr. Middleton and was shown into his study.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He came in directly, and the sight of his handsome, refined, strong and
+serene face, with a vague resemblance to Elsie's, revived her drooping
+spirits.  Suddenly she felt that whatever he sanctioned must be right.
+She inquired falteringly for Elsie before she announced her name or her
+errand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She learned that the girl was well, and, to her surprise, would be in
+presently.  Then the season was over, she decided, and recollecting
+herself, gave her name.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He smiled.  "I thought as much from the way you spoke her name," he
+said.  "Elsie will be delighted.  May I call Mrs. Middleton?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just a moment, please.  I felt troubled about Elsie, Mr. Middleton,
+and came on without writing or sending word.  I'm impulsive too, like
+Elsie, though only her stepmother."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had never felt that Elsie was impulsive, and as he looked up in some
+surprise, she wondered if he minded her comparing herself to Elsie, and
+so to his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps I should have sent word," she went on.  "But I hesitated.  I
+knew you didn't approve of Elsie's father marrying me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, if I had any such feeling, it has long since
+disappeared," he assured her earnestly.  "From the moment I saw Elsie
+and realized what you have made of her, I have felt only the gratitude
+I am sure my sister would have felt for your devotion to her motherless
+child."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," she said.  "Now about Elsie&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But she couldn't go on.  A sudden wave of indignation swept over her.
+If he had felt kindly toward her, why hadn't he warned her?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He glanced at her with some concern.  She seemed so fatigued and
+overwrought after the long journey that he begged her to let him call
+Mrs. Middleton that she might have a cup of tea and go to her room
+before Elsie's return.  The latter had gone into town but would be back
+very soon, for she went into the library at four.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss stared at him, and he asked if Elsie hadn't told her that she
+had been assistant librarian since September.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head.  He wondered, and when she had again refused
+refreshment or rest, explained.  As he did so, it came out that she
+knew little or nothing of Elsie's activities, and he launched into
+glowing descriptions.  And the further he went, the more she marvelled.
+She couldn't understand how Elsie had become the sedate, dutiful girl
+he portrayed unless some great blow had fallen upon her.  Then she
+recollected what had brought her hither.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie has been away lately?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, no, Mrs. Moss, she only went into Boston to do some shopping."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But she was in New York in May?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, no," he returned with some surprise.  "I'm sorry to say she
+hasn't been away overnight since she came.  But we have made up our
+minds she shall have a change this summer, and now that you are here,
+we shall surely be able to put it through.  Perhaps you will go to the
+shore with her?  Of course you will spend the summer with us?  Mrs.
+Middleton will insist."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss was too dazed to reply.  Indeed, the only statement she had
+taken in was that Elsie had not been away since she came.  For an
+instant she wondered if she could have mistaken.  But that could not
+be.  Surely there were no two girls in the country who would have
+selected that particular song and have had peculiar dimples into the
+bargain.  On the other hand, Elsie couldn't have been in two places at
+once.  Neither could she have been away without his knowledge.  It
+wasn't conceivable that he&mdash;&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It struck her coldly that he was not in his right mind&mdash;that this
+handsome, courteous gentleman was mildly insane.  In spite of his fine
+manner and bearing, his every word had been irrational.  She hazarded
+one last question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has Elsie said anything&mdash;shown any interest in the stage?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she spoke, there was a curious expression on her face&mdash;it seemed to
+him so watchful as to be almost furtive.  He began to suspect that
+something was wrong.  She was certainly overwrought and almost
+hysterical&mdash;beyond anything the journey would bring about.  Possibly
+that was the explanation of the mystery.  Elsie had rarely spoken of
+her stepmother.  Perhaps her husband's death had unbalanced her mind?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon he murmured something soothingly and courteously evasive that
+confirmed Mrs. Moss in her suspicion with regard to him, his mind was
+wandering now; he had illusions, without doubt.  Quite likely Elsie was
+now in New York, and he constantly believed her to be in Boston for the
+day, coming back in time for the library.  And Mrs. Moss wondered how
+she could get the ear of the lady on the porch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She could see her through the window.  Now she saw that she had a mass
+of wool, red, white, and blue, in her lap and was knitting a
+curious-looking article, and it came to her that perhaps she, too, was
+out of her mind?  Perhaps this was a mental sanitarium?  True, she had
+inquired for the <I>parsonage</I>.  Could it be that in the cultured East
+that was a new euphemism for insane asylum?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But that idea was too ludicrous, and suddenly struck by the absurdity,
+she laughed out.  Her laugh was so merry and infectious as to lay his
+suspicion at once, and he couldn't help joining her.  And then,
+somehow, each understood the misapprehension of the other, and they
+laughed the harder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even as they laughed, there was a light step on the veranda outside,
+and some one cried <I>Elsie</I> in a tone of warm welcome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. Middleton had risen.  "Shall I tell her who it is, or just send her
+in, saying that it's an old friend?" he asked in a low voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her heart was beating violently.  "Don't tell her who it is," she
+begged weakly and shrank back as he opened the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He closed it behind him and she waited breathlessly.  She forgot
+everything except that she was to see Elsie.  At the first sound she
+sprang to her feet, and as the door opened&mdash;not with Elsie's
+characteristic fling&mdash;she held out her arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie!" she cried, then started violently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A total stranger stood before her, a pretty girl with a sweet face and
+long light-brown curls hanging from her neck.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And who are you?" she cried wildly.  "Am I mad or is this a lunatic
+asylum?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment the girl stared at her with sweet perplexed face.  Was she
+another patient, then? thought the distressed woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am Mrs. Moss," she said in a sort of desperation.  "Pray tell me who
+you are and where I am?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All the pretty color left the girl's face.  She stepped back and leaned
+against the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is the parsonage," she faltered.  "I am Elsie Pritchard Marley.
+Your Elsie is in New York with my cousin.  We exchanged."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap31"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXI
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+On the Saturday afternoon following the arrival of Mrs. Moss at
+Enderby, Miss Pritchard and Elsie had just seated themselves in the
+former's cool, pleasant room for the purpose of discussing summer
+clothes for the latter.  A maid came to the door and brought in a card.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Richard Moss!  I'm sure I don't know any such person; do you,
+Elsie?" Miss Pritchard exclaimed, frowning as she attempted to
+recollect whether that could be the married name of any one who had
+formerly been at Miss Peacock's.  As she looked up she saw that Elsie
+was almost ghastly white.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sprang from her chair and went to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Elsie, darling, are you ill?" she cried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie almost gasped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Cousin Julia, only&mdash;startled, <I>scared</I>," she said in a strange
+voice that frightened Miss Pritchard still further.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the maid waited.  About to ask her to excuse her to Mrs. Moss, she
+looked again at Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't know her, dear?" she said gently, putting the card before
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes&mdash;I do.  That's what&mdash;fazed me," gasped Elsie.  "It's
+my&mdash;stepmother.  I'm afraid something awful has happened."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now Miss Pritchard was white, too.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My child, are you out of your head?" she exclaimed.  "What are you
+talking about?  You never had a stepmother.  You couldn't have."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she half smiled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Elsie!" she cried reproachfully, "it's some of your stage friends
+come to see you.  How you startled me!  I'll settle with you later for
+that and give you a good scolding, but I won't stop now.  Will you have
+her up here or down in the parlor?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please, let's have her up here," said the white-faced girl in the same
+strained tone.  "There's nothing to do now but go through with it.  It
+serves me just right.  But&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Without understanding, her heart beating strangely, Miss Pritchard
+asked that Mrs. Moss be brought up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They waited in silence.  Presently the caller was ushered in, a slender
+woman clad in black, with a young-looking, sad face.  Seeing Elsie, she
+too became very white.  But the girl rushed upon her, flung her arms
+about her, and hid her face on her shoulder.  And the stranger clasped
+her close.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard stared in amazement.  She hadn't known of any warm
+friend of Elsie's except the young girl in Enderby; but this was
+unmistakably an affection of long standing.  For a moment she stood
+stock-still.  Then somehow she got them both over to the sofa, relieved
+Mrs. Moss of her wraps, and sat down near.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't understand," she said finally.  "You are evidently an old
+friend of my little cousin's.  Perhaps you are the lady she stayed with
+while she was finishing her school after Mrs. Pritchard's death?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss looked hard at Elsie, reproachfully yet lovingly.  It was so
+good to see the girl that the plans she had laid as she came on from
+Massachusetts escaped her.  She spoke at random, and might have
+imparted the same impression of mental irresponsibility that she had
+given Mr. Middleton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She hasn't any grandmother.  She never had one.  And she isn't&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, <I>Moss</I>, I have it!" exclaimed Miss Pritchard.  "You're the mother
+of Elsie's friend at Enderby&mdash;though I believed her to be an orphan all
+this time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am Elsie's stepmother, and she isn't your cousin at all," declared
+Mrs. Moss sadly.  "She's only a very naughty girl playing a trick on
+you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then for the first time Miss Pritchard spoke sternly to Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If this is a trick, a part of your stage business, won't you please
+bring it to a close right here!" she demanded.  "It has gone too far
+already."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear Miss Pritchard, will you allow me to explain?" said Mrs. Moss.
+Then she turned to the girl.  "Or will you do it, Elsie?  I went to
+Enderby to see you and found that other girl and learned the truth from
+her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie drew away a little.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You tell her, please, auntie, I couldn't," she faltered.  She clasped
+her hands tightly.  Her face was whiter than before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Pritchard, if you will have patience and bear with me for a
+little, I hope I can make things plain, though I can't make them
+right," said Mrs. Moss rather appealingly.  "I have just come from
+Enderby, Massachusetts, where Elsie's uncle and guardian lives.  I got
+worried and went there to see about Elsie.  I came all the way from
+California."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard stared at her in amazement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, auntie!" cried Elsie in distress.  Then she went to Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Kiss me just once, Cousin Julia, kiss me hard," she entreated.  And
+Miss Pritchard clasped her to her heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl resumed her place on the sofa and sat motionless, her eyes
+upon her clasped hands.  Mrs. Moss endeavored to get the main fact out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I found there instead of this Elsie, instead of Mr. Middleton's own
+niece, a strange girl who has lived there since last June as Elsie
+Moss.  Her first name happened to be Elsie, too, but her last name is
+Pritchard&mdash;Marley, I should say."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, I must be stupid, but I cannot understand what you
+mean!" cried Miss Pritchard.  And Elsie choked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll begin again," said Mrs. Moss with mournful patience.  "A year ago
+this Elsie, <I>my</I> Elsie, Elsie Moss, started East to live with her
+uncle, John Middleton, in Enderby, Massachusetts.  On the train she
+fell in with this Marley girl who was coming on to New York to live
+with her cousin, Miss Pritchard.  Elsie was badly stage-struck and wild
+over New York, and the other girl didn't mind a quiet country town, and
+they calmly changed places&mdash;and names.  Elsie Moss came to you&mdash;with no
+claim in the world upon your hospitality; and your relative, Elsie
+Marley, imposed upon the Middletons in the same fashion.  And they have
+gone on with the imposture for practically a year."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she continued, one detail after another fitted into the framework
+she made, and Miss Pritchard grasped the situation fully.  Stunned and
+wholly at a loss, she glanced at Elsie.  The girl sat like a statue,
+white with downcast eyes.  Miss Pritchard went to the window and stood
+gazing out for some moments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When she returned to her place, her expression was composed, but her
+face looked suddenly strangely worn and older.  She looked into Mrs.
+Moss's eyes as who should say "How could she!"  But she spoke to the
+girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Elsie?" she asked quietly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was why I hedged about going to Enderby," said Elsie
+incoherently, "I didn't dare let Uncle John see my dimples.  They would
+give me away, you see, Cousin Julia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she suddenly bethought herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, but you're not my Cousin Julia any more!" she cried, and burst
+into a tumult of weeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her stepmother gathered the girl to her, and Elsie sobbed wildly on her
+breast.  Mrs. Moss, who had been more severe with Elsie Marley at
+Enderby than she had ever been with any one before, was now disposed to
+be very gentle&mdash;perhaps over-lenient&mdash;with the real culprit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Elsie, I am your Cousin Julia&mdash;to the end of things," Miss
+Pritchard assured her.  And she spoke almost solemnly.  "But tell me,
+dear&mdash;you didn't know what you were doing?  Oh, Elsie, you didn't
+realize that it wasn't&mdash;that it was&mdash;wrong?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not at first&mdash;not when I did it," sobbed Elsie.  Then she uncovered
+her face.  "But I knew afterward.  It came to me then, and I knew it
+was the sort of wrong you think worst of all.  And so do I, honestly,
+Cousin Julia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again Miss Pritchard walked to the window.  Elsie's eyes followed her
+in agonized appeal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cousin Julia!" she cried desperately.  And Miss Pritchard was at her
+side in a moment.  But though her face was all tenderness and sympathy,
+the pain that shone through it would have been severe retribution even
+had Elsie been altogether impenitent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I was sorry!" the girl cried, "I was terribly sorry.
+But it only came on me when everything was&mdash;sort of&mdash;<I>fixed</I>, you know.
+I couldn't bear to break up Elsie Marley's happiness at Enderby, and&mdash;I
+couldn't bear to have it&mdash;hurt you&mdash;though I know this is a lot worse.
+So I was going to disappear.  I had my mind all made up.  I was going
+to leave a letter so that you wouldn't feel troubled.  And I thought
+that would sort of make up for everything, because I never would have
+been happy again.  And then&mdash;oh, Cousin Julia, then came that chance
+that I knew led straight to the stage, and I lost my head.  I chose to
+be wicked, and I suppose I lost my soul as well as my head,
+only&mdash;there's something that hurts as if I still had one."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again the girl wept wildly.  But now Miss Pritchard's arm was enfolding
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, precious child, you haven't lost it.  And if you were sorry&mdash;but
+we won't talk more about it now.  I'll hold that in my heart as comfort
+until to-morrow and then we'll see what we can do to straighten it all
+out.  At this moment we must consider that there's the evening
+performance to go through, and being the last, it will be very taxing.
+Somehow, we'll make things right, among us all.  You go to your room
+now and lie down.  If you think of this, only say to yourself that it's
+over, and be thankful for that.  And we two women who love you so that
+we're all but jealous of one another already will plan the next&mdash;or
+rather, the first move.  Come, child."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the door Elsie turned.  "Is the other Elsie all right, auntie?" she
+asked anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, dear," returned Mrs. Moss rather doubtfully.  "At least&mdash;well, as
+a matter of fact the poor child is just&mdash;waiting.  I made her promise
+not to say a word to the Middletons until I came on here and returned.
+I am afraid&mdash;dear me, I am sure I don't know <I>what</I> I said to the girl.
+I am afraid I must have been rather hard on her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, auntie!  And it wasn't her fault in the least!  I just dragged her
+into it.  It was all for me.  And she's the sweetest, gentlest thing!
+And not the least little bit her fault!  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl wrung her hands in genuine distress.  Mrs. Moss shook her head
+mournfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I might have known," she acknowledged regretfully.  "But, oh, Miss
+Pritchard, I was nearly distracted.  It all came upon me so
+suddenly&mdash;not a whisper of warning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard could understand what that meant.  She led Elsie into
+her room and established her upon the bed.  Elsie talked incoherently
+and at random, until Miss Pritchard had to declare that she must go
+back to Mrs. Moss.  Kissing the girl again, she bade her forget
+everything for the time being and rest.  And though she stifled the
+deep sigh that rose involuntarily, Miss Pritchard felt as if she was
+staggering as she left the room.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap32"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+For some time Miss Pritchard and Mrs. Moss discussed, not as they had
+purposed, the way out of it, but the affair itself: the change of names
+and destinations and the year of masquerading.  They marvelled equally at
+the audacity and the success of the scheme, and the various circumstances
+that had favored it.  Miss Pritchard reviewed the year aloud in the light
+of the discovery, with eager comment from the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How Elsie could have accepted so much from you, knowing all the while
+she was deceiving you, I cannot understand!" cried Mrs. Moss, shaking her
+head sadly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Accepted!  Oh, Mrs. Moss, if you could only know half the girl gave, you
+wouldn't speak of accepting!" protested Miss Pritchard.  "She has made
+this year the happiest of my life, that captivating, lovely child has.
+As for deceiving&mdash;she didn't mean any such thing, and it wasn't real
+deceit in her case.  She said just now she always felt as if I were
+really her cousin.  When she swapped, she did it in such a whole-hearted
+way that she was herself almost as deluded as I.  And later, when she
+began to realize, she suffered&mdash;looking back, I begin to understand that
+she has suffered torture."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss suddenly bethought herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The question is, what is to be done?" she repeated.  "You see, I have
+left that girl in Enderby in a most uncomfortable position.  The
+Middletons as yet know nothing.  I shall have to break it to them, but
+before I do so, I want to come to some sort of an understanding with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I confess, I don't see any way out of it at this moment," returned Miss
+Pritchard.  "Dear me, I can't yet really realize we're in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The simple thing would seem to be to just&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Swap back?  Oh, it wouldn't be possible after all this time, my dear
+Mrs. Moss!" cried Miss Pritchard, really aghast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We shall have to see how the Middletons feel, of course," admitted Mrs.
+Moss.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, couldn't you go back with me to-night and
+then all of us talk it over together?  I don't believe we'll ever come to
+any understanding unless you do.  My flying back and forth between you
+like a shuttlecock isn't going to amount to anything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I will go on to Enderby&mdash;there's no other way," agreed Miss
+Pritchard, "but I can't go tonight, because Elsie has an engagement.
+It's her last appearance at that wretched place, I'm thankful to say.
+She and I will follow you to-morrow.  Meantime, you can give them the
+plain facts to digest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She smiled half grimly.  "As a matter of fact, I have a suite of rooms
+engaged at the inn at Enderby for the last two weeks in June and for July
+and August, though I never dreamed of any such complication, as you know.
+Like as not we all&mdash;you and Elsie and I&mdash;can occupy them now&mdash;I can
+telegraph presently.  Dear me, dear me! what a pair of thoughtless scamps
+these children were.  And yet&mdash;what hasn't it meant to me to know Elsie?
+Oh, Mrs. Moss, I can't face giving her up.  I simply cannot face it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, Mr. Middleton is her guardian," remarked Mrs. Moss, who
+sympathized with Miss Pritchard, but felt she might remember that she had
+had to part with Elsie a year ago, after having had her from a child.
+"He seems like one who would do the right thing," she added, "but of
+course he was devoted to Elsie's mother."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No doubt he'll be glad to hand over little Pritchard to me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he seemed attached to her.  But of course being a clergyman he may
+judge her very severely."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish we could all go to Enderby this very moment," cried Miss
+Pritchard impatiently.  "If it weren't for that old movie-show!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then the other forgot Enderby.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, tell me, is Elsie
+very deeply concerned?" she asked anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard related the matter in detail.  Mrs. Moss was distressed
+beyond words, though she was cheered when the other repeated Madame
+Valentini's dictum in regard to the girl's voice, and the yet more
+authoritative word of Mr. Francis.  And then and there the two women who
+cared deeply for one little girl decided that that night should close her
+theatrical career, not only for the season but forever.  And they added
+that whatever be the outcome of the conference at Enderby, Elsie must
+begin in the late summer or early autumn to study with the teacher in
+Boston recommended by Mr. Francis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The child has actually grown rich overnight," observed Miss Pritchard.
+"She has saved all she has earned and if need be could pay for her own
+lessons for a time at least.  But I should like nothing better than to
+retire and take her to live in some quiet place near Boston, and then go
+abroad with her when the time comes.  I've got enough to do that and yet
+do something for that girl at Enderby."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She paused in her pacing, sat down suddenly and frowned deeply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no use," she groaned.  "That Mr. Middleton will take her away
+from me, mark my word.  What sort of a man is he, anyhow?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss didn't confess that she had taken him for a lunatic; but her
+description was colorless.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, I should be only too glad to take Elsie back with me," she
+added wistfully, "though I couldn't give her advantages."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard gave her a look of sympathy, though she couldn't conceive
+of her wanting Elsie as she herself did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Neither you nor I will have any chance," she returned gloomily.  "He'll
+snap her up&mdash;that minister.  And I shall be desolate in my old age&mdash;for I
+shall grow old in a night if I lose Elsie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But there's the other Elsie," rejoined Mrs. Moss plaintively.  "There
+seems to be one apiece for every one except me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, <I>Elsie Pritchard</I>!  Good heavens!"  Miss Pritchard began her pacing
+again.  "I shall have her on my hands.  I never thought of that!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose you'd hardly expect to have them both," remarked the other
+mildly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I certainly won't have Elsie Pritchard by herself!" Miss Pritchard
+retorted.  Then she laughed at herself, though ruefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, that accounts for the five hundred dollars!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't understand what you mean," murmured Mrs. Moss plaintively.  Now
+even Miss Pritchard had begun to talk like Alice in Wonderland.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard paused in her walk and explained rapidly and in great
+detail, leaving Mrs. Moss as much in the dark as before.  Again she went
+the length of the room, pausing before Mrs. Moss to demand: "What sort of
+a girl is this Elsie Pritchard?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To tell the truth, I was so taken aback, I scarcely noticed.  She's a
+pretty girl and ladylike."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard groaned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I think she looks as if she had character," Mrs. Moss added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Any ginger?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, perhaps not," the other admitted.  "But you should have heard Mr.
+Middleton talk about her&mdash;er&mdash;work in the parish."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good heavens!  Visiting the sick and distributing tracts?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not exactly," Mrs. Moss smiled.  "He spoke about the library and&mdash;well,
+I'm afraid I didn't take in the rest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind, I can guess.  And I see my finish when she gets hold of me.
+She'll endeavor to reform me.  A year ago, now, I was prepared for a
+superior person.  But after Elsie&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What mischief they made!  And yet, Miss Pritchard, it was all done
+thoughtlessly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know.  And poor Elsie&mdash;I'm afraid we came down pretty hard on her.  I
+think I'll just go and see how she is."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss followed.  Miss Pritchard tapped lightly at Elsie's door.
+There was no response and she opened it softly.  Then she beckoned the
+other with a look on her plain face that made it very sweet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Together they stood over the little figure on the big bed.  Elsie had
+cried herself to sleep.  She looked young and sweet and innocent, her
+brown head with its short locks against the pillow, her lips parted, her
+hand under one cheek, and the shadow of a dimple visible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They turned away, the eyes of both being filled with tears.  And when
+they were back in Miss Pritchard's sitting-room they seemed somehow
+nearer one another, almost like old friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's too sweet and good for the stage," cried Mrs. Moss.  "Do you
+suppose we can get her away?  Do you think she'll be willing to give up
+and cultivate her voice instead?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Willing</I>?  Not Elsie!  The child's more crazy about the stage than
+ever.  And as for easily persuading her to settle down to daily drudgery
+with no excitement in view for years&mdash;"  She shrugged her shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She doesn't look now as if she had a will of her own, does she, with her
+hand under her cheek and her darling baby lips parted?" cried her
+step-mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard's eyes filled a second time.  Then suddenly an idea
+flashed into her mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, you'll be awfully shocked, but do you know what your
+words have put into my head?  I feel like a wicked conspirator collecting
+his pals, but&mdash;listen&mdash;you and I must attack Elsie at once and get her to
+forswear the stage and take up music."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Moss couldn't see any difference in this proposition from anything
+previously proposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What I mean is, we must do it this very day," the other went on.  "We've
+got to strike while the iron is hot.  The child is in a chastened state;
+she's sorry and ashamed and unusually meek.  We've got to be wolves and
+prey upon the poor lamb in her moment of defenselessness.  She'll agree
+to anything to-day.  Oh, Mrs. Moss, it sounds cruel and hateful, but it's
+really for her good.  If you'll stand by me, I'll attempt it."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap33"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Elsie Marley had let Mrs. Moss out by the side-door, and half an hour
+later she passed out that way herself.  She had promised not to say
+anything until she returned, and so couldn't even leave a note to explain
+her own going.  She would write one to-night to bid them wait for Mrs.
+Moss's explanation.  And afterward she could tell them that she couldn't
+bear to see them again.  And by that time they would have their own Elsie
+with the dimples.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she would be with Miss Pritchard?  She supposed so, but she couldn't
+go there to-night.  Eventually, she must; she wasn't sufficiently clever
+or self-reliant to take care of herself; but she wouldn't go to New York
+while Mrs. Moss&mdash;that terrible Mrs. Moss&mdash;was there.  What she had said
+was quite true, but oh, it had been hard and cruel, and Elsie could never
+forget it!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had made up her mind to go into Boston to a hotel where she had
+lunched several times, write Cousin Julia from there, and wait until she
+should hear from her.  She was anxious to get away before Mr. Middleton,
+who had gone to the library in her place, should return.  And yet she
+took a wide detour that doubled the way to the station; for she could not
+bear to go near the street on which the library stood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Forgetting her haste, before she had gone far, she turned and looked back
+at the parsonage.  It was like home to her.  Leaving it forever, she
+realized dimly that it was home to her, the only real home her life had
+known.  And Aunt Milly?  Once, not so long ago, Elsie couldn't have
+imagined herself wanting to go back and throw her arms about her and tell
+her she wished she had understood and loved her long before.  And
+Katy&mdash;dear old Katy!&mdash;&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Turning away, she almost ran.  She met no one in the out-of-the-way path
+she chose, and she was to take the six-two train for Boston, which
+Enderby people rarely used.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The station stood on a hill.  As she climbed it, Elsie decided to ask the
+agent, whom she knew slightly, to telephone to the parsonage after the
+train had gone to say that something had called her away, and that Mrs.
+Moss would explain.  Fearing lest he might forget the latter clause, she
+stopped and wrote the message out.  As she did so, it came to her that
+they might think she had gone away with her stepmother, and wouldn't be
+disturbed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she took up her satchel again, she heard some one behind her on the
+wooden walk.  Kate had come by the direct way, but she had stopped to put
+a skirt and jacket over her kitchen-dress and to squeeze her feet into
+boots to hide the holes in her stockings.  Warm with the extra clothing
+and the unusual effort, Kate actually panted as she caught up to Elsie
+and seized hold of her as if she were rescuing her from drowning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, Katy, has anything happened?" the girl inquired anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anything happened?  Well, I like that!" ejaculated Kate between her
+gasps.  "No, nothin's happened yet, but I suspicioned something was
+a-goin' to and so I hiked along after you.  What are you a-doin' up here
+and himself gettin' all tired out at that library?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's heart sank yet lower.  "There won't be many in to-day, Katy," she
+said meekly.  "And anyhow&mdash;but don't keep me, Katy, I must&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, you mustn't, Miss Elsie, no such thing.  You're a-comin' straight
+home with your own Katy.  Do you want your aunt a-fallin' down in one of
+her heart-spells, and her so well and happy for the first time sence I
+come?  She'll have one sure's you're born if you ain't there for your
+supper&mdash;and me after makin' shepherd's pie!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie paled.  "Oh, Katy, I can't go back, honestly I can't, but you'll
+make it right with them, won't you?  Tell them I <I>had</I> to go and
+she&mdash;Mrs. Moss&mdash;will explain when she comes back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You just come back yourself and wait for her, Miss Elsie.  The missus
+will have one of them flop-overs the first thing if you don't, and then
+for himself to come home tired from the library and find her in that
+state and you not by to break it to him, and him not so young as he was
+once, you know!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Tears streamed down the girl's distressed face.  Kate took her satchel
+while she got out her pocket-handkerchief, and then would not loose her
+hold on it.  Elsie started on, Kate by her side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you're bound to go, then, you might as well get two tickets, for I'm
+goin' with you," the latter said stoutly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie looked at her in amazement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sure thing.  If you go, I go," Kate insisted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, Katy, you wouldn't do such a thing?  You wouldn't leave&mdash;them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Indeed I would," Kate returned exultantly, feeling that she had scored.
+"I'll go by the same train.  I've got some money in my stocking.  I
+couldn't face the music with her in a dead faint, and himself like as not
+havin' a shock."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie stopped short.  "Katy, why will you say such dreadful things?" she
+cried.  "Honestly, it's only a question of a day or two.  I've got to go
+away, and why can't you let me do it quietly now instead of waiting and
+having it still harder."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't mind the easiest way for you bein' the hardest for them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I do.  But I can't go back.  I cannot&mdash;act another day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes you can," replied Kate soothingly.  "And, besides, it'll all
+come right if you just hang on.  I knew something was strange&mdash;I've
+suspicioned it ever sence you come.  Wasn't it me as went around and took
+all your baby pictures out o' the old albums and others with big round
+dimples out o' velvet photograph-frames, and himself lookin' everywhere
+for 'em and me never lettin' on?  I says to myself you wasn't really
+yourself, but like enough a cousin or foster-sister, and just as good and
+perhaps more satisfactory.  Come, we'll just race around home and go in
+by the back-door so as to be there for supper as if nothin'd happened."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just before they reached the kitchen door, Elsie spoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Katy, couldn't I stay in my room until she&mdash;Mrs. Moss comes?  My
+head does ache&mdash;terribly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, child, you go up there now, anyhow, and Katy'll see what her big
+head can do."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The quick-witted woman got out of her suit and into her slipshod shoes
+and went straight to Mrs. Middleton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That Mis' Moss flew right off, ma'am&mdash;forgot somethin' she had to do in
+New York, it seems, and off she goes.  Them Westerners, you know, is
+reg'lar globe-trotters.  She's comin' back to accept our hospitality on
+Sunday, it seems, but here I am with a company supper fit for the Empress
+of Injy and plans for meals all day to-morrow and a bed made up.  I
+suppose you wouldn't want to ask Miss Dunham to make her visit now and
+help eat things up?  The pineys are all in blossom, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Dunham was an elderly, crippled parishioner who lived a little out
+of town and came each year to the parsonage for a day or two.  Mrs.
+Middleton threw her arms about Kate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Katy, what a dear you are to think of it!  It's just the thing.  Day
+after to-morrow is children's Sunday and she'll enjoy that, and I'm going
+to church myself and surprise Mr. Middleton.  That is why Elsie went into
+Boston to-day&mdash;to get me some gloves and a dove-colored sunshade.  Do you
+think you can get her here to-night, Katy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll telephone to himself at the library," said patient Kate, who hated
+the telephone.  "And we'll wait supper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The plan worked perfectly.  The minister fetched Miss Dunham in a
+motor-car in time for a late tea.  Only Kate and Elsie knew what her
+visit meant to the latter, and Kate didn't understand fully.  Mrs. Moss
+arrived on Sunday shortly after the guest had gone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But at best Elsie had suffered keenly, and when Mrs. Moss found her pale
+and hollow-eyed, she felt conscience-stricken.  But she had no
+opportunity to give her any of Elsie Moss's cheering messages, for she
+went into immediate conference with the Middletons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They talked for an hour.  The waiting was agony for the girl, and she was
+at once relieved and desperate when at length she was summoned down to
+the study.  Mrs. Middleton beckoned her to a place beside her on the
+couch, and Elsie dropped gratefully into it.  She could not raise her
+eyes; she sat with her hands clasped tightly, very pale, yet aware
+somehow, at the very first, of the kindness, the sheltering kindness, as
+it were, of the woman at her side.  And while she had steeled herself to
+endure the coldness of Mr. Middleton's voice, it had never been more
+gentle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story, now.  It seemed a sad mix-up at
+first&mdash;what a friend of mine up-State would call a 'pretty kettle of
+fish'; but with Aunt Milly's assistance we managed to get at the crux of
+the affair and see things more clearly.  Aunt Milly declares it was just
+child's play: that you girls had no more idea of doing anything wrong, of
+deceiving, than she had last winter when her new hat came from the
+milliner's and she decided to wear it back foremost and never told any
+one what she was doing."
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-260"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-260.jpg" ALT="&quot;Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now.&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="562" HEIGHT="444">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 562px">
+&quot;Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now.&quot;
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+Elsie knew from his voice that he was smiling.  She wanted to thank him
+for his kindness; she longed to raise her eyes gratefully to Aunt Milly,
+but she was powerless to do even that.  He went on:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mrs. Moss brings word that Miss Pritchard has become deeply attached
+to&mdash;er&mdash;the other Elsie.  Now that isn't a circumstance to our case.  For
+my part, I couldn't possibly have cared more for my dear sister's
+daughter than I have come to care for you, Elsie, and Aunt Milly is
+convinced she couldn't have cared for her nearly so much.  In any event,
+we cannot give you up.  Somehow we shall have to come to an agreement
+with your guardian, Miss Pritchard&mdash;that is, if you are willing?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie knew she should burst into tears if she attempted to answer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll speak for her.  Elsie won't leave us," Mrs. Middleton declared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not if&mdash;if you&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bell rang violently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That sounds like Miss Pritchard now," remarked Mrs. Moss, thankful to
+have the tenseness relieved.  And, in truth, Kate, who was suspiciously
+near the front door, ushered that lady in at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Introductions were gone through hastily.  The Middletons felt their
+prejudice vanish at sight of her kind, worn, genuine face, and she was
+deeply impressed by the minister.  Of his wife, she reserved judgment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She kissed her young relative with more warmth than she had expected to
+feel, for there were tears on the girl's white cheeks, and she looked
+sweet and sorry and appealing.  She was indeed a Pritchard, though not so
+typically so as she had anticipated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The minister mentioned the point at which they had arrived in the
+discussion, and for a little they talked all round the matter.  Then Miss
+Pritchard presented her conclusions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those babes took things into their own hands in great style a year ago,"
+she declared.  "They got hold of a deck of cards and shuffled them to
+suit themselves, not realizing that isn't the way to play the game.  They
+shouldn't have touched the cards and they shouldn't have shuffled them;
+but somehow they happened to make a good deal all round.  As the game has
+come out, we all like it.  We shouldn't, indeed, be willing to go back
+and deal out fresh hands.  Am I wrong?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The rejoinder indicated that she was wholly in the right.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now, for my part, I'm used to Elsie Moss and I want to keep her, but I
+wouldn't take her out of reach of her own kin&mdash;at least not for some
+time.  There's a man in Boston I want her to study with&mdash;she's going to
+be an opera-singer&mdash;and we're to be here at the inn all summer so that we
+can get respectively acquainted with our shuffled kith and kin&mdash;I want a
+chance to know my little Pritchard cousin, too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It seemed easier to speak beside the point than to the question.
+Thereupon the minister suggested that Miss Pritchard should remain
+permanently at Enderby.  That might well have waited, but Miss Pritchard
+declared she had already thought of taking a house in the fall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought if you insisted upon trading back, we'd all be in sight of one
+another that way, even though we elders might be mutually hating each
+other," she added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whereupon they began to mention particular houses, and would have gone on
+indefinitely but for Mrs. Moss.  It was she, the outsider, for whom,
+whatever the sequel, there would be no place in the plans, who called
+them back to the real matter at issue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Apparently, then," she said, "you're going to let things remain largely
+in the <I>status quo</I>.  But one difficulty comes to my mind.  When all is
+said, my Elsie was wholly at fault in all this.  She's sorry now, but for
+all that, I'm afraid she hasn't taken it so hard as this Elsie here, and
+what's more&mdash;this is what I'm getting at: Elsie Moss can drop the name
+she assumed falsely and, going elsewhere, resume her own as a matter of
+course.  But this Elsie, who has become well acquainted here and entered
+into the life of the place, cannot suddenly change from Moss to Marley
+without a great deal of pain to herself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quite true.  No one had thought of that.  It seemed appalling!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course," Mrs. Moss went on rather doubtfully, "she could keep on with
+the name.  It's perfectly possible to have two Elsie Mosses in one
+family.  People would only take them for cousins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's possible," the minister acknowledged, "but it wouldn't be right.
+It wouldn't be honorable for Elsie to continue to use the name now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, but Jack, it would be cruelly hard for her to change back to
+Marley!" cried his wife; and he sadly agreed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you think you could go through it, dear?" he asked, turning to Elsie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I ought to bear something a great deal harder," cried Elsie suddenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, you ought not, my dear," rejoined Mrs. Middleton.  "No, Jack, it
+would be too hard on Elsie&mdash;on any young girl; and, besides, it would
+hurt her influence at the library and with the schoolgirls.  If people
+could understand everything clearly, it would be another matter, but they
+couldn't.  Elsie's best friends know it.  For my part, I don't believe
+she deserves any punishment for doing wrong unconsciously&mdash;especially
+since she's been such an angel of mercy to this house.  But even if she
+had, she's suffered enough already to atone&mdash;with plenary grace."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's got to go by some name," Miss Pritchard remarked palpably, but
+that gave Mrs. Middleton a suggestion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know," she cried.  "Oh, Jack!  Oh, Elsie!" and her face was quite
+irradiated with love and good-will.  "I know exactly what we'll do!
+Elsie is just seventeen.  We'll adopt her, Jack, for our own daughter,
+and she shall wear our name henceforth.  She shall be Elsie Middleton,
+and Elsie Moss shall remain Elsie Moss, and they'll really be cousins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She held out her arms, and Elsie nestled into them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dearest Mildred!" cried her husband, going over to them in his
+enthusiasm.  "Isn't she wonderful?" he demanded, and almost in the same
+breath asked Miss Pritchard's consent to legalize the adoption.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course, only after suitable arrangements and provision were made,
+Miss Pritchard.  All we want now is your general or conditional approval."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Pritchard smiled as she sighed.  "I'm sure I don't know what the
+Pritchards would say, but if Elsie's willing I confess I don't see any
+objection."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Elsie's expression made any questioning of her unnecessary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My own Elsie, my darling daughter," murmured Mrs. Middleton in her
+sentimental way, stroking Elsie's hair.  But, strange to say, Elsie found
+it all very grateful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As to Elsie M&mdash;" Miss Pritchard began, when she was interrupted by a
+knock on the door, which she had left ajar (greatly to Kate's approval),
+and Elsie Moss burst in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the excitement of the moment, she seemed her old self again&mdash;though
+Miss Pritchard knew it to be a lovelier self.  She stood a moment in the
+doorway, a charming little figure in a smart rose-colored linen suit with
+a large drooping hat perched coquettishly upon her short locks, her
+dimples very conspicuous.  Then she rushed upon Elsie Marley, who had
+come forward shyly, and flung her arms about her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she turned, her arm still about the other girl, to Miss Pritchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I couldn't wait any longer, Cousin Julia," she said sweetly.  "I just
+had to see Elsie-Honey."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're to be real cousins," the other whispered, and the quick-witted
+girl understood at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How perfectly ripping!" she cried.  "Oh, everybody's so dear and darling
+that I should simply die of shame and remorse if I didn't just have to
+stay alive to worship Cousin Julia and get acquainted with Uncle John and
+Aunt Milly and&mdash;love my honey!"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 22819-h.txt or 22819-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Elsie Marley, Honey, by Joslyn Gray
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Elsie Marley, Honey
+
+
+Author: Joslyn Gray
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 30, 2007  [eBook #22819]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 22819-h.htm or 22819-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/1/22819/22819-h/22819-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/8/1/22819/22819-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE MARLEY
+
+by
+
+JOSLYN GRAY
+
+Author of "Kathleen's Probation"
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Elsie . . . repeated the performance in a manner that
+was only the more captivating.]
+
+
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+Copyright, 1918, by
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+MARY BULLIONS GRAY ANDERSON
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Elsie . . . repeated the performance in a manner that was only the more
+captivating . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,
+as you call it"
+
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none of them," he remarked
+
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now"
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Mrs. Bennet, her travelling companion from San Francisco, having proved
+to be talkative and uninteresting, Elsie Marley was more than content
+to find herself alone after the change had been made and her train
+pulled out of Chicago.  It was characteristic of the girl that she did
+not even look out of the window to see the last of Mrs. Bennet, who,
+having waited on the platform until the train started and waved her
+handkerchief in vain, betook herself indignantly to her carriage.
+Quite unaware of any remissness on her part, Elsie settled herself
+comfortably--Mrs. Bennet had disposed of her luggage--folded her hands
+in her lap, and gazed idly out the window opposite.
+
+A pale, colorless girl, the simplicity of her dress was in almost too
+great contrast with its elegance--a contrived simplicity that left no
+room for any trace of careless youth or girlishness.  Slender and
+rather delicate-looking, she had brown eyes, regular features, and
+soft, light-brown hair waving loosely about her face and hanging in two
+long, demure curls from a shell clasp at her neck.  But her eyes were
+of rather a shallow brown, her brows and lashes still lighter; her
+features were almost too regular, and her skin, though soft and clear,
+was quite colorless.  Even so, she might have been pretty, perhaps
+lovely, had she possessed any animation.  But the girl's face and even
+her eyes were as nearly expressionless as human features may be.  She
+was like a superior sort of doll with white cheeks in lieu of red.
+
+After a little she opened a small leather satchel, took out a letter,
+and perused it attentively.  It was the last she had received from her
+guardian and only living relative, Cousin Julia Pritchard, and, as she
+was to see her soon, it behooved her to prepare herself so far as she
+might for that occasion.  For Elsie Marley realized, though dimly, that
+she was to encounter a personality unlike any with which she had come
+in contact in all her sheltered, luxurious life.
+
+"My dear Elsie," the letter ran, "I find myself very much pleased at
+the thought of having you with me.  The heart of a woman of fifty
+cannot but rejoice in anticipation of the company of a young girl with
+the ideals, the vigor, and buoyancy of sixteen.  And since we are both
+alone in the world, you representing all my kith and kin as I believe
+myself to represent all yours, it is only fitting that we should be
+together instead of being separated by the breadth of our great
+American continent.
+
+"You will, I am sure, like this great, busy, restless, humming city,
+though the only home I have to offer you, I am truly sorry to say, is
+in a boarding-house, comfortable though it is.  Remembering Aunt
+Ellen's beautiful home in California, which I visited fifteen years
+ago, I fear the change may be difficult, though, for a young person,
+not too painfully so, I trust.  A boarding-house is the only home I
+have myself known for thirty years, and this particular one is
+excellent and full of interesting people, though the youngest among
+them are middle-aged.
+
+"I am, I repeat, happy to say that I can give you a home here and
+clothe you suitably.  That will release your income, which can be put
+to any use which we may decide upon after consultation together.  Your
+lawyer tells me that you are through school, and neither you nor he
+speak of any desire on your part to go to college.  I suppose, however,
+like most young girls, you will wish to take up some study or
+occupation to fit yourself to become self-supporting or to be useful to
+the world in some definite manner.  I heartily sympathize with such an
+aim, having worked since my eighteenth year myself, and shall be
+cordially interested in helping you either to plan or to carry out a
+future for yourself."
+
+Here Elsie broke off.  Cousin Julia was certainly absurd!  She had
+always been regarded, indeed, by the California Pritchards as a
+singular, eccentric person, rather wanting in refinement and careless
+of social amenities--one from whom they were quite content to be
+separated by the "breadth of our great American continent."  She had
+taken after her mother, who came from Nebraska--or some such place--and
+the family had considered it a pity that she should have been and
+remained Pritchard by name, particularly since Elsie herself, Pritchard
+of Pritchards, had to go by the name Marley.
+
+Still the girl's smooth brow did not contract.  In any event, she said
+to herself, after Cousin Julia had seen her, it wasn't likely that she
+would suggest that she go out and earn her living.  And as for her
+future, which the letter mentioned--why, her future was of course far
+ahead.  Elsie had rather taken it for granted that she should marry
+when the proper time came, as girls did in books, as her grandmother
+and mother had done, and as Aunt Ellen would have done had she not been
+so frail.  Once it had even occurred to her that it would be rather
+appropriate if she should marry some one named Pritchard, though she
+realized that to be only a remote possibility.  In any event, she
+didn't know why going to New York should necessarily make any essential
+difference in her future, and she was thankful that she hadn't to
+consider it for some years yet.  Meantime, the boarding-house
+confronted her.
+
+Very likely, however, she could endure even that.  She knew it would be
+comfortable, so far as that went, and she needn't mingle with the other
+people.  She could have a piano and continue her lessons, and she might
+study vocal music.  She could buy books and attend concerts and perhaps
+even the theatre and opera.  She could go alone in a carriage to
+matinee performances, and quite likely there would be some reduced
+gentlewoman living at the boarding-house who might be glad of the
+chance to accompany her as chaperon in the evenings.
+
+For Elsie took it for granted that Cousin Julia wouldn't care for the
+sort of things she was accustomed to any more than she herself would be
+interested to go about with her.  Somehow the girl felt that Miss
+Pritchard would be devoted to vaudeville and even moving pictures--she
+might even refer to the latter as "movies"!  Of course, that was the
+worst of the whole situation--Cousin Julia herself!  For, no matter how
+singular or even coarse she might be, Elsie had to live with her and to
+put up with a certain amount of her society.
+
+That would be very difficult; still, even now, the girl seemed to see
+wide spaces between.  Except for Sundays and evenings when neither of
+them went out, she wouldn't have to see a great deal of the older
+woman.  She might have to dine with her every night, but, as she worked
+in a business office, she probably wouldn't be home to lunch, and of
+course Elsie would have her breakfast in her room.  Sunday might be
+long and boring, but, whatever Cousin Julia's ideas might be, Elsie
+would always insist upon going to service, and that would occupy a part
+of the day.
+
+An hour had passed since Mrs. Bennet had left Elsie Marley.  As she
+returned the letter to the satchel she became aware that the train was
+at a standstill and not before a station.  Indeed, there was not a
+building in sight: only a dreary waste of sunburnt prairie-grass
+extended flatly to the glare of the burning horizon.  She looked about
+wonderingly, vaguely aware that they must already have waited some time.
+
+Her gaze included the rear of the car and emboldened a young girl who
+had been watching her longingly a great part of the way from San
+Francisco, to act upon her desire.  Immediately she donned a coquettish
+little red hat and linen top-coat, and made her way to the other girl's
+seat.
+
+"Don't you want to come out and walk a little?" she asked in a
+singularly sweet, eager voice.  "There's a hot-box, or some such thing,
+and they say it'll be an hour more before we get away.  It might seem
+good to stretch our legs on the prairie yonder?"
+
+Elsie Marley didn't care at all to go.  Indeed, she didn't wish to make
+the acquaintance of this conspicuous-looking girl with her dark hair
+cut square about her ears who had travelled alone all the way from San
+Francisco and seemed to know every one in the car.  If she should give
+her any encouragement, no doubt she would hang about her all the rest
+of the way.  She excused herself coldly.
+
+"Oh, please do, please come for just a wee turn," urged the other,
+smiling and displaying a pair of marvellous dimples.  And Elsie Marley
+surprised herself by yielding.  Possibly she was too indolent to hold
+out; perhaps she felt something in the stranger that wouldn't take no
+for an answer, and didn't care to struggle against it.  Again, she may
+have felt, dimly and against her will, something of the real charm of
+the other.  However that was, she yielded listlessly, put on her neat
+sailor hat reluctantly, drew on the jacket of her severe and elegant
+dark-blue suit, and followed the stranger slowly from the car.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The stranger, who was dressed in a rather graceful and perhaps rather
+flamboyant adaptation of the prevailing fashion, was picturesque and
+radiant to the extreme: slender, dark, vivid, with big, dark eyes in a
+small pointed face, dark hair "bobbed" and curling sufficiently to turn
+under about her ears and neck, a rather large mouth flanked by really
+extraordinary dimples, and an expression at once gay and saucy and
+sweet and appealing withal.  Her voice was very sweet, her unusually
+finished pronunciation and enunciation giving a curious effect to her
+slangy speech.  She wore her clothes jauntily, carried herself with
+charming grace, and her great dimples made her frank smile irresistible.
+
+"Do you know, I've been simply crazy all the way to come and speak to
+you," she confessed as soon as they were outside.  "I spotted you the
+very first thing, but I was rather phased by that woman with you.
+Wasn't she the--goodness gracious!  I hope she wasn't any
+relation--your aunt or mother?"
+
+"Oh, no indeed, scarcely an acquaintance," returned the other,
+surprised that any one should even conjecture that Mrs. Bennet might be
+connected with her.  Then it occurred to her that Cousin Julia might be
+even worse!
+
+"I never met her until a week ago," she went on languidly.  "She
+happened to be a friend of my lawyer's wife, and he wished me to come
+as far as I could in her company.  I suppose I oughtn't to travel the
+rest of the way alone, but he didn't make any other arrangement."
+
+"Oh, it isn't bad.  I've come all the way alone and everything's been
+jolly.  I've made awfully good friends, though they're all either
+elderly or children.  So your being about my age only made me want to
+know you the more.  Well, now that we're acquainted, we'll have to make
+the most of what's left of the way.  I am Elsie Moss and I was sixteen
+Christmas day.  Aren't you about that age?"
+
+"I am sixteen, Miss Moss," returned Elsie Marley formally.
+
+"But don't call me _Miss_," pleaded the other.  "_Everybody_ calls me
+Elsie."
+
+Elsie Marley did not reply.  She disliked the idea that the
+unchaperoned stranger should be Elsie, also, and should even have the
+same initials.  Her imagination was limited; still it occurred to her
+that the situation would have been much worse had the girl happened to
+bear the surname Pritchard.
+
+She stifled a sigh.  They seemed to be getting acquainted perforce.
+Now that she was out, however, she didn't care to go back at once, even
+though the sun beat down upon them fiercely, and the dry grass was full
+of dust and cinders.  She glanced about irresolutely.
+
+"Now if this were a scene in a play," remarked Elsie Moss reflectively,
+"the engine would have broken down near a grove with immemorial trees,
+or there'd be a dell hard by where the hero and heroine could wander by
+a stream.  Or else--" she hesitated.  "You don't feel comfy, do you?"
+
+"The sun is so hot, it's hardly safe to be out.  I'd better go in
+again," replied the other.
+
+"But the car'll be awfully hot, too, standing right in the sun.  I
+know--I'll get an umbrella."
+
+She rushed off at full speed lest the other should
+remonstrate--something that Elsie Marley didn't think of doing.  She
+accepted the favor as a matter of course, and they walked on slowly,
+the one restraining her eager feet with difficulty.
+
+"Oh, dear, I suppose _you're_ going to New York, too?" she asked.
+"Everybody seems to be except poor me."
+
+The other returned a spiritless affirmative.
+
+"Of course!  Oh, dear, and I'm simply _perishing_ to go!  But I'm due
+in a poky little place in Massachusetts called Enderby.  Isn't that the
+limit?  The name alone would queer the place, don't you think so?  It's
+fairly near Boston, but they say Boston's slow compared with New York
+or even with San Francisco."
+
+She waited a moment, then rattled on.
+
+"Do you know, sometimes it seems my _duty_ to go to New York.  I've got
+five hundred dollars all my own.  Dad had a long sickness, and, anyhow,
+he never got much ahead; but he left me that clear, and I'm just going
+to beg and implore my uncle on bended knee to let me take it and go to
+New York to study.  I could get a start with that, I'm sure."
+
+She looked up so eagerly that something strange seemed to stir within
+the quiet girl.  It was almost as if she would have liked to express
+her sympathy had she known how.  And when the light suddenly died out
+of the sparkling eyes and even the shadows of the dimples disappeared,
+she felt almost at fault.
+
+The other girl did not resent her want of sympathy, however.
+
+"But he'll never, never consent," she went on mournfully, "because he's
+an orthodox minister and I want to be an actress.  Of course he
+couldn't approve, and I ought not to blame him.  And yet, if I wait
+until I'm of age, I'll be too old.  I'd like to run away right now, but
+for the row it would make and for frightening auntie.  Really, you
+know, I'd rather join the circus than go to Enderby."
+
+"But I have always understood that to be an actress one must go through
+much that--isn't nice," remarked Elsie Marley in her colorless voice.
+
+"Oh, but that's half the fun--the struggle against odds," exclaimed
+Miss Moss with the assurance of untried youth.  "Our class motto at the
+high school was 'Per aspera ad astra.'  Isn't that fine and inspiring?"
+
+The other assented listlessly,
+
+A breeze had arisen, and now, at a little distance from the track, the
+air, though warm, was fresh and sweet.  The yellowed grass extended to
+the brilliant blue of the sky as far as the eye could reach.  For the
+first time, perhaps, in centuries, the plain was peopled by a throng;
+for by now nearly every one in the long train had come out.  Men stood
+in groups discussing politics and the Mexican affair; women wandered
+sedately about, most of them keeping a watchful eye upon the engine, as
+if it might suddenly start and plunge on, dragging an empty train of
+cars; children ran and frisked and shouted, making the most of the
+occasion, as only children can.  The two Elsies happened to be the only
+young girls.
+
+They had gone some little distance beyond the others.  Failing to draw
+out her companion, Elsie Moss took it for granted that she was shy, and
+chatted on about her own affairs, hoping presently to effect an
+exchange of confidences.
+
+"I can't help wondering what my uncle will be like," she said soberly,
+thrusting her hand into the pocket of her coat.  "You see, I've never
+seen him, though he and my mother were the greatest chums ever when
+they were young--almost like twins, though he was heaps older.  But
+mother went to California when she married and I was born there, and
+though he always meant to, he never got out to see us.  His wife
+couldn't stand the journey.  And when mother died, he was way over in
+Egypt, so of course he didn't come.  All that I know is that he's
+handsome and dignified and lives in a very proper place where they have
+everything correct and conventional--musical advantages and oratorios
+and lectures on Emerson, and village improvement and associated
+charities and all that, but no vaudeville nor movies.  I suppose if
+there were a theatre they'd only play Ibsen and Bernard Shaw."
+
+Elsie Marley opened her eyes rather wider than usual.  For it all
+sounded attractive to her, particularly in contrast with the
+boarding-house and New York.
+
+"He's awfully religious-looking, you know," Elsie Moss continued.  "He
+wears the same sort of waistcoats and collars the Episcopalians do,
+though he's a Congregationalist, and his picture is more than
+dignified, I can tell you.  Well, no doubt he's dreading me just as
+much as I am him, or else he's expecting me to be just like mother and
+will have the surprise of his life."
+
+She hesitated.  "I suppose I do look like her," she added gently and
+quite as if she believed the other girl to be deeply interested.  Then
+her voice dropped suddenly and her eyes filled with tears.  "Mother
+died--in the earthquake," she added.
+
+Something vaguely uncomfortable just stirred the surface of Elsie
+Marley's consciousness, though it wasn't sufficiently acute to be
+called a pang.  The earthquake had happened seven or eight years
+ago--and this girl's grief seemed fresh to-day.  Her own mother had
+been dead less than three years.
+
+She did not acknowledge that her mother was only a memory.  She hardly
+realized it, indeed.  Only, conscious of that vague, strange
+discomfort, she had an impulse to get away from it.  She put a languid
+question.
+
+"What have you done since?"
+
+"I've learned what a difference mothers make," returned the girl
+soberly.  Then she darted suddenly outside the range of the umbrella.
+
+"What's that?  A gopher?" she cried.  "Oh, my goodness, it's only one
+of those ridiculous Dutch dogs.
+
+"It might have been, you know," she said as she returned to the shade.
+Then she resumed the subject she had dropped.  Elsie Marley said to
+herself that she needn't listen, but as a matter of fact she heard
+every word.
+
+"I was so small I couldn't do much, and we had an awful time for a
+year.  Dad was always more or less hard up, but he was worse after the
+earthquake, and if we had a servant she wasted things so that he was
+wild.  He married again--a schoolteacher, and it wasn't a year, quite,
+after--the earthquake.  Most people didn't blame him, but Uncle John
+where I'm going did, and wanted me to come right on East and live with
+him, but dad wouldn't hear of it.  And, anyhow, she was the nicest
+thing.  I loved her dearly at the end of a week.  She wanted to keep me
+with her after dad died, but my uncle insisted upon my coming to him,
+so here I am."
+
+She looked into the other girl's eyes half appealingly, though her big
+dimples were dimly visible.
+
+"She wouldn't stand for my being an actress, either, so there you are.
+And I liked her so much I couldn't half urge her.  And that's the worst
+of it; if I stay with my uncle the least little while I shall get to
+liking him so much I shan't be able to run away.  It's perfectly
+terrible to get so fond of people when you want a career.  I suppose
+the thing to do would really be to disappear right now.  Oh, not this
+moment, but simply never to go to Enderby.  Suppose I should go right
+on to New York with you?"
+
+Elsie Marley gazed at her without a word and almost without expression.
+But within, she was secretly roused.  She marvelled at the stranger's
+audacity.  She was surprised to feel that she was not bored.  She
+decided that she would not return to the car until they should be
+summoned.
+
+As she was fumbling in her mind for the response the Moss girl
+evidently awaited, one of the children whose acquaintance the latter
+had made came running up to her and shyly took her hand and kissed it.
+Again putting the umbrella into the other girl's hands, Elsie Moss
+impulsively caught the little thing into her arms and fondled her.
+Then dropping her gently, she took both the little hands in hers and
+danced away with her.
+
+They made a charming picture against the long, yellow prairie-grass.
+The little girl moved with the grace of a child, but Elsie Moss danced
+like a fairy.  Her cheeks glowed, her dark eyes shone, her dimples
+twinkled, her feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground.  Her red hat
+was like a poppy-cup, and the dark hair tumbling about her little face,
+elf-locks.  Elsie Marley gazed spellbound.
+
+But only for a moment; on a sudden she turned and made her way back to
+the car, which was almost empty.  She returned not because she wanted
+to, not even because she was indifferent as to what she did.  She went
+because she didn't want to.  Unconsciously she was struggling against
+yielding to the charm of the vivid young creature who threatened to
+take her by storm.  In all her life she had never been deeply or warmly
+affected by another personality.  Perhaps now she realized this dimly,
+and some instinct warned her subtly to avoid any departure from old
+habitude, even when avoidance meant the first real struggle she had
+ever made against definite inclination.
+
+It seemed long before the other occupants of the car began to stroll
+in.  Then the engine whistled sharp warning, the laggards trooped back,
+and the train started briskly.  Elsie Moss entered by the rear door, as
+Elsie Marley knew, though she did not turn around.  She said to herself
+that no doubt she would be upon her directly, that she would have her
+company for the rest of the day and the remainder of the journey.  But
+she established herself in the middle of the seat lest she seem to give
+any invitation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+Elsie Marley was not interrupted, as it happened.  Some little time
+passed and still she was alone.  The girl could not understand a
+certain unrest that was upon her.  She waited a few moments longer,
+then she moved close to the window so as to leave more than half the
+seat vacant.  Still nothing happened.
+
+At length she turned and looked back.  Elsie Moss, who sat between an
+old lady and a little boy, smiled and nodded.  Elsie Marley half
+smiled.  Still the other made no move.  Then she looked back, really
+smiled, and beckoned her to a place beside her.
+
+Elsie Moss, more than willing to be summoned, had some difficulty in
+getting away from her present companions.  But the grandmother
+prevailed upon the little boy to spare her, and she presented herself
+at Elsie Marley's seat smiling in her irresistible way with the big
+dimples indented, and looking as if she would like to hug her as she
+had hugged the little girl outside.  And Elsie Marley had a curious
+intimation that she shouldn't have minded greatly.
+
+"What do you think," exclaimed Miss Moss as she seated herself, "you
+know all my family history and I don't even know your name.  I've been
+guessing.  It ought to be either Isabel or Hildegarde.  Is it?  Oh, I
+do wish it were, they're both so sort of stately and princess-like that
+they'd just suit you."
+
+"It isn't either," responded the other with a curious sense of
+disappointment.  "My name is Elsie also."
+
+"Of all things!  But it's rather jolly, after all.  And what's the
+rest?"
+
+"Marley, Elsie Pritchard Marley.  But at home they called me Elsie
+Pritchard, because I am--all Pritchard."
+
+Unacquainted with the Pritchard distinction, Elsie Moss was not
+impressed.  But she exclaimed gleefully over the real surname.
+
+"Elsie Marley!" she cried.  "Why, isn't that funny, and oh, isn't it
+dear!  Elsie Marley, honey!"
+
+The other girl looked blank.
+
+"Of course you know the song, or at least the rhyme?"
+
+"Song?  Rhyme?"
+
+"Why, yes.  You must have heard it: 'And Do You Ken Elsie Marley,
+Honey?'"
+
+"Is it really and truly Elsie Marley?" queried the pale Elsie speaking
+for the first time like a real girl, though she had no girlish
+vocabulary from which to draw.
+
+"Sure," asserted the other, delighted to be able to surprise her
+seatmate.  And she sang a stanza in the sweetest voice Elsie Marley had
+ever heard, though she had heard good music all her life, and famous
+singers.
+
+  "Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+"Is there--any more?" demanded Elsie Marley almost eagerly.
+
+"One more, and then you just repeat the first.  I've known it all my
+life.  Mother used to sing it to me when I was a baby.  Then a few
+years ago when I first went to see vaudeville, I 'got it up,' as they
+say, with dancing and a little acting.  I used to spring it on people
+that came to the house.  Dad liked it, but it made my stepmother feel
+bad--dad said because I was too professional."
+
+She sighed deeply.
+
+"Sing the rest, please, Elsie?" asked the other, using her name for the
+first time.
+
+"I will if you'll let me call you Elsie-Honey?  You see it really
+belongs."
+
+Elsie knew that it was silly, but she found herself quite willing.  She
+seemed under a strange spell.
+
+"Only," she added, with a stronger sensation of discomfort, "after
+to-morrow it isn't likely we'll ever see one another again."
+
+"Oh, yes we will, sure.  Why, we just _must_--at least if you want to
+half as much as I do, Elsie-Honey?"
+
+"I do," Elsie confessed shyly and now with a curiously pleasant
+feeling.  "And now, Elsie, please sing the other stanzas."
+
+"It sounds just dear to say _stanzas_," cried the other.  "I should
+always say _verses_, even if I didn't forget which was which."
+
+With an absurd little flourish of her hands, she turned slightly in her
+seat.  The dimples came out strongly, and though she sat quite still,
+there was truly something dramatic in the manner in which the would-be
+actress sang the lines.
+
+  "Elsie Marley is grown so fine
+  She won't get up to feed the swine,
+  But lies in bed till eight or nine,
+  And surely she does take her time.
+
+  Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+Both girls broke into natural, infectious laughter.  Mr. and Mrs.
+Bliss, or any one who had known Elsie Marley, could scarcely have
+believed their eyes or credited their hearing.  But Elsie's father, who
+had died while she was an infant, had had a warm heart and a keen sense
+of humor, and it might well be that his daughter had inherited
+something of this that had lain dormant all the while.  For truly, the
+wholesome, hardy qualities brought out in others through simple human
+association had had little chance to germinate in her hothouse
+existence in the Pritchard household.
+
+Despite the rumble of the train, four children in the rear of the car
+caught the sound of the singing and came trooping up begging for more.
+A pretty nursemaid followed with a fat, smiling infant.  Elsie Moss
+made her sit down with it (beside Elsie Marley!) and she herself
+perched on the arm of the seat and sang song after song until it was
+time to go into the dining-car.  The children, wild with enthusiasm,
+were not in reality more appreciative of the lovely voice than Elsie
+Marley herself.  The two girls went in to dinner together in happy
+companionship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Elsie Marley lay in her berth that night for some time in a state
+between musing and actually dreaming.  She was conscious--partly
+conscious, that is--of a new sensation of happiness.  She did not,
+however, at all realize how fortunate she was.  She did not know that
+for the first time in her life the door of her heart had been opened in
+response to another.  It was, perhaps, open only a crack.  Possibly it
+had been fast so long that it would not remain open.  None the less, at
+the moment it stood ajar.
+
+After dinner the girls had talked late--late for sleeping-car hours,
+that is to say.  Elsie Marley herself had talked; had said more in an
+hour than she had ever before said in a day.  Questioned in a frank,
+sympathetic manner by the other Elsie, she had been led to speak of her
+grandmother's household and of her daily life there, going into details
+so far as she knew how, as she found the other so generously and
+romantically concerned.  Then she had gone on to speak of Cousin Julia
+Pritchard and the boarding-house, confessing her apprehension and
+dread, which seemed somehow to have become more definite in the
+interval.  She even showed the stranger Cousin Julia's letter.
+
+Having perused it, Elsie Moss acknowledged that it wasn't altogether a
+pleasant outlook for such a one as Elsie Marley, honey, though she
+herself wouldn't mind it.  Indeed, she declared that she should have
+liked it immensely.  And finally, as she left to go back to her berth,
+she exclaimed with fervor that she only wished that Miss Pritchard were
+her cousin, and the Reverend John Middleton Elsie Marley's uncle and
+guardian.
+
+As those were Elsie Moss's last spoken words that night, so that
+thought was uppermost in her mind as she fell asleep shortly after her
+cropped head touched the pillow.  And next morning when she woke early
+with a startlingly delightful idea, it almost caused her to bound from
+her upper berth as if it had been a bed in the middle of a stationary
+floor.  For it came not in embryo, not in the egg, so to speak, but
+full-fledged.  It seemed as if she couldn't possibly wait until she was
+dressed to divulge it to Elsie Marley.
+
+But Elsie Marley was, like her prototype, late in rising, and the other
+Elsie's eagerness grew yet keener as she waited.  Finally, however,
+they were alone together in the former's seat, as the train sped
+rapidly eastward.
+
+Elsie Marley's countenance seemed almost to have changed overnight.
+There was truly something in it that had not been there before.  Of
+course it was not animated now; nevertheless, it was not so utterly
+wanting in expression as it had been the day before, even in
+juxtaposition with the vivid little face beside her.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey, I've got something perfectly gorgeous to tell you,"
+cried the dark Elsie.  "Listen--you're not very keen about going to
+your cousin's, are you?"
+
+Elsie confessed that she liked the idea less than ever.
+
+"And I just _hate_--the short of it is--I simply _cannot_ go anywhere
+but to New York.  You'd ever so much prefer Enderby because it's select
+and has culture and advantages, and you'd sooner have a dignified
+clergyman uncle than a newspaper cousin.  As for me, I should adore
+Cousin Julia."
+
+"It seems a pity, surely," admitted Elsie quietly.
+
+The other looked at her.  "You see what's coming, honey?"
+
+She shook her head, perplexed.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey!  It's plain as pudding.  Presto! change!  That's all.
+Aren't we both Elsie, and don't we both want just what's coming to the
+other?  All we have to do is to swap surnames.  See?"
+
+Still Elsie Marley did not understand.
+
+"Shake us up in a box, you know," the other explained, her dimples very
+conspicuous, "and you come out Elsie Moss and I, Elsie Marley, without
+the honey.  You go to live with Reverend John Middleton and I'll go to
+New York and try to persuade your Cousin Julia to let her supposed
+relative study for the stage.  What could be better?  It's simply
+ripping and dead easy.  Neither of them has seen either of us.  Uncle
+John would draw a prize instead of me, and--I'd be awfully good to your
+cousin, Elsie-Honey."
+
+Really to grasp a conception so daring and revolutionary took Elsie
+Marley some time.  But when she had once grasped it, she considered it
+seriously.  It did not seem to her, even at first, either unreasonable
+or impossible.  Indeed, influenced by the enthusiasm of the other girl,
+she began to feel it both reasonable and fitting.  In a way, too, it
+was only natural.  For after all, the girl had always had her way made
+smooth for her, and this appeared only a continuation of that process.
+She certainly _didn't_ want to go to Cousin Julia's, and she liked the
+idea of living in the quiet parsonage of the aristocratic country town.
+
+Indeed, she agreed to the proposal more readily and unquestioningly
+than a girl of more imagination or experience could have done.  For her
+part, Elsie Moss foresaw certain complications, though in truth only
+the most obvious ones.  They discussed these gravely, yet with much
+confidence.  Indeed, an older person must have been both amused and
+amazed at the youthfulness, the inexperience, and the ignorance of life
+the girls exhibited, at their utter unconsciousness that they were not
+qualified to act as responsible human beings and shuffle blood
+relationships about like pawns on a chess-board.
+
+"There's certainly nothing about it that even my stepmother could
+object to," Elsie Moss concluded.  "Nobody's being cheated: they are
+both going to get what they would really choose if they had a chance,
+and to escape what might be very uncomfortable, and so are we.  We're
+both Elsies, and about the same age, and have brown eyes: if Uncle John
+were to take his pick, wouldn't he take a quiet, dignified, ladylike
+Elsie, instead of a harum-scarum one with short hair that was mad for
+the stage?  And Aunt Milly being rather frail, I should have driven her
+to drink, while you're used to an invalid aunt.  Isn't it just
+wonderful?  The more I think of it, the _righter_ it seems.  I almost
+feel now as if it would be wrong _not_ to do it, don't you?"
+
+Like one in a dream, Elsie Marley assented.  She was almost giddy at
+the swift flight of the other's imagination.  She listened spellbound
+while Elsie Moss spun plans, able herself to contribute nothing but
+assent and applause.  Under skilful questioning, however, she related
+all the Pritchard traditions and family history that Cousin Julia might
+be expected to be familiar with, and endeavored in a docile manner to
+learn enough of Moss and Middleton annals to take her part in the
+Middleton household.
+
+Elsie Moss possessed a certain sort of executive ability which enabled
+her to make the practical arrangements for carrying through the plan.
+Quite self-reliant, she planned to accompany the other to Boston to
+make sure that all went well, going thence herself to New York.  After
+consultation with the conductor in regard to time-tables, she sent a
+telegram asking Miss Pritchard to meet a later train.  The change in
+the destination of their respective luggage was more difficult to
+effect, but she accomplished that also, and both girls changed cars for
+Boston.
+
+Indeed, presently it seemed as if the only difficult part of the whole
+affair would be the parting from each other.  They were to write
+frequently, of course, and not only for the sake of mutual information;
+but it seemed, particularly to the pale Elsie, who had never had a
+friend, cruelly hard to have to be separated so soon from this most
+charming companion.  She gazed at her wistfully, unable to express
+herself.
+
+The other Elsie, as quick, nearly, to read as to express feeling, and
+naturally the more impulsive, answered from her heart.
+
+"Oh, we'll see each other often, we'll just have to, Elsie-Honey," she
+cried.  "And anyhow, we'll want to compare notes and brush up on our
+parts.  We'll visit back and forth.  You come to New York and I----"
+
+She stopped short.
+
+"My goodness, that'll never do!  I can never come to Enderby.  You'll
+have to do all the visiting, honey.  I'm the very image of my mother,
+and I'd give it all away."
+
+"Oh," said the other feebly.
+
+"You've noticed that I have dimples, I suppose?" inquired the other
+gloomily.
+
+Elsie could not deny it, though denial was evidently what the other
+craved.
+
+The latter sighed deeply.  "Then they're just as plain as ever, and
+would give me away first thing," she said.  "Dad used to say he had
+never seen such big dimples as mother's, and that mine were just like
+'em.  He said if I had straight yellow hair and blue eyes, any one that
+had seen her would know me.  Oh, dear, aren't you lucky to have nothing
+conspicuous about you?  I'm sure you're not the image of any one,
+Elsie-Honey, and you'll come to see me often enough to make up, won't
+you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Elsie, unless he--Mr. Middleton--should object to my coming
+to New York alone?"
+
+"You'd better begin right away calling him Uncle John, so as to get
+used to it as soon as you can," suggested the other.  "And I'm sure he
+won't object.  I'm sure from his letters that he's not an old fuss, and
+it's a straight trip with no changes from Boston to New York.  And
+Cousin Julia and I will meet you at the Grand Central!"
+
+She grinned at her own _cheek_, as she called it, and the other Elsie
+smiled happily.
+
+"Just the same, I'm more than sorry not to be able to come to Enderby
+to visit," Elsie Moss declared.  "You know it would be simply stunning
+practice, playing the stranger in my uncle's house--something like the
+real wife in 'East Lynne,' you know."
+
+"I never saw 'East Lynne.'"
+
+"Dear me, I cried quarts and bucketsful over it.  It's the most tragic
+play!  If I had time I could show you how it goes.  I always act things
+out over and over after I've seen them, making up words where I don't
+remember them.  But, alas! we haven't any time to spare with what we've
+got ahead of us, have we, honey?  Now we must arrange for meeting
+Uncle--no, _I_ must call him _Mr._ Middleton."
+
+On a sudden the girl clasped her hands in apparent distress.
+
+"Oh, I never thought!" she cried.  "It won't even be safe for Uncle
+John to see me at the station in Boston.  Well, I shall have to drop
+behind and keep perfectly sober.  I'll just watch out to see that
+everything's all right with you, and then I'll skidoo.  Dear me, I hope
+I don't look so awfully unlike the Marleys as to frighten Cousin Julia?"
+
+Had she said the _Pritchards_, Elsie would have been in a quandary; as
+it was, her face brightened.
+
+"She never knew the Marleys, and there aren't any now," she said.  "She
+knows only the Pritchards."
+
+"Hooray!  I shall harp on the Marleys morning, noon, and night!"
+
+"She'll like you," observed Elsie wistfully.  "You know she spoke in
+her letter of young life."
+
+"I shall adore her, dear old thing!" cried the warm-hearted girl.  "And
+Uncle John will adore you.  He adored my mother, who was quiet and deep
+like you.  He was always sending her rare things, and pitying her
+because she was poor and longing to send her money, though dad wouldn't
+have that."
+
+The appearance of an expressman warned them that they were nearing
+Boston.
+
+"You're perfectly sure that you're willing to exchange New York for
+Enderby?" demanded Elsie Moss suddenly.
+
+"Oh, yes, indeed, Elsie."
+
+"And you don't yearn for Cousin Julia?"
+
+Elsie Marley half smiled.  "Oh, no," she declared.
+
+But the other was determined not to take any undue advantage.
+
+"Now listen," she said; "if after you see Uncle John you don't fancy
+him, just say the word or nudge me or wink and I'll swap back without a
+word.  I'll simply step up and say, 'Oh, Uncle John, you've kissed the
+wrong girl!' though, of course, he may be too dignified to kiss at a
+train.  And then I'll introduce you properly."
+
+They sped on.  Soon a trainman entered to say that the next station was
+Boston and request them not to leave any articles in the car.  They
+said good-by to each other before the train stopped, kissing warmly
+like real friends.  Then Elsie Moss tied a large, dark veil over her
+hat and well down over her forehead and eyes.  It looked as
+inappropriate for the hot day as the scowling expression she assumed to
+cloak the dimples was ill suited to her charming little face.
+
+As they alighted, and a handsome, distinguished-looking gentleman in
+grey clerical garb advanced to meet them, she fell behind.  Raising his
+hat, he took the hand of the girl who was not his niece.
+
+"And this is Elsie?" he said in a fine, kindly voice.
+
+She murmured a weak affirmative.  He kissed her affectionately, took
+her portmanteau from the porter, and turned to the girl who had come
+from the car with her.
+
+"And this is your friend, Elsie?" he inquired.
+
+Elsie Moss came forward, scowling so fiercely that the other, despite
+her blunted sense of humor, could scarcely keep from laughing out.
+
+"My friend, Miss M-Marley," she stammered.
+
+Mr. Middleton shook hands with his sister's daughter, took her satchel,
+and asked how he could serve her.  The girl replied in a thin falsetto
+voice, which she realized immediately didn't go with the scowl so well
+as a gruff tone would have done, that she had only twenty-five minutes
+to get the train for New York and must say good-by at once and take a
+cab for the other station.
+
+However, he didn't let her go so easily.  Assuming charge in a simple,
+offhand manner, he found a taxicab which took them to the South
+Station, led her to the ticket-office, secured a chair, and put her on
+the train.
+
+She kissed Elsie Marley again, squeezing her hand meaningly.  And she
+nearly forgot and showed her dimples, looking out of the window as her
+train pulled out, to see them together, her uncle with his hat in his
+hand, Elsie waving her pocket-handkerchief.
+
+"He's a darling," she said to herself as they moved toward the Trinity
+Place Station, "and it's mighty lucky for my career that I didn't see
+more of him.  But he'll be far happier with that lovely honey-princess,
+and I'm glad she's drawn a prize.  As for me, hooray for Cousin Julia
+and the footlights!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+"I hope, Elsie, your friend wasn't in pain?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+with concern shortly after they were established in the train for
+Enderby.
+
+"Oh, no," the girl assured him, trying, but vainly, to add "Uncle John."
+
+"I thought she might be suffering from toothache or neuralgia, wearing
+that scarf about her face on such a warm day--particularly as she
+frowned and screwed her mouth in a rather distressed way," he explained.
+
+Elsie smiled.  Indeed she almost laughed, partly because she was
+herself struck by the humor of it, partly because it would so amuse
+Elsie Moss when she wrote her about it.
+
+"Oh, no," she repeated.  "Oh, no, Uncle John"--resolutely--"she was
+just--well--she was acting, I suppose.  She wants very much to go on
+the stage."
+
+"And doesn't lose any opportunity for practice?" He smiled, but rather
+ruefully.  "Poor child!  Somehow, of all ambitions, there seems to be
+more tragedy, more pitifulness, underlying that than any other.  Where
+one succeeds, so many fail--go down into darkness and obscurity.  Your
+mother had the fever at one time as a very young girl, Elsie.  As a
+matter of fact, she had some little talent in that direction, but
+fortunately we were able to persuade her to give up the idea entirely."
+He sighed.  "She was so tender-hearted and affectionate that she could
+have been induced to give up far more precious things than an ambition
+of that sort."
+
+Elsie was gazing out of the window.  He pointed out a country club and
+several fine estates at a distance, then asked:
+
+"What is your friend going in for, Elsie, comedy or tragedy?"
+
+Elsie didn't know.  She explained that while Miss M-Marley seemed like
+an old friend, she had only met her on the train as they had left
+Chicago.
+
+"Ah, that's just like your mother!" he exclaimed.  "She was just that
+way, quick to make friends, and yet as loyal and true as any slower and
+more cautious person could be."
+
+Again he sighed; then added in a lighter tone: "_She_ wanted to play
+tragic parts--youth is apt to--but of course with those dimples she
+would have been doomed to comedy, if not farce."
+
+He gazed reminiscently at her.
+
+"Your baby pictures had her dimples in small, but I see that as you
+have grown thin you have lost them.  You scarcely resemble her at all,
+and yet already I see how very like her you are."
+
+Elsie could think of no response, and fearing that he was awaking
+painful feelings, Mr. Middleton changed the subject by inquiring kindly
+after her stepmother.  Elsie replied according to instructions that she
+was quite well and much gratified to have secured her former position
+in one of the San Francisco high schools for the coming year.
+
+As he went on to ask about her journey and to exhibit points of
+interest along the way, he was so chivalrous and thoughtful that the
+girl realized that she would be considered and cared for as she never
+would have been with Cousin Julia, and was genuinely relieved.  Then
+her thoughts flew back to those hours with Elsie Moss between Chicago
+and Boston, which seemed to her the happiest she had ever known.  It
+came to her that if she could have the other girl's companionship,
+could see her every day, she didn't know that she would greatly care
+where she was.  Perhaps she could even endure hardship.  How serious
+Elsie Moss had been about her motto, "Per aspera ad astra."  For all
+her gayety, she felt she could go through hardship bravely.  Ah, she
+was a rare person!  For the first time in her life Elsie Marley was
+homesick--and for a stranger!
+
+Happily, there was that about Mr. Middleton which reminded her of his
+niece.  She glanced at him from under her long, pale lashes.  A man of
+fifty, he was tall and thin, with a fine florid face set off by a mass
+of thick, white hair.  His eyes were brown and youthful, full of
+serenity and kindliness, with a shadow of the idealism that
+characterized his whole face.  His voice was good, his speech elegant,
+appealing particularly to one accustomed to the tones and inflections
+of the West.  Looking forward to meeting his wife, who would probably
+be equally pleasing, Elsie felt that in any event she should be as
+happy between visits as it would be possible to be anywhere without
+Elsie Moss.
+
+A short drive through the quiet, shady streets of what seemed to be an
+old, historic town brought them to the parsonage, one of a group of
+handsome, rather stately buildings near and about a green common.  Of
+colonial style, built of brick, it had a portico with great Corinthian
+pillars, window-frames and cornices of wood painted white, and stood
+far back from the street with a beautiful lawn studded by great elms
+and a glimpse of a garden in the rear.
+
+The driveway led to a side entrance under a porte-cochere.  As the
+carriage drew up, Mr. Middleton glanced eagerly toward the door.  His
+face fell.
+
+"Your Aunt Milly will be here directly," he said and ushered her in.
+As she entered the beautiful hall, Elsie couldn't help feeling how
+fortunate she was to escape the boarding-house.
+
+There was no one in sight.  Mr. Middleton looked about, then led her
+into one of the great front rooms on either side of the wide hall and
+asked her to make herself comfortable while he went to see if her aunt
+were ill.
+
+"She is not very strong, as you know, Elsie, and the excitement may
+have been too much for her," he explained.  "She has looked forward so
+eagerly to your arrival."
+
+Fortunately he did not await any reply.  Elsie felt suddenly stunned as
+by a blow.  Left alone, she gazed about her in amazement that was
+almost horror.  The large, square, corner room lighted by four great
+windows that reached from the floor to the heavy cornice was
+comfortably, even luxuriously, furnished, but--the girl could scarcely
+believe her eyes--it was the most untidy-looking place she had ever
+been in!  The heavy crimson hangings, faded by the strong summer
+sunlight, lost further color by their layer of dust, quite visible even
+at this distance and at first sight.  There were ashes on the hearth,
+though the heap of waste-paper, dust, and miscellaneous rubbish in the
+fireplace showed that it hadn't been used for some time.  The piano, a
+baby-grand, stood open, with dust on its dingy keys and more dust on
+its shining case.  The centre-table held a handsome reading-lamp and
+some books, but was littered with piles of old newspapers and magazines
+without covers.  A kitchen-apron was flung across an armchair; a dirty,
+paper-covered book lay on a little table with a plate beside it covered
+with cake-crumbs, and there were crumbs on the richly colored Turkish
+rug and on the arm of the tapestry-covered chair on the edge of which
+Elsie perched.
+
+Surely there was some mistake, some monstrous mistake!  She had somehow
+been brought to the wrong house.  It wasn't possible that a gentleman
+like Mr. Middleton could belong to a household such as this, she was
+saying incredulously to herself, when a shadow fell athwart the
+threshold and she looked up to see Mrs. Middleton entering on her
+husband's arm.
+
+Mrs. Middleton was the key to the enigma, though Elsie's mind wasn't
+sufficiently alert to grasp the fact at the moment.  She stood beside
+her tall, immaculate husband, a short, rather stout, flabby-looking
+woman with a sallow face wherein keener eyes than Elsie's might have
+detected traces of former prettiness, and frowsy, ginger-colored hair
+that had been curled on an iron.  She wore a dingy pink tea-gown
+bordered with swan's-down, cut rather low and revealing a yellow,
+scrawny neck.  A large cameo brooch took the place of a missing frog,
+and a pin in the hem disclosed missing stitches.  Her hands were
+covered with rings, her feet thrust into shapeless knitted boots.
+
+She smiled, cried, "Elsie!" in a weak, sentimental manner, and opened
+her arms wide as if expecting the girl to fly into them.
+
+Elsie, who had risen, advanced stiffly and reached out her hand in
+gingerly fashion.  But Mrs. Middleton gathered her, willy-nilly, into a
+warm embrace, holding her close against the dingy pink flannel.
+
+Elsie could not struggle against it, as she was moved to do; she could
+not burst into tears at the indignity; she could not rush out of the
+house and back to the train, as she longed to do, with the sense of
+outrage goading her.  She was forced to sit down weakly with the others.
+
+Mrs. Middleton gazed at her fondly.
+
+"Dear child!  Little orphan stranger!" she cried.  "How I have longed
+for this hour!  Indeed, I so longed for it that at the last moment my
+strength failed me, and when the train whistled I had to drop on my bed
+in exhaustion.  But enough of that.  Welcome to our home and hearts!"
+
+Murmuring some chill, indistinct monosyllable, Elsie glanced dumbly at
+Mr. Middleton, who was looking at his wife as tenderly as if she had
+been all that Elsie had expected her to be.  Were they both mad?
+
+"Jack, dear, you have never asked Elsie to take off her things--your
+own niece!" exclaimed Mrs. Middleton reproachfully.  And she turned to
+Elsie with her sentimental smile.
+
+"These men, my dear!" she said, and coming to her side begged the girl
+to let her have her wraps.
+
+Elsie wanted to cry out that she wasn't going to stay, that she was no
+kin of theirs, and was going away on the next train.  But she couldn't
+utter a word.  She removed her hat and jacket dumbly, wondering which
+dusty surface they would occupy.  As Mr. Middleton carried them into
+the hall, she could only guess.
+
+On his return, he noticed the kitchen-apron, picked it up and held it a
+moment irresolutely.  Then opening a door in the wainscot near the
+fireplace he flung it in.  Before the door went to, Elsie had a glimpse
+of worse disorder--of the sort that is supposed to pertain to a
+junk-shop.
+
+"That's Katy's apron," remarked Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  "Do you
+know, Jack, I feel sure she sits in here when there's no one around.
+Now that book on the table by the window must be hers."
+
+"It's no harm for her to sit here when the room is not in use,"
+returned Mr. Middleton kindly, "but when she goes, I wish she would
+take her things along."  And he picked up the novel and was about to
+consign it to the same dump when his wife held out her hand for it.
+
+"What mush!" she cried as she fingered the greasy pages, while Elsie
+flinched inwardly.  And unobservant as the girl naturally was, she
+could not help noticing that Mrs. Middleton retained the book.
+
+"Don't think, dear Elsie, that we're unkind to our poor but worthy
+Kate," the latter remarked, sitting down next to Elsie and taking the
+girl's limp hand in hers.  "As a matter of fact, she has a sitting-room
+of her own.  This house, you know, is very old.  It matches the other,
+newer buildings only because they were built to suit its style.  The
+original owners, the Enderbys, for whom the town was renamed, had many
+servants and provided a parlor for them.  Of course your uncle and I
+can afford to keep only one, but we gave her the parlor, hoping she
+would appreciate it.  But it doesn't look out front, so she doesn't
+care for it and uses it as a sort of store-room."
+
+"I wonder if Elsie wouldn't like to go to her chamber now," Mr.
+Middleton suggested, remarking suddenly how tired the girl looked.  He
+had thought her surprisingly fresh after the long journey, but
+apparently only excitement had kept her up.
+
+Elsie looked at him gratefully.  She was longing to be by herself in
+order to determine what she was to do.
+
+"Yes, Jack, that's exactly what the poor dear wants; I've been trying
+to get a word in to ask her," agreed Mrs. Middleton plaintively.  Elsie
+rose.
+
+"Where did you decide to put her, Milly?  In the blue room?"
+
+"Yes, dear, but I'm not perfectly sure whether Katy got it ready.  Do
+you mind calling her?"
+
+He fetched the handsome, slatternly maid servant, who drew up the lower
+corner of her apron crosswise to disguise its dirt, but openly and
+unashamed, and only to uncover a dress underneath that was quite as
+untidy.
+
+"Katy, this is our niece, Miss Moss, who has come to live with us,"
+Mrs. Middleton announced.  "Have you got the blue room ready for her?"
+
+Katy bowed low to Elsie before she replied.
+
+"No'm, not yet," she said.
+
+"Oh, Katy, when I told you to be sure?"
+
+"No'm, you didn't," responded the woman pleasantly.
+
+"Dear me!  Well, I meant to; I suppose it slipped my mind."
+
+She turned to Elsie.  "I've been particularly wretched all day,
+scarcely able, with all my will-power at full strain, to hold up my
+head."
+
+"It seems to me," she addressed Kate reproachfully, "you might have
+done it anyhow.  You knew what Mr. Middleton was going in town for."
+
+"I'll get a place ready for her right now in no time, ma'am," Katy
+assured her cheerfully.  As she was leaving the room with an admiring
+look at Elsie, she glanced suspiciously at Mrs. Middleton, whose hand
+was hidden in a fold of her wrapper.
+
+"Is that my story-book you've got, ma'am?" she inquired.
+
+Mrs. Middleton drew forth the book, looked at it as if in great
+surprise, and gave it to Kate, who disappeared at once.  Mr. Middleton
+followed with Elsie's luggage.
+
+Elsie, who did not resume her seat, walked to the window and gazed out,
+without, however, seeing anything.  Mrs. Middleton began to rhapsodize
+over the elms and oaks and some rooks in the distance that were really
+crows.  But before she had gone far, Katy appeared to say that the room
+was ready.  If she had not done it in no time, as she had proposed, she
+had certainly spent as little time as one could and accomplish
+anything.  Mrs. Middleton led Elsie up-stairs, threw open the door of
+the room with a dramatic gesture, kissed and fondled her, and finally
+left her to get a good rest.
+
+Elsie closed the door after her, dropped into a chair and, burying her
+face in her hands, sat motionless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+For some time Elsie could not think.  She could only sit there in a
+sort of dumb horror.  Presently she raised her head, opened her eyes,
+and deliberately surveyed the room.
+
+Like the others she had seen, it was large and handsomely furnished.
+There was a great brass bed and heavy mahogany furniture.  The walls
+were hung with blue, the large rug was blue-and-gold, and the chintz
+hangings and covers blue-and-white.  There was a great pier-glass, a
+writing-desk, and a bookcase.  In spite of the fact that everything
+bore the appearance of having been hastily dusted, it was fairly neat
+and very attractive.
+
+Still confused, with a stunned sensation that precluded decisive
+action, Elsie decided that she might as well remove the dust of travel,
+and rising, slipped off her blouse.
+
+As she turned on both faucets in the bowl in the small dressing-room
+adjoining, a thick scum rose to the surface of the water, and she
+realized the bowl had not been washed for some time.  At first she
+gazed at the dust helplessly.  Utterly unused to doing anything for
+herself, she looked about anxiously.  Two towels, clean but not ironed,
+lay on the rack.  She hesitated, then grasping one of them as if it
+were the proverbial nettle, she attacked the bowl, gingerly at first,
+then with some vigor; and presently, with the aid of some dirty
+fragments of soap she found in the receptacle, using the second towel
+to dry it, she had the enamelled surface clean and shining.  With an
+odd sense of satisfaction, she threw the towels to the floor, opened
+her portmanteau, took out her own toilet-case, and proceeded to wash.
+
+Refreshed physically and even a trifle in spirit, she slipped on her
+dressing-gown and sat down by the window to consider.  She knew now
+that she should have spoken immediately upon seeing Mrs. Middleton,
+thus avoiding more unpleasantness than the caresses.  Having delayed
+her explanation of the masquerade, she had made it the more difficult.
+Even now she dreaded shocking or even hurting Mr. Middleton.
+
+She rose and moved about irresolutely.  The dress she had taken off lay
+on the couch against the foot of the bed, and though she had never been
+accustomed to caring for her clothes, she started instinctively to hang
+it away.  Opening the door into the clothes-press, she shrank back.
+
+A commodious closet with shelves and drawers, it was as much worse in
+its confusion and disorder than the cupboard down-stairs as it was
+larger.  Each hook bulged and overflowed with clothing: tawdry finery,
+evening-gowns, old skirts, wrappers, sacks, bath-robes, knitted jackets
+and shawls and miscellaneous underclothes.  The drawers were so crammed
+that none would shut.  The shelves were piled high with blankets,
+comfortables, old hats, a pair of snow-shoes, pasteboard boxes, and
+bottles without number; while on the floor were boots, shoes, and
+slippers in all stages of wear, overshoes, a broken umbrella, a
+walking-stick, a folding-table, and more boxes.  And everywhere the
+dust lay thick.
+
+Shutting the door hastily, Elsie flung herself upon the couch, covering
+her face and pressing her fingers upon her closed eyes.  What
+a--_heathenish_ place!  She really didn't possess the sort of
+vocabulary to express the enormity of it.  How should she get away?
+Suppose there were no train to-night?  Suppose she should have to
+remain until morning?
+
+If only it were a hotel!  If only Mr. Middleton weren't so fine, or if
+Mrs. Middleton had gone into Boston!  One look at her would have been
+enough: she would have known she could never endure her.  Better Cousin
+Julia with all her oddities.  She would have made the sign agreed upon
+and gone straight on to New York.  And then--poor Elsie Moss!  After
+all, Mrs. Middleton wasn't any real relative of hers, either.  She only
+hoped that the other girl might find Cousin Julia so very disagreeable
+that she wouldn't too painfully mind being dragged back here.
+
+Some one knocked at the door.  Feeling that she couldn't possibly
+encounter Mrs. Middleton at this juncture, the girl remained silent.
+
+"It's only Katy," said a pleasant voice, and Elsie bade her come in.
+
+The warm-hearted Irishwoman knew in an instant that something was
+wrong, and suspected homesickness.  She spoke fondly, as to a child,
+saying that tea was nearly ready, and added: "Have you got everything
+that you want, miss?"
+
+Elsie could have laughed at the unconscious irony.
+
+"The clothes-press is full of mussy things, and the wash-bowl was
+dirty, and there weren't any clean towels," the girl almost wailed.
+
+"Bless my soul, I guess that wash-bowl was forgot for a matter of a few
+days!" Katy exclaimed.  "Dear me, I'm so sorry.  But them towels was
+clean, only not ironed.  I hadn't got round to 'em yet, and I didn't
+know where to lay my hands on any that was put away.  There's a lot
+somewheres, for we keep a-buyin' and a-buyin'.  And I'll just go at
+this room the first thing after breakfast in the mornin' and make
+everything clean and shinin'.  I meant to 'a' done it to-day, but I
+didn't get a minute, and I thought one night wouldn't make much matter."
+
+While Elsie was endeavoring to frame some sentence to inform Katy that
+she needn't take the trouble, the latter suddenly remembered something
+in the oven and disappeared.  Elsie rose and dressed.  She couldn't eat
+in such a place, but she couldn't get away without explaining and,
+perhaps, the tea-table would be a suitable occasion for that.
+
+Mr. Middleton met her at the foot of the stair and led her to the
+dining-room.  Another surprise!  The room was not only large, pleasant,
+and airy, overlooking a beautiful garden, but it was neat and tidy, and
+the table was spotless, with fine damask, delicate china, and beautiful
+silver.  The food was delicious--Elsie had taken her place
+perforce--and was particularly appetizing after five days on the train.
+
+Mrs. Middleton still wore the pink wrapper, but she had little to say,
+and her husband was so elegant and attractive, was in such good spirits
+and talked so entertainingly, that Elsie almost forgot.  In any event,
+before the meal was over she had decided to remain overnight, and to
+postpone her confession until morning.
+
+The evening passed pleasantly.  Mrs. Middleton excused herself directly
+after tea, and Mr. Middleton took Elsie out to show her the garden,
+which he tended himself, an old-fashioned garden with formal beds
+radiating from a sun-dial.  Thence they went to his study, an
+attractive room lined with books, which, though untidy, was not
+startlingly so, not, perhaps, far beyond that peculiar limit of
+disorder allowed to a student's sanctum.
+
+Here the Reverend John Middleton, unmistakably and infectiously happy,
+talked with his supposed niece for an hour.  Full of enthusiasm,
+quieter but almost as youthful as that of Elsie Moss, of ideas and
+ideals, he had not realized his want of companionship and sympathy, nor
+understood why he had looked forward so eagerly to the coming of the
+daughter of the sister who had been the companion and intimate friend
+of his youth and young manhood.  Believing he saw already much of the
+mother in the girl, he seemed to feel no need of preliminaries, of
+getting acquainted.  He strove only to make her feel at home, hoping
+there might be no strangeness even on the first night.
+
+His powers being by no means inconsiderable, he succeeded so well that
+Elsie Marley went to her room in a state of real exhilaration that was
+almost tumult.  The door of her inner nature, set ajar by Elsie Moss,
+had opened wide.  She had never in all her sixteen years been really
+roused out of herself until she met the former; and she had never come
+in contact with a nature so rich and fine as that of the clergyman.
+Further than this, something else stirred in the girl's
+heart--something better than the desire to hold this friend for her
+own.  Unawares, dimly, she felt his reaching out for sympathy, realized
+dimly that there was something that even a young girl could do for him.
+And suddenly a feeling of depression that was like regret or even
+remorse took possession of her.  The confession she had to make would
+hurt him deeply, even now.
+
+Her trunk had been brought in and the straps unfastened.  For an
+instant Elsie wavered.  Finally she got her key from her pocketbook.
+But even as she crossed the room, she thought of Mrs. Middleton, the
+dingy swan's-down and the caresses, and decided not to unlock the trunk.
+
+She stood by the window looking out absently over the soft, starlit
+landscape.  She felt sorry for Mr. Middleton and sorry for Elsie Moss;
+and curiously enough those two were the two persons in the world in
+whom she had any real interest!  Perhaps the latter wouldn't mind her
+aunt as she did; and of course she would be, to use her own expression,
+"crazy over" her uncle.  Then, too, with all her charm and vivacity,
+she could do much more to brighten the monotony and squalor of his
+life.  And yet, her heart was set upon becoming an actress, and it
+would be much harder now to give it up than if she hadn't seemed to
+have a fair chance to pursue her studies.  Elsie remembered dimly tales
+she had heard of people dying from broken hearts.  Somehow, it seemed
+almost as if that vivid, sparkling Elsie Moss would be of the sort to
+take things so hard that----
+
+She broke off, turned from the window, and began to undress.  So far as
+Mr. Middleton was concerned, it occurred to her that possibly some one
+who hadn't any ambition might learn to do even better toward helping
+him than one whose heart was divided.  She said to herself that she
+wouldn't decide definitely against opening her trunk until morning.  If
+she should find, for instance, that Mrs. Middleton kept her room the
+greater part of the time, it might make some difference.
+
+Ready to put out the light, she noticed that the covers of the bed had
+not been turned down--an omission unparalleled in her experience.  With
+a sigh, she drew down the counterpane, only to discover, with actual
+horror, the bare mattress underneath.  The bed had not been made!
+
+Such was Elsie Marley's consternation that had she been a person of
+resource, she would have dressed and left the house at once; but if she
+possessed any such quality, it was wholly undeveloped.  As it was,
+however, she said to herself she could not even stay for breakfast.
+She would go at daybreak!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Kate came to the door next morning just as Elsie had finished dressing,
+and, being admitted, asked if Miss Moss wouldn't come down and pour her
+uncle's coffee and eat breakfast with him.
+
+"He's sort o' hangin' off as if, perhaps, he was hopin' you might," she
+added, eying the girl admiringly.
+
+Elsie's purpose to go immediately had been with her as she awoke, but
+it didn't seem worth while to hold out at the moment: possibly she
+might have a favorable opportunity to explain at the table.
+
+But she resented Kate's beaming face, and looked reproachfully toward
+the bed, which told its own shocking story of having no linen nor
+blankets.  Still Kate was oblivious.  Elsie really hardly knew how to
+complain, but perhaps to learn that is easier than to learn to praise;
+and there was a certain amount of indignation in her voice as she told
+how she had been obliged to sleep on the couch in her dressing-gown.
+
+Kate was quite as shocked as the mistress of a well-regulated household
+would have been.  As she accompanied Elsie down-stairs she was voluble
+in her sympathy, and promised all sorts of improvements for a future
+Elsie knew was not to be hers.  And yet the girl, who had always been
+on the most distant terms with her grandmother's servants who had been
+in the house for years, found herself confessing to this good-natured
+slattern that she had nevertheless slept soundly and felt refreshed.
+
+Breakfast was so pleasant as to cause visions of an unlocked trunk to
+float through Elsie's mind.  The dining-room was yet more attractive
+with the morning sun on the garden.  Mrs. Middleton did not appear.
+The girl found a curious pleasure in pouring out the coffee, which was
+curiously intensified when Mr. Middleton asked for three lumps of
+sugar.  And when he passed his cup the second time she was elated.
+
+While he seemed fully to appreciate the novelty of her company, he
+seemed also to take it for granted, as if they were to go on so,
+breakfasting together, indefinitely.  He chatted in his easy way,
+glanced at the paper, reading bits of it to her, commenting on the
+situation here and across the border.  Fortunately, her mind had seemed
+to quicken with her sensibility, so that she grasped, or partly
+grasped, ideas that might well have meant nothing to her.
+
+He proposed to take her out to see the town after he had spent an hour
+in his study.  Though it would again postpone her explanation, Elsie
+decided she might as well go a step further and get a better idea of
+the place for which Elsie Moss was to exchange New York and her
+ambition.  The day promised heat; the girl was so tired of her
+travelling-suit that she was tempted to open her trunk and get out a
+linen frock and her Panama hat, but she wouldn't allow herself to yield.
+
+They were out nearly two hours, strolling leisurely through the quiet
+old streets.  The church and parish-house and a large hall were across
+the common, the library and museum nearer the centre of the town--all
+dignified, rather stately, very attractive buildings in harmonizing
+styles of architecture, whose low and rambling character, with the ivy
+that well-nigh covered them, and the wonderful green of their lawns,
+gave them an air of age, particularly appealing to one whose home had
+been in the West.  Handsome houses and charming cottages bespoke their
+attention as they walked through the wide avenue with double rows of
+elms on either side, and grass-plots separating the walks from the
+highway.  Just to wander under that leafy arch of a June morning, with
+glimpses of blue sky and white cloud, was a sensation that made the
+thought of New York appalling.  Cousin Julia had, indeed, spoken once
+of going to the shore; but who wanted to go to the shore!  For herself,
+nothing seemed so attractive as tall old trees, abundance of green
+turf, New England, and--_Enderby_!
+
+And all the while she became more aware of the unconscious appeal on
+the part of Mr. Middleton.  As they went on, more and more the girl
+felt how eagerly he had looked forward to the coming of his niece, how
+he had anticipated her companionship.  And she understood dimly that
+his eagerness to show her the finer points of everything was not only
+the desire to make her share his enthusiasm, but a desire to begin at
+once--to start out friends and companions.
+
+She returned only the more oppressed by the sense of remissness--of
+remorse.  Kate met her at the door of the chamber she had occupied and
+proudly ushered her in.  A real transformation had taken place.  Kate
+could accomplish wonders when she set out, and the great handsome room
+had been so thoroughly swept and garnished that everything was like
+new, only with the sense of the dignity of age.  The clothes-press,
+too, had been cleared out (at the expense of the corresponding one in
+the chamber opposite!); the little wash-room shone; there was abundance
+of towels and fresh bed-linen, and a vase of sweet peas stood on the
+freshly laundered cover of the dresser.
+
+Elsie turned gratefully to Kate, but spoke regretfully.
+
+"Oh, Katy, thank you, but I'm sorry you have taken so much trouble.
+I----"
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, dear, I love to do it, and I'll keep it so all the time
+if you'll only stay," urged Kate.  "Now don't tell _me_, I've seen it
+in your eyes that you're homesick and don't like the look o' things,
+and then you ain't opened your trunk, and your dresses all packed in
+wrinkles like as not.  Do try it a bit longer, please, miss.  I promise
+you things'll be better all over the house.  You know there'd be more
+satisfaction keepin' things up for a pretty girl like you as would
+appreciate than for a woman as lays round all the time and don't take
+no interest, though believe _me_, she eats as good as any one, and I
+can't keep my story-books long enough to find out how they come out at
+the end if she gets her eye on 'em.  All she does is to throw things
+round for me to pick up, though I will say for her she's pleasant and
+good-natured, and always a born lady.  And Mr. Middleton don't hardly
+know whether things is upside down or right side up; but he's good as
+gold and lonesome, though he don't never let on.  You can be such a
+comfort to him; all he hears at home now is about her aches and pains.
+You couldn't guess how he's blossomed out since you come.  He ain't
+talked so much for years, and he was a-singin' to hisself this mornin'
+as he hung round wonderin' if you was coming to breakfast--_she_ never
+does.  Now Miss Elsie, you jest stand by him.  Let me tell you, you'll
+run up against lots worse things if you set out to earn your own
+livin'."
+
+Elsie was tempted, but again the thought of Mrs. Middleton arrested
+her.  And by the time Kate shouted inelegantly up the stair that lunch
+was ready, the girl had decided to explain everything directly
+afterward and go to Boston to catch the same train Elsie Moss had taken
+yesterday.  And if Mrs. Middleton should appear and attempt to embrace
+her, she would say: "Wait, please, I have something to tell you that
+will change everything!"
+
+That lady stood at the newel-post awaiting her.  She wore a wrapper of
+lavender cassimere to-day, elaborately trimmed with lace and knots of
+pink ribbon.  Somewhat fresher than the pink one, it was not
+conspicuously so, and her hair was truly a "sight."  Elsie was dumb:
+she couldn't make the prepared speech nor any other.  She tried to keep
+at a distance by reaching out her hand formally.  But it proved
+useless, and again she was gathered to her hostess's heart.
+
+The strangest feature was Mr. Middleton's behavior.  He seemed as
+surprised and delighted to see his wife appear at lunch, as fearful
+lest she overtax herself, as if she were her own very opposite.  The
+girl couldn't comprehend how one so intelligent, so refined, of such
+exquisite taste, apparently, could be so blunt in this one particular.
+She couldn't understand how he could endure, much less care for, this
+ugly, withered, yellow, untidy woman.  However, it made her own
+position somewhat easier.  If he were really aware how impossibly
+vulgar she was, and took it seriously to heart, Elsie wasn't sure if
+even thus early she should be able to leave him to bear such misery
+alone.  His unconscious loneliness was appealing enough; conscious
+unhappiness might have proved more than she could have withstood.
+
+He was called from the table to the telephone.  Elsie hoped he wouldn't
+make any engagement for directly after lunch.  If he should, she
+couldn't risk missing her train.  She would speak out at once.  She
+would say: "Oh, Mr. Middleton, I'll say good-by, for I shan't be here
+when you return."  And then she would explain briefly and he wouldn't
+have time to take it hard while she was there to witness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Returning to the table, Mr. Middleton announced with troubled face that
+Miss Stewart, the librarian, was ill, and he must find some one before
+three o'clock to take her place.  He glanced at Elsie hesitatingly.
+
+"I suppose you are tired, Elsie, dear?"
+
+"Oh, no," she returned and added, almost unconsciously, "Uncle John."
+
+"Then I wonder if I can't work you in at the library for a day or so?
+It isn't at all taxing, indeed, it's really very pleasant.  It's open
+every day from three to six, and except on Saturday, when there's apt
+to be a crowd, people drop in in a leisurely way.  I could go over with
+you and get you started and stay until nearly four, when I have a
+committee meeting.  Would you be willing to try, dear?"
+
+"Oh, I'd like it ever so much," she returned, really captivated by the
+idea.  He looked relieved and smiled gratefully.
+
+"There, Jack, it's just as I told you it would be," exclaimed Mrs.
+Middleton, patting a pink satin bow complacently.  "I said to your
+uncle, Elsie love, that a girl of sixteen is almost a woman--I was only
+seventeen when I was married--and that he could make an assistant of
+you right away."
+
+Her smile faded and her hand went to her heart in an affected way.
+
+"My being such a sad invalid is a terrible drag on your uncle, though
+he won't confess it," she added feebly.  "I often and often drop a
+secret tear over it, I own; but now that there'll be some one to help
+with the little services that would naturally fall to a pastor's wife,
+I shall be quite content.  You know how the poet says that others shall
+sing the song and right the wrong?  'What matter I or they?'  That is
+how it seems to me."
+
+Mr. Middleton gazed at his wife tenderly, but Elsie's youthful scorn
+increased.  She was not sufficiently mature to understand that it shows
+something of character to look on kindly while another younger, fairer
+person steps in to fulfil duties that should have been one's own, even
+though one may have repudiated them.
+
+Directly lunch was over, Elsie ran up-stairs--something she seldom had
+done--unfastened her trunk, took out an embroidered white linen suit
+and dressed quickly.  She could scarcely wait until time to go to the
+library.  She was ready to lose the train to-day, and even to-morrow if
+need be.
+
+At the library, she found the procedure simple and easily acquired.  It
+was fascinating, also, as was the great airy room; and she wandered
+about through the stacks, and gazed at the books, magazines, pictures,
+maps and bulletin-board in a sort of dream.  It was a warm day and no
+one came in during the first half-hour.
+
+Mr. Middleton had scarcely left, however, when a little girl in a
+scant, faded frock that was clean, however, and freshly starched, came
+shyly in with a book--a child of nine or ten with an anxious expression
+on her old, refined little face which hadn't yet lost all its baby
+curves.
+
+"Why, where's Miss Rachel?" she asked, the look of anxiety fading and a
+shy little smile appearing in its stead.
+
+Elsie explained.
+
+"Well, I think you're ever 'n' ever so much nicer, and so pretty!" said
+the child.  Then her face clouded again as she opened the book that she
+held in thin little hands that were like claws.
+
+"The baby did it," she said sorrowfully as she exhibited a picture torn
+across.  "He isn't a year old yet and don't understand.  He isn't the
+least naughty, only _mischeevious_, you know.  Ma says I ought not to
+have been reading it while I was minding him, but you see I'm _always_
+minding him except when he's asleep--and then he wakes right up,
+mostly."
+
+She sighed.  "Do you s'pose you can mend it?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes, indeed," returned Elsie promptly, and smiled involuntarily.
+
+The child fingered her frock.  "Miss Rachel would scold," she faltered,
+
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Neither did she understand why tears
+should come to her eyes, except that the little girl was so small, so
+thin, so clean and sweet, and so very childish in spite of her
+responsibility.
+
+She found some gummed paper, cut a strip, brought the torn edges
+carefully together and mended the picture as neatly as if she had not
+been a week ago as helpless an able-bodied girl of her age as there was
+anywhere to be found.  Her sense of satisfaction was certainly
+commensurate, perhaps extravagant.
+
+"There!  Miss Stewart will never know," she said.  "Do you want another
+book now?"
+
+"Yes, please; but--is it right for Miss Rachel not to know?"
+
+Elsie considered.  "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but at any rate she
+won't mind since it looks as well as before."
+
+"And I'll be very careful after this," added the child.
+
+She selected another volume from the children's shelf, and having had
+it charged, turned to go.  But somehow Elsie was loath to have her.
+
+"Why don't you sit down at the table and look at the picture papers?"
+she suggested.
+
+"Oh, I've got to mind the baby," said Mattie--Mattie Howe was the name
+on her card.  "I must be home when he wakes up.  Good-by."
+
+She started--came back--stood irresolute.
+
+"Thank you for mending the book so good--so _goodly_," she said shyly,
+"and--I'd like to kiss you."
+
+With a curious sensation that had no admixture of reluctance, Elsie
+bent over and received the kiss.
+
+"You're prettier than the princess," the little girl declared, and ran
+away with her book.
+
+Elsie Marley hardly knew what would have happened if an elderly lady
+hadn't come in at that moment and asked for "Cruden's Concordance."
+She had some difficulty in finding it, but the lady was very pleasant
+and grateful, and after that there was a constant succession of
+visitors.  Many children came in, all attractive, to Elsie's surprise,
+though none so appealing as Mattie Howe; and older people in surprising
+numbers, considering Mr. Middleton's prophecy.
+
+But word had somehow gone round that the minister's niece was "tending
+library," and things being rather dull in the midsummer pause of most
+of the activities of the place, no doubt more than one came out of
+curiosity.
+
+It was a very friendly curiosity, however, expressed in the pleasantest
+manner, and Elsie found herself responding to their advances without
+knowing how.  She wondered at herself.  The girl did not realize that
+being in the library made a difference.  It was her first experience of
+work, or of doing anything whatever for any one else, so that even the
+service of getting out books for another established a sort of
+relationship between them.  At the close of the afternoon, though
+tired, she was strangely happy.
+
+But she couldn't understand it--didn't know herself.  She found herself
+wondering who the stranger was who had worn her frock and occupied the
+chair of the librarian that afternoon.  Grandmother Pritchard wouldn't
+have recognized her, nor Aunt Ellen.  Had she, in assuming another
+name, changed her nature also?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Shortly before the death of her aunt in California, Miss Julia
+Pritchard had made up her mind to give up her position at the city desk
+on her fiftieth birthday, and retire to some pleasant country town to
+pass the remainder of her life quietly, in friendly intercourse with
+her neighbors.  She felt that she had more than enough to "see her
+through," as the phrase is, very comfortably.  She had worked for over
+thirty years, her responsibilities and salary increasing periodically;
+and though she had lived and dressed well and given liberally, she had
+added each year to a small inheritance that had come to her through her
+grandfather, and had gained further by judicious investment.
+
+But when both her aunt and cousin died, and she was left guardian of
+the sixteen-year-old Elsie Marley, whose inheritance was small, Miss
+Pritchard decided to remain where she was a few years longer.  It
+wasn't imperative, indeed, yet she felt that the last little Pritchard
+should have the best chance she could give her, and until she should
+have put her on her feet, the woman of fifty, who was strong and well
+and at the height of her powers, would gladly remain in harness.  Her
+announcement to this effect was hailed with delight at the office, and
+another increase made in her salary so substantial that she declared
+she ought to adopt a whole family.
+
+Though the sacrifice was greater than any one dreamed, nevertheless she
+made it quietly and cheerfully, expecting no reward nor desiring any.
+She didn't expect much of Elsie Marley, indeed, recollecting the
+atmosphere of the household in which the girl had been reared, which
+she had herself found impossibly stifling during a short visit there
+fifteen years before.
+
+At that time her Cousin Augusta had been living with her husband and
+baby in Portland, Oregon.  What with her knowledge of the Pritchards in
+general, however, her observation of that stereotyped family after a
+long interval of years, and their intense anxiety lest the one
+descendant of that branch become in any way a Marley rather than a
+Pritchard, she was able to gather a very fair idea of what Elsie's
+upbringing must have been.  Unless she might have inherited a sense of
+humor from the Marley side (which was unlikely, since no one possessing
+a sense of humor would have married Augusta Pritchard), the girl could
+hardly have escaped becoming a prig at the mildest.  Cold, colorless,
+correct, self-sufficient, Elsie Pritchard would doubtless make her
+mother's cousin feel keenly her fifty years, her lack of grace, and her
+general and utter lack of claim to the royal name she bore.
+
+On the other hand, she was also, willy-nilly, Elsie _Marley_, and she
+was only sixteen.  She couldn't have, at that age, completely compassed
+the woodenness of her adult relations.  She might still be amenable to
+change, to development.  In any event, as Miss Pritchard remarked to a
+friend in the office, any sort of young female connection cannot but be
+welcome to the heart of a lonely spinster who reaches her half-century
+milestone on midsummer's day.
+
+Miss Pritchard occupied two large, handsome rooms on the second floor
+of a boarding-house near Fifth Avenue, a few blocks from the lower end
+of Central Park.  In preparation for the young girl, she had the large
+alcove of the parlor shut off by curtains and her bed and
+dressing-table moved into it, and gave over her bedroom to Elsie.  She
+spent much time and thought and not a little money in making it an
+inviting and attractive place for a girl, and would have felt quite
+satisfied had it not been for her remembrance of the rather heavy but
+stately elegance of the mansion in San Francisco.
+
+On the June day on which Elsie was expected, Miss Pritchard confessed
+to the friend at the office to whom she had spoken before, that she was
+beginning to feel nervous.
+
+"I almost wish she weren't coming until a week later," she said.  "Do
+you know, I think if I had actually passed my fiftieth birthday, I
+might feel somehow more solid and fortified.  It's really an ordeal for
+an old-fashioned woman like myself to encounter the modern girl of
+sixteen.  Fifty might pull through, but oh, dear, what of forty-nine
+plus?"
+
+She was interrupted by the telephone.  A telegram which had come to the
+boarding-house for her was read to her.  She was smiling as she hung up
+the receiver.
+
+"Well, what do you think!" she cried.  "My young relative has decided
+for some reason to take a later train and has telegraphed me to that
+effect.  Now there's something rather alert and self-reliant about
+that.  That girl must have something in her, after all.  I can no more
+imagine her mother or any of the family getting off at any stage of a
+through journey than I could fancy myself not getting off for a fire or
+an earthquake or, perhaps, for a wild West show.  At the very least,
+there's a sort of suppleness of mind indicated."
+
+She stood that evening in the station watching the throng emerging from
+the coaches of the train her cousin had given as hers.  A tall,
+straight woman, large without being stout, her plain face, with large,
+irregular features, framed in plainly parted iron-grey hair, was
+singularly strong and fine, and her grey eyes betokened experience
+bravely met.  As she scanned the face of every young girl in the
+procession, there was something so staunch and true in her appearance
+as to make it almost striking.
+
+Then on a sudden, right in the midst of it, for a moment she forgot all
+about Elsie Marley, and what she was standing there for, in the vision
+that confronted her and surprisingly and instantaneously took her
+romantic heart by storm.  A young girl came straight toward her--such a
+piquant, sparkling, buoyant young thing as she had never seen before--a
+small, slender, dark-eyed creature with short brown hair cut square
+like a little boy's and a charming mouth flanked by dimples that were
+almost like pockets.
+
+So much she took in in that one long glance.  Then, recovering herself,
+fearful lest she had been lost to all else about her longer than she
+knew, 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 satisfied to have it so.
+
+"I'm certainly no Pritchard," returned Elsie coolly, and not without
+enjoyment, "begging your pardon, Cousin Julia."
+
+"Well, of course, I ought to regret it, you being the last of the
+family; but I'm afraid I don't," returned Miss Pritchard.  "You see I
+rather dreaded your coming as that of a double-dyed Pritchard.  The
+Pritchards of my father's generation were pretty stiff, I confess,
+heavy and solemn and rather pompous.  My mother who was a Moore, as no
+doubt you have heard, had a strong sense of humor, and didn't bring me
+up in very great awe of the family.  She was thankful I didn't take
+after them, and so have I always been.  I often think, what a
+misfortune had I had to have a Pritchard as a bedfellow and roommate
+all these years, as I must have had if I had taken after my father--who
+was, I believe, however, the mildest of the Pritchards, and very much
+altered by my mother's influence.  And girls are usually like papa--as
+you are--and boys like mamma, they say.  Surely, no girl could be less
+like her mother than you, dear."
+
+Elsie sobered.  One of the facts she most cherished was the knowledge
+that she resembled her adored mother in nature as well as in manner and
+personal appearance.  It would be hard, nay, impossible, to give over
+that solace.  But she told herself she must think _Augusta Pritchard_
+(what a name!) whenever Cousin Julia said _mother_ to her.
+
+"Of course, you don't remember your father, Elsie, but do you remember
+any other of the Marleys or know anything of them?"
+
+"Just one member of the family," said Elsie, getting down from the
+window-seat.  "I've heard about her ever since I can remember."  And
+bowing low, she began to sing:
+
+  "Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+
+  Elsie Marley has grown so fine
+  She won't get up to serve the swine,
+  But lies in bed till eight or nine,
+  And surely she does take her time.
+
+  Do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?
+  The wife who sells the barley, honey?
+  She won't get up to serve her swine,
+  And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey?"
+
+
+The wonder and admiration in Miss Pritchard's eyes couldn't be hidden.
+Elsie threw herself down on the settee by her side.
+
+"That's the only Marley I've ever known, Cousin Julia, but she's rather
+a dear old body," she said and squeezed Miss Pritchard's arm
+affectionately.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"How very difficult it's going to be to explain now," Elsie Marley said
+to herself as she dressed on Friday morning.  "How I wish I had done it
+that very first hour.  Mr. Middleton would have understood, then, for I
+had just told him Elsie liked to act; and he wouldn't have cared.  He
+couldn't have been really hurt as I am afraid he will be now.  And yet,
+how can I help feeling glad I was here to take the library for him?
+And I did so enjoy doing it, too."
+
+She decided that if Miss Stewart were able to go back this afternoon,
+she would leave directly after lunch and get the only train for New
+York that she knew--the one Elsie Moss had taken.  And if she couldn't
+possibly explain in any other manner, she would have to write a note
+and steal quietly away.  It wasn't a nice thing to do; yet she couldn't
+afford to let the difficulty of explaining the situation keep her here
+until Elsie Moss should have become so firmly established that it would
+be cruel to drag her back to Enderby.
+
+On the other hand, as long as she had started in with the library work,
+if Miss Stewart wasn't well enough to attend this afternoon, she would
+remain one day more.  And if she found that that was to be the case,
+she would spend her morning writing the note to Mr. Middleton to fall
+back upon in case of need, and a letter to Elsie Moss warning her of
+the change.
+
+When she went down to the dining-room, Mr. Middleton had that same air
+of eagerness mingled with what seemed to Elsie assurance of the
+permanency of their relationship.  After a little he inquired whether
+her unfamiliar work of the day before had tired her overmuch.
+
+"Oh, no--Uncle John, not at all," she replied, consciously hampered by
+lack of vocabulary or of tone to express enthusiasm that was new to her.
+
+"Well, then, what should you say to giving Miss Rachel another day of
+rest?" he suggested.  "I have been afraid for some time that she's
+rather letting people get on her nerves, and possibly a few days off
+would be a benefit for all concerned.  She has lived alone for years,
+and, good as she is, has grown narrow and notional as one inevitably
+will who hasn't other personalities in a household to rub against.  I
+dare say if she had her way she wouldn't allow a boy under fifteen in
+the library."
+
+"She's afraid they'll soil the books?" Elsie remarked lamely, striving
+to be adequate to the occasion.  But somehow, he seemed rich enough to
+lend her something unawares.
+
+"Yes, dear, that's it, of course, and perfectly natural and legitimate
+in its place such caution is.  But the trouble is, she puts it first
+and foremost.  We want certainly to keep the books as neat as is
+consistent with constant use, and it's always safe to ask to see a
+lad's hands; but there are different ways of going about the business.
+The main thing about a library is, of course, its usefulness to the
+people; perhaps, most of all to the younger among them.  You agree with
+me, dear, that that consideration comes before everything?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Uncle John," she said primly.
+
+He smiled suddenly and very charmingly.
+
+"Elsie dear, if I hadn't known that your step-mother was a
+schoolmistress, I should have guessed it," he declared.  "Externally,
+her influence upon you has almost blotted out your mother's.  I'm
+thankful you didn't stay with her long enough for it to go deeper,
+excellent woman as I know her to be.  As it is, your speech and manner
+conceal rather than reveal your likeness to your mother, but it
+struggles through for all that."
+
+He paused and his face grew grave.
+
+"I hope--I trust, dear, you didn't feel--_repressed_?" he asked
+anxiously.  "You are so quiet and reserved and docile for a young
+girl--especially for your mother's daughter.  Your stepmother was--kind
+to you, surely?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir," she faltered, distressed at the dilemma.  Vaguely aware
+that she had an opening for her confession, she made no attempt to use
+it.  "I know I am--everything is"--she faltered.
+
+"You're just right, Elsie dear," he said kindly.  "Just be yourself.
+And if you have learned not to be spontaneous, try to forget it.  In
+any event, never repress any desire for gayety or romping or what-not
+in this house.  You don't at all need to be quiet oh your Aunt Milly's
+account.  She isn't strong and she is excitable, and yet she isn't
+somehow what is called nervous at all.  She doesn't mind noise or even
+tumult; indeed, she likes to feel that things are going on in the house
+even if she cannot share them."
+
+Even now, Elsie understood that this was quite true in regard to Mrs.
+Middleton.  There was, in spite of what the girl called her falsity,
+something generous about her.  Elsie wasn't herself any the more drawn
+to her--or any the less repelled--but now she first had a slight
+inkling of any foundation for Mr. Middleton's strange infatuation.
+There was, somehow, in the midst of all that sentimentality, some
+genuine feeling which for him transmuted the whole into pure gold.
+
+Well, for her part, she could stand it another day for the sake of
+going to the library.
+
+"What are you going to do this morning, Elsie?" Mr. Middleton inquired
+as they returned to the house after a few minutes spent in the garden.
+
+Elsie colored faintly.
+
+"Write some letters," she said.
+
+Indeed, she spent the whole morning in the attempt, though she
+accomplished nothing.  She made half a dozen beginnings of the letter
+which was to set forth the scheme Elsie Moss had concocted and she had
+entered into; but none went further than three sentences, and it began
+to seem that that expedient were the more difficult.  In any event,
+before she made a seventh trial she turned to the note that was to
+acquaint Elsie Moss with the situation.  Here, she only failed the more
+dismally.  When it was time to dress for lunch, she seemed to be forced
+to explain to Mr. Middleton just as she was leaving, and to come upon
+poor Elsie Moss quite unexpectedly.  It seemed as if it would almost
+kill her to do either.
+
+Mrs. Middleton did not appear at lunch and everything was so pleasant
+that Elsie's spirits rose until she was almost gay.  She talked more
+than she had done since she came--almost more than she had ever done
+before until she met Elsie Moss--and she was at once gratified and
+appalled to perceive that she was reminding Mr. Middleton of his
+sister.  Of course, his real niece would remind him still more, but
+Elsie knew that the wrench to his feelings before she should be
+established in the parsonage would be severe, even terrible.  If only
+Mrs. Middleton kept her room continually!  And yet, he might not like
+that.
+
+The library was only the more engaging that day.  Mattie Howe came in
+early and they went through a number of shelves in the children's
+department together in selecting her book.  Then Elsie took the little
+girl in her lap--in a curiously easy fashion--and they looked at the
+colored pictures in a large book that did not circulate until some one
+else came in and claimed the librarian's attention.
+
+A roguish-looking boy with a tousled head entered, stared at Elsie in
+amazement, and went abruptly out.  Returning a little later with
+shining face and wet, parted hair, as he asked at the desk for a book,
+he spread out a pair of very clean hands in a manner intended to be
+nonchalant.  He was ready and eager to talk and very amusing.  Before
+Elsie got through with him, she had assured him that she meant to read
+"Robinson Crusoe" within the next fortnight.
+
+Then a lad apparently of about her own age, a high-school boy, shy, but
+with very gentle manners, who started as if to retreat as he saw her,
+gathered his courage, returned his book, and stood there undecided.
+
+"Do you want another book?" Elsie asked.
+
+"Have you got anything about Edison?" he asked.  "I've got to write a
+composition about electricity, and I thought I might start with him."
+
+Elsie consulted the catalogue, but greatly to her disappointment was
+unable to find anything.  The boy had such nice manners and such
+honest, deep-set eyes that she wanted to help him.
+
+"You might start with Benjamin Franklin," she suggested, not very
+confidently.
+
+"Sure!" he returned, smiling frankly.  She got him a biography of
+Franklin, and he sat down at one of the tables with note-book and
+pencil and was soon deep in it.
+
+There were a number of references to Franklin in the catalogue, and as
+Elsie went back to it to see if she might have made a better choice,
+she saw that one referred to the proper volume of a "Dictionary of
+American Scientists."  It came to her that she might discover Edison in
+the same place.  She was pleased to find several pages of a recent
+volume of the work devoted to that inventor.  She carried it to the boy
+and pointed out the pages with a feeling of satisfaction almost like
+triumph.
+
+The afternoon flew.  She closed the library regretfully, for she never
+expected to enter it again.  For to-morrow was Saturday, and if she
+should stay beyond the afternoon, it would mean she could not get away
+until Monday.  And that she could never stand.  For she had gathered
+somehow that Mrs. Middleton made a special effort to sit up all Sunday
+except during the time her husband was at church.  If it was mostly a
+case of nerves, Miss Stewart might as well come back one day as another.
+
+But again at dinner Mrs. Middleton was absent from her place.  She sent
+a special request to Elsie to occupy it, and Elsie spent a very happy
+half-hour telling Mr. Middleton about the happenings of the afternoon,
+hearing his explanatory comment on persons and things, and serving the
+pudding.  And when he told her he had seen Miss Stewart, who thought
+she would hardly feel like coming back until Monday, and had assured
+her that his niece would be glad to take her place another day, Elsie
+was quite undisturbed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Elsie Marley was very tired as she locked the door of the library
+Saturday night and started for _home_, as she caught herself calling
+the parsonage.  She had been there the greater part of the day.  She
+had spoken to Mr. Middleton at breakfast of going over to familiarize
+herself somewhat with the encyclopaedias and reference-books, and he
+had asked her to look up certain passages and verify one or two
+quotations for him.  The latter proved a more difficult task for the
+girl than the clergyman would have dreamed; but she was very happy in
+doing it, gratified, too, to realize that her handwriting was very
+clear as well as pretty.  And the single cause of her dismay when he
+thanked and praised her and referred to her mother--or his sister--was
+that she should not be on hand to help him another Saturday.
+
+The afternoon had been a very busy one, every one in town, seemingly,
+old, young, and middle-aged, desiring a book for Sunday.  A goodly
+number of girls of near her age came in, sweet-faced girls who, though
+they couldn't compare with Elsie Moss (who was, however, in a class by
+herself), seemed more attractive than those she had seen at home.  The
+tall boy who was interested in electricity came again and greeted her
+shyly, though rather as if they were old friends.  Later, older girls
+and young men who worked in Boston during the week dropped into the
+library to inquire for the latest novel or to spend part of their
+half-holiday looking over the picture papers and magazines.  All were
+extremely cordial and friendly.  Without actually overhearing anything,
+Elsie, who wasn't at all quick in regard to matters of that sort,
+understood, somehow, that there was more or less comparison between
+herself and the regular librarian, which was not altogether
+complimentary to Miss Stewart.
+
+As she went up the walk shortly after six o'clock, the girl saw some
+one gazing out of the window of the room she had first entered four
+days ago, and recalled her first view, which seemed now far back in the
+past.  There was no one there when she went in, however, and as she
+realized that the place had not been touched since her arrival,
+suddenly the glow of satisfaction that had cloaked her weariness
+changed to wrath.  She flew to her room for refuge.
+
+And now real wrath descended upon her.  For she found it as she had
+left it that morning.  The bed was not made; her nightgown was on the
+floor, and the clothes she had worn yesterday scattered about on the
+chairs.  Her brown eyes looked darker and there was a hint of color in
+her cheeks as she ran down to the kitchen and confronted Kate amid the
+chaos and confusion of her own domain.
+
+"Katy, my bed hasn't been made, nor my room done to-day," she cried.
+
+"Bless my soul, I clean forgot it," said Kate in real consternation.
+"I'll go right up this very minute as soon as I've cast my eyes on the
+oven, though, to tell you the truth, my feet ache like the toothache."
+
+Elsie's feet ached, too, for the first time in her life.  Wherefore she
+partly understood.  Her indignation died out.
+
+"Oh, don't bother then, Katy," she said kindly, "I can sleep on the
+couch to-night.  And to-morrow, perhaps, you'll do it early before your
+feet get tired?"
+
+Kate insisted upon going.  "No, you don't sleep on no sofy; not while I
+can crawl about," she declared, and Elsie followed her up-stairs.
+
+Watching her from her chair by the window, the girl saw that she looked
+tired, indeed.
+
+"I could have slept on the couch, Katy," she protested.
+
+Kate looked at her--frowned--then smiled.
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, a body'd know you lost your mother young.  Now if I'd
+'a' forgot your uncle's bed, he'd 'a' made it hisself and said nothing.
+There's many young ladies as makes their own beds, and does all but the
+heavy sweepin'.  I don't suppose you ever did such a thing in your
+life?"
+
+Elsie confessed that she hadn't.  She didn't say that it seemed a
+burden to turn down the covers.  Again Kate frowned and smiled.
+Clearly Miss Moss wasn't one to take a hint.
+
+"How would you like to _learn_?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh, I never thought," said Elsie.  "Why, yes, of course, if you'll
+teach me some time, I'll do it every day after I get so that I can."
+
+For the moment she had forgotten her stay was to be so limited.
+
+"Bless you, you'll learn in no time; it's nothing to do," Kate assured
+her beamingly.  "Come here, right now."
+
+Somewhat taken aback, Elsie complied.  She was surprised to find that
+it wasn't difficult nor even unpleasant.
+
+"You see, Miss Elsie, I can't never go about my work and finish one
+thing before I take up another," Kate explained.  "I'm up and down
+these stairs, up and down, up and down, from mornin' till night,
+a-waitin' on the missus.  When it ain't eggnog, it's beef-tea or gruel,
+and then again it'll be frosted cake, icing that thick, upon my word
+and honor!  And once she gets hold of me, I have to stay and tell her
+all the news I get from the grocer and the butcher's boy, and who goes
+by and what they has on.  Not that I don't admire bein' sociable, and I
+can't help havin' a motherly feelin' for one old enough to be my
+mother; but I don't get no chance to redd up nowhere except the
+dinin'-room and his study.  And then you know, I ain't no general
+housework girl, anyways, I've always cooked before; but here I have to
+do everything, besides waitin' on a woman as isn't any sicker than what
+I be.  If you knew the money she spends on choc'late creams and
+headache powders and the trashy novels she reads, you'd wonder she
+ain't even yellower than what she is."
+
+The next morning Elsie set about trying to do her own room.  Before she
+had reached the point of attacking the bed, she had decided that she
+could save herself a great deal of work by putting things away when she
+took them off or used them, instead of dropping them, as she had always
+done, for some one else to pick up.  Kate came in and insisted upon
+helping with the bed.
+
+"But, Katy, don't you want to get ready for church?" Elsie suddenly
+thought to inquire.
+
+"I went to early mass this mornin', miss.  I declare to goodness, I'm
+that shabby that I don't like to appear out in broad daylight."
+
+"Why, Katy, what do you do with all your money?  Do you have parents to
+support?"
+
+"No'm, I'm an orphan.  But I don't have any ready money, and I don't
+like to take what little I have out of the savings-bank.  I ain't been
+paid my wages sence Christmas."
+
+Elsie was aghast.  "But why don't you ask for them?" she cried.
+
+"I do.  And she keeps a-promisin', but money slips right through her
+fingers.  I don't like to go to himself about it, because I hate to
+upset him, and then she's good to me, and I know them headache powders
+makes her forgetful.  I don't know where the money goes: she has a
+fistful the first of every month, but she owes bills to everybody in
+town except the undertaker.  What I'm afraid of is as some of 'em'll go
+to himself.  The ice man is gettin' as sassy as he can live."
+
+Elsie was shocked beyond expression.  The situation would have seemed
+inconceivable except that anything was conceivable in connection with
+Mrs. Middleton.  The girl had almost forgotten that she was departing
+shortly, but realizing it, she was the more relieved.  Only it would be
+all the harder for Elsie Moss.
+
+Still, even so, she found she couldn't dismiss the matter thus.
+Somehow her heart went out to that careless, slipshod, kindly, Irish
+Kate.  Before she went to church, she slipped into the kitchen and
+insisted upon her accepting fifteen dollars to get herself some clothes
+before the next Sunday.  And when Kate flatly refused to take the
+money, she developed a curious resourcefulness.  She declared that
+unless she took it, she should go to her uncle and ask him to inquire
+into the question of her unpaid wages.  And Kate succumbed.
+
+After service, Elsie sat down to write to Elsie Moss.  She didn't say
+anything she had meant to say.  She knew she ought at least to give her
+some intimation of the situation, lest the other should be wholly
+unprepared and enter perhaps upon some course that must be rudely
+interrupted by the end of another week.  But she wasn't clever enough
+for that.
+
+She spoke of the place and the people and how much she liked them.  She
+told of the three afternoons in the library, and remembering how the
+other had taken to the children on the train, tried, in her stiff,
+constrained way, to describe little Mattie Howe, who minded the baby
+all his waking hours and read a Prudy book a day.
+
+She couldn't even mention Mrs. Middleton.  She spoke freely of Elsie's
+uncle--almost enthusiastically, indeed--told how he had asked if she
+had toothache, and signed herself, rather abruptly, "Your loving
+friend, Elsie M----."
+
+The following morning she found a letter on her plate.  She had gone by
+the name of Moss nearly a week, yet it gave her a start to see the
+address and to break open the envelope.
+
+It was a bright, amusing letter, as informal as her own had been stiff.
+Elsie Moss found Cousin Julia no end jolly, a perfect brick.  The
+boarding-house was the most interesting place she had ever known, and
+the people just right; and though New York was stifling she loved it,
+and wasn't the least in a hurry to get to the shore.  She expected very
+soon to confide her ambition to Miss Pritchard--honestly, she was so
+dear and splendid, that it was the greatest wonder that she hadn't told
+her she wanted to be an actress before they left the Grand Central
+Station. . . .
+
+"I'm simply perishing to hear from you, Elsie-Honey," the letter
+concluded.  "Uncle's a darling saint, I know, but you must tell me
+about Aunt Milly so I can describe her to my stepmother.  I sort of
+glossed her over in this letter I enclose for you to forward so that it
+will have the Enderby postmark.  I came out strong on Uncle John and
+the station at Boston, however.  And tell me about the servants.  I
+know there's a servants' hall like in English books, so I suppose they
+have a lot.  If there's a butler, I almost envy you, for that would be
+good practice for me, because most plays have a butler and a French
+maid.  I shall probably be French-maided to the limit if I ever get a
+start, though I'd rather be a slavey or a chimney-sweep!
+
+"Do you leave your shoes outside the door at night?  I should never
+remember.  The first day I was here I made my own bed!  The chambermaid
+nearly fell over.
+
+"Do tell me a lot to write to auntie (that's my stepmother); I have
+always told her everything I'm thinking about, and now it will be
+rather difficult for I only think now about the stage and Cousin Julia
+and you, Elsie-Honey.  I hope you think of me?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I think I can come earlier to-morrow afternoon and stay
+longer," said little Mattie Howe eagerly.  "It's been such a good week
+for drying clothes that mother's way ahead on her work, and she'll mind
+the baby herself.  Charles Augustus is going to take back the last load
+this afternoon with his cart."
+
+"That's nice for you, Mattie, but I shan't be here.  Miss Stewart's
+coming back to-morrow," replied Elsie.
+
+The child's bright, thin little face clouded.
+
+"Oh, dear, oh, dear, these changes are most too much for me, I
+declare!" she cried.  "I mean changes-_back_ is.  The change that
+brought you here, Miss Moss, was just sweet.  Only I wish it had turned
+into a _stay_."
+
+Elsie drew the little thing close to her.  At the moment she herself
+almost wished it had been a _stay_.
+
+"I wonder if that's my _hard_," prattled the child.  "Mother says
+everybody, even rich people, have hard things to bear.  Do you bleeve
+so, Miss Moss?"
+
+Elsie looked startled.
+
+"Why, Mattie, I hardly know," she faltered.  "Ye-es, I suppose every
+one does, really."
+
+"Even you, Miss Moss?"
+
+Elsie couldn't answer.  On a sudden that first day she and Elsie Moss
+had been together came back to her.  She recalled Elsie's fresh grief
+for the death of her mother and her own sense of remissness, and the
+class motto that signified through hardships to the stars.  Since she
+had been at Enderby, things had been disagreeable enough almost to make
+up for her former immunity.  And yet, she hadn't been here ten days,
+and she didn't really have to endure it.  Furthermore, she was to
+escape from it very shortly.
+
+"No, Mattie, I don't believe I have had so much that is hard as most
+people have," she owned.
+
+"You are like the princess, you see," murmured the child.  "But I
+s'pose you feel awfully sorry about your auntie being so poorly?  When
+mother was sick once I felt as bad _here_ as if I had the stomachache
+hard."
+
+Elsie evaded the issue by hoping politely that the little girl's mother
+was quite well now.
+
+"Oh, yes, Miss Moss, and does four peopleses' washings besides our
+own," Mattie declared.  "Father works steady most of the time, but
+there's five of us, counting the baby, and--sometimes he gets drunk.
+Not so very often, he doesn't, but nobody can ever tell when he will
+and when he won't, so mother has to help out.  Well, I must go now.
+When will I see you?"
+
+Elsie didn't know what to say.  Miss Stewart's return had been delayed
+from day to day and she had postponed making her decision as to her
+course until that matter was settled.  Only to-day had she learned that
+the librarian would resume her work to-morrow, Saturday, and she
+expected to give up her evening to forming her own plans.  Until this
+moment, she hadn't thought of Mattie as a complication.  It didn't seem
+possible that one could become so attached to a child of ten years
+in--it wasn't yet ten days--that one not only hated to leave her, but
+even felt remiss, almost conscience-stricken, in so doing.
+
+"Won't you come to see us, mother and me and the baby--you'll just love
+him, Miss Moss, he can pat-a-cake and by-by and almost talk and lots
+else, too.  Won't you please come?" the child begged.
+
+Even with her arm about the child's shoulders, the incongruity of
+calling upon a woman who took in washing came to Elsie Marley--likewise
+the fact that she wasn't likely to be in Enderby beyond Monday at the
+latest.  But she surprised herself and delighted Mattie by suddenly
+agreeing to come the next day.
+
+When she spoke of it to Mr. Middleton that night at dinner, expecting
+him to be surprised and, perhaps, to protest, she found him interested
+and eager.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, that's capital!" he exclaimed.  "She's the nicest sort of
+woman, Mrs. Howe is.  She's hardly more than a girl in spite of that
+little brood of five.  She gets out very little, and if you would go
+around once in a while it would mean a lot to her.  Besides, I'm sure
+you'll enjoy her."
+
+As Elsie sat in her room by the window that evening, she wondered
+whether one visit from a person one is never to see again would mean
+anything to Mattie's mother?  Well, for that matter, whether it would
+or not, she had promised to make it and must keep her word.  And she
+mustn't allow her thoughts to be diverted by that.
+
+For the opportunity she had sought to complete her plans was hers.  Mr.
+Middleton had gone out to attend a committee meeting directly after
+dinner.  Mrs. Middleton she hadn't seen all day.  The matter of the
+library had settled itself, and her way was clear.
+
+But somehow her thoughts didn't proceed as she had expected them to do.
+She had rather looked for marshalled ranks of reasons standing at
+either hand--those saying _go_, of course, largely predominating--which
+she would only have to review.  Instead her mind wandered, roving back
+to the conversation with Mattie, and the little girl's quoting her
+mother that every one has a hard to bear.
+
+Was it really true?  She supposed it must be.  Mr. Middleton, despite
+his serenity, looked as if he had undergone all sorts of things.  So
+had Elsie Moss.  Even poor old Kate had had her share.  On the other
+hand, there was Mrs. Middleton, there was Elsie's own grandmother and
+her mother.  And there was Elsie herself.  She had never had anything
+hard in her life until within a fortnight.
+
+How curious it was that Mattie should have put her finger upon Mrs.
+Middleton as being her particular difficulty, mistaken though her sense
+of the situation was.  Mrs. Middleton was truly the only _hard_ Elsie
+had ever known.  Undergoing a certain amount of her society and
+submitting to her caresses, sometimes once a day, often less
+frequently, was the only ordeal she had ever undergone.  And severe
+though it was, there were wide spaces between, and those spaces were
+the happiest moments she had ever known.
+
+Now she was planning to throw away all the happiness, the delight,
+because of the discomfort.  It came to her rather vaguely that perhaps
+that was the way with people who seemed never to have had hardships.
+They evaded them somehow.  And she wondered if some one else had to
+shoulder them as so much extra burden?  It almost seemed so.
+
+And yet, why should she remain and endure that dreadful Mrs. Middleton?
+What good would it do?  Mightn't it, on the contrary, do real harm?
+The girl couldn't imagine it as being any easier as the days went by,
+but in case it should, what would it mean but that she herself was
+becoming coarse--even vulgar?
+
+In a sense, there wasn't any one now to care whether she was coarse or
+not.  Elsie Moss might, and Mr. Middleton.  He liked her as she was.
+He wouldn't like her to be different.  And yet, he not only endured
+Mrs. Middleton but actually cared for her, and he was as refined as any
+one she had ever known, besides being so much more interesting than any
+one except Elsie Moss.  Possibly he would rather have her altered
+somewhat than have the shock of learning the truth of the matter, and
+of having a reluctant, and perhaps unwilling, Elsie Moss in the house.
+
+Elsie Moss, too, liked her as she was.  She had called her a princess.
+Surely she wouldn't endure any change.  And yet again--what if enduring
+Mrs. Middleton would mean actually doing something for the other Elsie?
+What if not enduring her--flying from difficulty--would mean
+disappointment--breaking her ardent heart?
+
+The clock struck nine, and immediately she heard Mr. Middleton enter
+the house.  He called to her and Elsie went down.
+
+He wanted to tell her of a plan they had been discussing at the meeting
+in regard to a course of lectures for the coming winter.  All
+eagerness, he reviewed the whole situation for her benefit, then went
+on to tell her of the lectures they had had in other years, and to
+compare those in prospect.  Elsie, who was already learning to talk, to
+express some of the interest she felt, enjoyed it the more that she was
+able to respond in a measure--quite enough to satisfy him completely.
+
+When she went to her room again, it was only to postpone the decision.
+To-morrow she would go to see Mattie Howe without knowing whether it
+was a farewell call or not.  The next day, Sunday, she would decide.
+She promised herself solemnly that she would do so.  She would shut
+herself up in her room directly after dinner, and would not emerge
+until she had made up her mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Had Elsie Marley been possessed of more imagination, or had she been
+accustomed to use what she had, she might have been better prepared to
+meet little Mattie's mother.  The child was unusual and showed the
+influence of careful upbringing.  Further, Mr. Middleton had spoken of
+her as looking like a girl and as worth seeking out; and already Elsie
+had had a chance to discern that, broad and tolerant as he was, he saw
+things as they were (except in the case of his wife), never misstated
+and rarely overstated.  For all that, she set out on Saturday afternoon
+prepared to meet the typical washerwoman of fiction--worn, bedraggled,
+shapeless, and forlorn.  She was prepared to go into a steaming kitchen
+with puddles on the floor and dirty children all about, and have this
+red-faced personage take a scarlet hand out of the tub, dry it on a
+dirty apron, and hold it out to her.  And for her part she was prepared
+to take it, damp or clammy as it might be, without a squirm.
+
+Wherefore, when Mattie ushered her proudly into a pretty, tidy
+living-room with a square piano in the corner, and she saw a tall,
+slender person with a plain, sweet, girlish face advancing to meet her,
+in spite of her resemblance to Mattie, Elsie had no idea who she might
+be.  She had a confused sense of some neighbor having been brought in
+to receive her, and a vague idea of asking to be taken into the kitchen.
+
+"Oh, mother, here's Miss Moss!" cried Mattie, then dropped her hand and
+exclaiming, "My goodness, there's that baby already!" fled into the
+entry.
+
+"I'm so pleased to see you, Miss Moss," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "Sit
+there by the window where you get a view of the hill.  It's more than
+good of you to come.  I hope Mattie didn't tease you too much?"
+
+"No, indeed, she asked me very prettily," said Elsie.  "She's a sweet
+child."
+
+"She's good as gold," said her mother.  "And she's perfectly wild about
+you.  She calls you the Princess Moss-rose and makes up stories about
+you after she goes to bed."
+
+Elsie smiled and colored.
+
+"Don't tell her I told you," warned Mrs. Howe, "she'll be right back.
+She had the baby's clean dress ready to pop over his head the moment he
+woke up."
+
+Elsie looked up quickly as if she were about to speak.  But though she
+said nothing, Mrs. Howe seemed to reply.
+
+"She takes most all the care of him when she isn't in school," she
+admitted.  "Some people think she's too young and that it's too hard
+for her.  But I hardly think so.  She's naturally thin, just as I am,
+but she's never sick, and she likes it, though, of course, like any
+child, she'd like more time to herself.  But she's a born mother.  And
+she really seems to make better use of her spare time than most of the
+little girls she plays with.  And though I suppose I ought not to say
+it, she and Charles Augustus are ever so much better-behaved and
+better-mannered than most children who have nothing to do but play--and
+sometimes it seems they're happier.  You see I taught school three
+years up in the State of Maine, which is my home, and I understand
+children pretty well, by and large."
+
+Mattie came in at that moment with the baby, a fair, rosy, fat little
+fellow in a starched white dress and petticoats.  She put him through
+all his tricks to please the visitor, and then asked Elsie if she
+wished to hold him.  Elsie accepted the honor, though she felt rather
+apprehensive.  It wasn't bad, however; indeed, the confidence with
+which the baby nestled into the arms that didn't know how to enfold him
+was rather sweet to the girl.  And when he made a sudden dash for the
+pink rose in her leghorn hat, she didn't mind it at all.
+
+Watchful little Mattie minded, however, and took him away quickly lest
+he injure any of the princess's royal finery.  Then the mother took him
+from her, that the little girl might have the major part of Miss Moss's
+attention.  For the same reason she forbore to call in the other two
+children, little girls of five and seven, who were playing with dolls
+in the yard.
+
+But when Charles Augustus came home, his mother proudly summoned him
+into the parlor.  Elsie had seen him at the library--a solemn, big-eyed
+little fellow with a prominent forehead and spectacles.
+
+When he had shaken hands, his mother told Elsie how much she relied
+upon his help.  He fetched and carried all the clothes she laundered,
+and had recently made a new body for his old cart which would carry a
+good-sized clothes-basket.
+
+"I don't see how you do it--other people's washing," said Elsie
+suddenly.
+
+"I couldn't if Mattie and Charles Augustus didn't help me so much,"
+replied Mrs. Howe.
+
+The girl glanced about the pretty room, at the attractive mother in her
+neat, faded muslin gown, at the thoughtful children, and the rosy baby.
+How dreadful it seemed to wash soiled clothing for four strange
+families!
+
+"Don't you hate it?" she asked with a directness rare to her.
+
+"Oh, no," said Mrs. Howe quietly.  "I love to iron, especially pretty
+things, and I don't mind washing, now that I've got set tubs.  You
+wouldn't believe, would you, that your uncle is responsible for my
+having them?  He thought of it himself.  The first I knew of it was
+that the men came to put them in.  Isn't that just like him?"
+
+Elsie agreed.
+
+"But don't you get awfully tired?" she demanded.
+
+"Well, yes, Miss Moss, I do.  But so does almost every mother of a
+little family.  You come to take it for granted, you know.  A mother
+rather sinks her life in that of her children, and--after all, she
+doesn't lose half so much as she gains.  And getting tired--why, I know
+just from what Mattie has told me about the way you do at the library
+that you understand the satisfaction of doing for others, and that
+getting tired's a part of it."
+
+
+Reaching the parsonage, Elsie didn't go in, but sat on a bench in the
+garden for an hour, not thinking, hardly musing, but in a sort of spell
+as it were.  As she rose at the stroke of six, she was saying to
+herself: "I never knew life was like that!"  And she repeated it as she
+entered the house.
+
+On the hall-table was a letter from the Elsie in New York.  Taking it
+to her room, she perused it eagerly.  One paragraph she read over
+twice, and yet twice again at bedtime.
+
+"Oh, Elsie-Honey," the passage ran, "I was so relieved and thankful to
+get your letter and feel convinced that you like Uncle John and Aunt
+Milly just as well as I do Cousin Julia--though I don't see how you
+can--quite.  It came to me the night before I got your letter--suppose
+you should want to swap back?  The cold shivers chased one another up
+and down my spine and nearly splintered it.  Of course, I should have
+done it without a word, but oh, Elsie-Honey, I don't mind telling you
+now that it would have broken my heart for sure.  For I'm simply mad
+about Cousin Julia--so dotty over her that I believe if she'd told me I
+couldn't on any account study for the stage, I should have kissed her
+hand like a meek lamb.  Instead of which she knows and approves--that
+is, she is willing.  Only an angel from heaven would really
+approve--and I suppose he (or she) wouldn't.  At any rate, my present
+job is trying to keep from bursting with happiness."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"Elsie, I rather want to hear that Elsie-Marley-Honey-thing again,"
+remarked Miss Pritchard.  "Would you mind doing it now?"
+
+The two sat alone on the veranda of the hotel at an hour when other
+guests were resting after the midday meal.  Before them, beyond a
+stretch of mosslike lawn and a broad sandy beach, rolled the sea,
+brilliantly blue, with the waves curling dazzlingly white.  Miss
+Pritchard, comfortably dressed in a plain pongee-silk suit with a long
+jacket, was ensconced on a willow settee with some recent English
+reviews.  Elsie, perched on the railing, her back against a pillar,
+gazed at the far-away sky-line.  She wore a pale-pink linen frock.  Her
+small face with its dark eyes and big dimples, her bobbed hair, and her
+exceeding slenderness of form gave her such an appearance of
+youthfulness that she seemed a very tall child, rather than the small
+girl she was.
+
+"I like your manner of speaking of my specialty, Cousin Julia," she
+remarked.  "Pray tell me why you want to hear it again, if you have
+such scant respect for it?"
+
+Miss Pritchard smiled.  "If you must know, child, I want to listen more
+critically this time.  I'm quite sure I must have praised it far above
+its deserts.  And now that I understand the situation I ought to be a
+better judge."
+
+Despite her lightness of tone, Miss Pritchard was really desirous of
+applying the test.  Less than a fortnight after the girl's arrival, she
+had learned of Elsie's desire to be an actress.  The knowledge came
+like a blow, it must be confessed.  Broad as she was, she couldn't help
+regretting that the girl's desires--and apparently her talent--seemed
+to lie in the direction of the stage.  Though she had declared she had
+no patience with Pritchard notions and pretensions, she couldn't help
+feeling that it was hardly decorous for the last of the Pritchards to
+become an actress.  Moreover, she feared that Elsie's capability did
+not point to what is called the legitimate drama; it looked from the
+first as if she would make straight for vaudeville and, perhaps, never
+go further.  After her training she might fill a soubrette's part
+acceptably for a few years, but Miss Pritchard sighed when she tried to
+look beyond that.  To her it seemed like a limited outlook with a
+closed door blocking the way at a point long before the age when one's
+career should have reached the apex.
+
+But Elsie's heart was set on it, and Miss Pritchard, despite her
+misgivings, was full of sympathy and entered cordially into plans and
+ways and means.  Her newspaper work had given her friends among
+critics, managers, and various theatrical people, and she helped Elsie
+select a school wherein to begin her studies.  That accomplished, Elsie
+reluctantly agreed to accompany Miss Pritchard to the shore to spend
+her six weeks' vacation.
+
+"What I cannot understand," said Miss Pritchard at this time, repeating
+very much what she had said before, "is, how you ever did it--how you
+could possibly get any such idea into your head with your bringing-up.
+For the life of me, I can't imagine your family countenancing any such
+thing!"
+
+"They didn't take to the idea with any enthusiasm," Elsie replied truly.
+
+"You certainly are the strangest Pritchard ever.  You're less Pritchard
+than I, and that's saying a great deal," said Miss Pritchard with a
+sigh.  "Dear me, when I was at Aunt Ellen's when you were a baby, they
+were so worried for fear you should have any Marley traits whatever, so
+anxious for you to be all Pritchard!"
+
+"Are you siding with them now?" the girl asked soberly.  "Are you
+disappointed in me, Cousin Julia?"
+
+"Bless your heart, dear, I'm so satisfied that I'm frightened, and I
+think I'll throw my precious ruby ring into the sea.  I wish I could
+say that I'd like you to be just so far Pritchard as not to have any
+desire for the stage; but I somehow don't dare even say that.  You see,
+I couldn't risk losing any particle of Marley other than the
+stage-madness."
+
+Elsie came to her side and kissed her warmly.
+
+"Then suppose we chuck the Pritchards for good," she proposed.
+
+Miss Pritchard fairly gasped.  Such temerity took her breath.  But she
+didn't give expression to her amazement.  Already she had come to the
+conclusion that Elsie had not been happy at home; she who was so frank
+in all else was so brief and guarded in all her references to the
+family or her home life.  Now it seemed as if she must have been
+exceedingly unhappy, to be ready to renounce the Pritchards in that
+wholesale way.  And yet, how could any girl whose life had not been
+happy--nay, brimming with sunshine--be so gay and blithe and girlish
+and care-free as she?  Could the reaction from strict repression
+possibly have that effect?  Could the opportunity to realize her
+ambition work such a miracle?  Miss Pritchard shook her head.  It was
+beyond her, she confessed.
+
+"Now you're down, you may as well do your stunt and have it over,
+Elsie," she remarked.  And Elsie, standing back a little, repeated the
+performance in a manner that was only the more captivating.
+
+Then, resuming her seat on the railing, she looked eagerly toward Miss
+Pritchard.  The face of the latter was a study.  With every line, every
+word, indeed, of the simple song, the actress in the girl had come out
+strongly.  Admiration of the grace and skill and charm of it all, and
+wonder at the extraordinary sweetness of the girl's voice, mingled with
+regret at the significance of it.
+
+"Do you know what you look like, Cousin Julia?" Elsie asked.
+
+"No, my saucy Marley, I do not."
+
+"Like 'Heaven only knows'"--the girl heaved a tremendous
+sigh--"'whatever will become of the naughty Brier-Rose.'"
+
+"My dear, if you exhibit that sort of keenness," said Miss Pritchard,
+laughing, "I'll make a newspaper reporter of you, willy-nilly.  Then
+you'll be sorry for poking fun at your elderly relative."
+
+"It's only that I'm so used to discouragement from my elders and
+betters that I'm familiar with the signs," returned Elsie.  "Like as
+not, if any one were to say, 'Hooray!  Bully for you!  Go in and win!'
+I shouldn't understand.  I should think they were kidding me."
+
+"Poor child!" laughed Miss Pritchard, but she was really secretly
+touched.
+
+At this moment an artist Miss Pritchard had known for years, who always
+spent his summers at this hotel, appeared before them.  A man between
+fifty and sixty, it was said of him that he had never succeeded;
+younger, struggling artists said it was because of his handicap of a
+fortune.
+
+"Oh, Miss Marley, I wish I could persuade you to sing that again," he
+said.  "I caught a bit and a glimpse at a distance--just enough to
+tantalize me."
+
+Elsie, who admired Mr. Graham immensely, was seized with sudden
+diffidence.  He was a connoisseur in all matters of art.  Suppose he
+should say right before Miss Pritchard, that she was only a silly
+tomboy, or whatever such a gentleman would say to express that idea?
+She glanced irresolutely at Miss Pritchard.
+
+"Go ahead, dear," said Miss Pritchard cheerfully, and turning to her
+friend: "My little cousin thought I was scolding her, Mr. Graham.  The
+truth is, I'm the one who should be scolded.  I chose the work I cared
+for at about Elsie's age and went in for it; and yet when she chooses
+hers, which happens to be the stage, I act the hen-with-the-duckling."
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, you're the only one that has ever let me even speak
+of it!" cried Elsie.  Tears suddenly filled her eyes, and smiling
+through them, she stepped back and began the song.  And this time she
+put in all the _frills_, as she expressed it.  She danced and acted and
+sang, and, as always, she was quite irresistible.  The artist was
+charmed.
+
+"It's good enough for the vaudeville stage just as it is," he declared.
+"There's only one fault."
+
+"Oh, what is that?" the girl cried eagerly, with the artist's desire
+for criticism, even though destructive.
+
+"Your voice is too good--altogether too good.  You could do it as well
+and perhaps better with a voice far inferior to yours in range,
+sweetness, and tone."
+
+The girl gazed at him reproachfully.  She had always had that to
+contend with.  People had always tried to "buy her off," as she
+expressed it, by proposing that she become a singer instead of an
+actress.  Now, as always, she rebelled at the idea, and again her
+vision of a public singer came to her--a very stout blonde lady in a
+very low-cut gown with a very small waist (the picture had not adapted
+itself to more modern fashions), placing a fat, squat hand on her
+capacious bosom, and uttering meaningless syllables that rose to
+shrieks.  Anything but that, she said to herself!
+
+Mr. Graham had fallen into a reverie.  His hand shaded his brow.  He
+frowned as he endeavored to recollect something.
+
+"Just where did you get hold of that song?" he inquired.
+
+"My mother used to sing it," replied Elsie, and Miss Pritchard
+wondered.  So far as she had known, none of the Pritchards had sung,
+and it was difficult to fancy Elsie's mother warbling a ditty of that
+sort.  The birth of her child must have altered Augusta greatly.
+
+"It's an old nursery rhyme, I believe," the artist went on, still half
+in his perplexity.  "Isn't it singular about the name--or perhaps you
+were named for it?"
+
+"I was named _after_ it," responded Elsie demurely.
+
+He smiled, but he was only half attending.  He was reaching for
+something in the depths of his mind which he did not find, and
+presently he sauntered on with bent head.  Miss Pritchard took up the
+_Spectator_, and Elsie produced the "First Violin," and presently was
+lost in that.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The next day as the artist met Elsie on the beach on her way to the
+bath-house, his face lighted up.
+
+"Oh, Miss Marley, it all came back to me, after twenty years," he
+exclaimed.  "Something about you has haunted my memory ever since I
+first saw you last week, and the song yesterday made it more definite
+and more perplexing.  I woke in the night and it all came back.  I
+heard that very same song on the train going South as a young
+man--comparatively young, though you wouldn't call it so.  Do you want
+to sit down a moment and let me tell you?
+
+"I haven't even thought of it for a dozen years," he said when they had
+found a convenient bench.  "As I said, we were bound southward, and it
+was toward night.  The seat in front of me was occupied by an
+exceedingly pretty young lady and a gentleman who must have been her
+brother or her husband--girls married younger in those days--for their
+name, which escapes me, was the same.  Farther ahead, on the opposite
+side of the car, was a woman with an infant in her arms and a boy baby
+of under two years at her side.  As it grew late, the older baby grew
+tired and cross.  He wanted his mother, was jealous of the tiny one,
+and finally he just howled.  The young lady before me said a word to
+her companion and went directly over.
+
+"That kid, Miss Marley, was dirty and sticky beyond words, and she was
+the daintiest, freshest, sweetest girl imaginable.  But she smiled and
+held out her arms and he just tumbled into them.  She hugged the little
+beggar close, never minding her pretty gown, and brought him back to
+her seat.  She seemed to know just what to do--took off his shoes,
+loosened the neck of his dress and all that, then cuddled him down and
+sang to him until he went to sleep and after.  Her voice was as sweet
+as yours, and she sang the very same thing, 'And Do You Ken Elsie
+Marley'--I think she sang it twice or thrice."
+
+Perhaps it was Elsie's fondness for children; perhaps it was because he
+told the story so well; in any event, the girl was touched.  And as
+usual, to cover her feeling, she tried to smile, her dimples rather at
+variance with the tears in her eyes.
+
+He gazed at her curiously.  "Wait, Miss Marley, that isn't all," he
+exclaimed.  "As I recalled the young lady, I saw her face only dimly.
+Now do you know it suddenly comes to me that she had the largest,
+deepest dimples I had ever seen, one in either cheek.  And I remember
+vowing then and there, in my youthful enthusiasm, that if ever I
+attempted to paint Madonna she should have just such dimples; they
+struck me as somehow significant, perhaps symbolic."
+
+Elsie's heart was beating wildly.
+
+"I wonder--could that have been your mother, Miss Marley?"
+
+The girl could not speak for the tumult within her.
+
+"It seems as if their name began with M, though it couldn't have been
+Marley, else I should have noticed on account of the song," he went on
+kindly, realizing her emotion.  "May I ask what was your mother's
+maiden name, Miss Marley?"
+
+Quite upset, Elsie started to tell the truth; said Mi--and stopped
+short.
+
+"Middleton!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
+
+"Pritchard," she said as quickly as she could get it out.
+
+"_Pritchard?_" he repeated as if he must have heard wrong.
+
+"Augusta Pritchard," the girl reiterated, her heart like a stone.
+
+The artist was puzzled.  But realizing that the loss of her mother
+might have been so recent as to be still a painful subject, he
+tactfully spoke of other things, cloaking his disappointment at not
+being able to work out his problem to final solution.  He feared lest
+he might somehow have blundered upon some sad family secret.  Even with
+twenty years between them, he couldn't believe that his senses had so
+deceived him, couldn't but feel that that young girl had been connected
+with this girl of the big dimples.  And he couldn't but believe that
+the girl knew it.  Only there was something that prevented her
+acknowledging it.  It might be tragedy; perhaps it was disgrace?
+Though, somehow, he couldn't think it.  Poor little thing!  He let her
+go on her way to her bath.
+
+But Elsie returned to the hotel and went straight to her room.  She
+knew she would be undisturbed there, for Miss Pritchard had gone
+driving with old friends while she was to have had her swim.  The girl
+flung herself upon her bed and, burying her face in her pillow, shed
+the bitterest tears of her life.
+
+She had denied her mother--that darling, adorable mother who had taken
+the sticky baby to her heart, and sung "Elsie Marley" to him, just as
+she had later sung it to her own little girl.  She had cast off her
+mother and taken on--_Augusta Pritchard_!  What a name to exchange for
+Elizabeth Middleton!  For even though the former were the mother of the
+lovely Elsie Marley who had gone to Enderby, she couldn't be compared
+with her beautiful mother.  And, of course, her denial was far worse in
+that she was dead.
+
+How proud, how happy, how humble, she should have been to say: "Why, of
+course, that was my mother!  I knew it without the dimples!"  What a
+wretch she must be!  To have had such a mother as to have so impressed
+a chance stranger that he should wish to paint the Madonna in her
+likeness, and should have remembered her twenty years, and to have
+repudiated her utterly!
+
+She felt that she could not bear it, could not endure such a weight on
+her heart.  But what could she do?  Say to Mr. Graham that it _was_ her
+mother and her name _was_ Middleton?  Then she would have to tell
+Cousin Julia everything, and she would send her away, send her off to
+poke and fret in Enderby, and serve tea in a conventional parsonage
+drawing-room.  And she would never be an actress, and the true Elsie
+Marley would be dragged on to New York.
+
+It would be hard on Elsie-Honey, for already she seemed just to love
+that poky parsonage, and was apparently quite as attached to Uncle John
+as she herself was to Cousin Julia.  And even Cousin Julia--already
+Elsie couldn't but realize that Cousin Julia had given her her whole
+heart; she wouldn't have liked the other girl so well in the first
+place, and now any such overturn would--it would just break her heart!
+
+No, that couldn't be.  After all, she couldn't have done otherwise.
+She _had_ to say what she did on account of the game.  Being cast for a
+part, she had to play it, even though it might be disagreeable at
+times.  And it _wasn't_ worse because her mother was dead; being in
+heaven, her mother would understand and condone.  How did that hymn go?
+
+She sat erect and sang, very sweetly, the stanza that applied:
+
+  "There is no place where earth's sorrows
+    Are so felt as up in heaven,
+  There is no place where earth's failings
+    Have such kindly judgment given."
+
+
+That comforted her strangely.  "Uncle John couldn't have administered
+first aid himself more successfully," she said to herself humorously as
+she dried her eyes.
+
+She bathed her face and, standing before the mirror, addressed the
+charming reflection in the pink frock.  She mustn't expect plain
+sailing all the time she warned her.  She must expect to be _up against
+it_ frequently.  She must keep her class motto in mind and not expect
+everything to be dead easy.  It was hard not to be able to claim one's
+beautiful mother; but she was playing a part; she was on the stage in
+costume, and the part-she-was-playing's mother's name wasn't Middleton
+nor Moss and was Augusta Pritchard.  She must keep her motto in mind
+and say continually to herself: "Act well your part, there all the
+honor lies."
+
+That very evening at dinner some one asked her where she got her
+dimples--whether they were inherited?
+
+"Or, perhaps, Miss Marley's a freak like the white peacock at the
+gardens?" broke in a callow youth whom Elsie disliked.
+
+"From my mother," she said quickly, and Miss Pritchard, sensitive to
+the least sound of hurt in Elsie's voice, introduced another subject.
+
+Nevertheless, she wondered.  She hadn't seen Augusta Pritchard since
+the latter was a girl of nineteen, but she couldn't recollect that she
+had any dimples or shadows of dimples.  She couldn't even imagine the
+combination of dimples with her white, cold, rather expressionless
+face, nor reconcile them with the true Pritchard temperament.  It
+seemed inconceivable that Elsie could have inherited them except
+through the Marleys; and yet, of course, Elsie remembered her mother
+who had died only three years ago.
+
+She had to consider that the girl didn't like that fresh Jerrold boy
+and had been nettled by his remark.  Possibly in her indignation she
+had said what first came into her mind, though it didn't seem like her.
+Miss Pritchard sighed, for she had worshipped at the shrine of truth
+all her life, and strive as she would, she couldn't but feel a
+deviation from Elsie's wonted frankness here.
+
+She pondered much upon the subject and later in the summer--on the
+evening preceding their return to New York, it was--as they were
+talking about Elsie's studying, Miss Pritchard suddenly became serious.
+
+"Elsie, there's something I want to say to you as an older woman to a
+young girl," she began.  "You will have one difficulty to contend with
+that I had in newspaper work, only in your case the temptation will be
+greater, and your task correspondingly harder.  There's a poem of a
+child-actor of Queen Elizabeth's time, little Salathiel Pavy, who
+constantly played the part of an old man.  The verses relate that he
+acted the part so naturally that the fates mistook him for an old man
+and cut off his thread of life in his tender years.  Now you, Elsie
+dear, concerned with make-believe--fiction--as you will constantly be
+in your study for the stage, eager, of course, to use every moment and
+occasion, with one subject dominating your thoughts, will need to be
+very, very careful with regard to your separate, personal life.  In
+other words, in good old-fashioned terms, you'll have to guard your
+soul.  Keep that good and pure and true.  Keep that sacred, above and
+apart from your work, and then whether you are ever a great actress or
+not, you will be a good woman."
+
+And then half shyly, but beautifully, she repeated Matthew Arnold's
+"Palladium":
+
+  "Set where the upper streams of Simois flow,
+  Was the Palladium, high 'mid rock and wood;
+  And Hector was in Ilium far below,
+  And fought and saw it not, but there it stood.
+
+  It stood and sun and moonshine rained their light
+  On the pure columns of its glen-built hall.
+  Backward and forward rolled the waves of fight
+  Round Troy; but while this stood, Troy could not fall.
+
+  So in its lovely moonlight lives the soul.
+  Mountains surround it and sweet virgin air;
+  Cold plashing, past it, crystal waters roll:
+  We visit it by moments, ah, too rare!
+
+  Men will renew the battle on the plain
+  To-morrow; red with blood will Xanthus be;
+  Hector and Ajax will be there again,
+  Helen will come upon the wall to see.
+
+  Then we shall rust in shade or shine in strife,
+  And fluctuate 'twixt blind hopes and blind despairs,
+  And fancy that we put forth all our life,
+  And never know how with the soul it fares.
+
+  Still doth the soul from its lone fastness high,
+  Upon our life a ruling effluence send:
+  And when it fails, fight as we will, we die;
+  And, while it lasts, we cannot wholly end."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"I suppose," observed the real Elsie Marley thoughtfully, drawing one
+of her long curls over her shoulder, "that if I'm going to be at the
+library regularly, I'd better put up my hair?"
+
+She addressed Mr. Middleton, but his wife, who had of late fallen into
+the habit of sitting downstairs in the evening, replied.  She had
+conceived a strong fancy to the girl, who secretly shrank from her, and
+bore herself toward her in a cold and distant manner.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, love, it would be sweet to do it sort of _Grecian_," she
+cried in her sentimental fashion, "with a classic knot at the nape of
+your neck, and little curls hanging down behind your ears."
+
+"Let her leave it as it is a little longer, Milly," her husband
+pleaded, "for it's just as her mother wore hers."
+
+This was not the fact, even though Elsie had been truly his niece.  His
+sister had worn her hair in curls, but they had been many and riotous,
+and caught at the top of her head with a ribbon; while Elsie's two were
+fastened at her neck by a neat clasp, and hung as demurely as a braid
+would have done.
+
+"Of course," assented Mrs. Middleton.  "Elsie's the picture of her
+mother, I suppose?"
+
+"She reminds me of her mother more and more every day," he said, "but
+she doesn't look like her at all.  You remember I told you that
+Elizabeth had enormous dimples?  They were so large that I'm not sure
+that they wouldn't have disfigured another face; but they added the
+last touch to hers--made it irresistible."
+
+He gazed at the fire.  It was late September and a chill rain beat
+against the windows.
+
+"I suppose if Elizabeth had had a son, _he_ would have inherited the
+dimples," he remarked.  "I believe they say girls take traits from
+their fathers and sons from the mother.  Curious, isn't it?"
+
+"Well, my dear, if Elsie had had dimples when she came, she would have
+lost them ere this," said Mrs. Middleton with unusual energy.  "She's
+been put right into a treadmill, Jack.  Only sixteen, sweet sixteen,
+and she hasn't had any of the gayety a young girl wants and needs, but
+has just slaved from morning until night ever since she came to us.  At
+her age, she ought to be going to dances and lying late in the morning
+to make up sleep, and shopping and having beaux and all that sort of
+thing, just as her Aunt Milly did."
+
+She sighed deeply, clasping her ringed hands.  Elsie was indignant,
+even angry; but before she could protest, Mrs. Middleton went on.
+
+"Instead of which, she started work at the library the first thing and
+has been off and on ever since, and is now going to do it permanently,
+besides teaching a class in the Sunday-school, looking after the
+choir-boys, running errands for you, and what not."
+
+"My dear Milly!" cried her husband, really distressed; and went on to
+explain that when they decided to open the library in the evening as
+well as the afternoon, some one had to relieve Miss Stewart for two of
+the afternoon hours, and every one had clamored for Elsie.
+
+"And I love to do it," added Elsie, "and I'm so pleased that I am to
+have the hours when the children are out of school."
+
+"Of course," agreed Mrs. Middleton, smiling; "dear lambs!  I should
+have felt just the same.  Indeed, you're so like I was at your age,
+Elsie, dearest, that I feel as if it were to _me_ that you are really
+related."
+
+Elsie murmured a silent word of deprecation, forgetting, as she often
+did, that she wasn't related to Mr. Middleton, either.
+
+The rain beat furiously.  The minister rose and put another stick on
+the fire.  He did not return to his seat but stood with his elbow on
+the mantel gazing at his wife.  Though thin, John Middleton looked
+strong and well, in part, perhaps, because of his florid complexion,
+partly because of his serenity.  But in moments of stress he had a way
+of seeming to grow worn and older under one's very eyes.
+
+He felt the cogency of his wife's words.  He had, indeed, he said to
+himself, taken possession of his sister's orphan child immediately upon
+her arrival, and had made a sort of drudge of her: he kept her
+constantly occupied, performing miscellaneous services for him--he
+wasn't sure that he could have demanded so much of a paid secretary.
+And she, like her mother, unselfish and devoted, had made no complaint.
+
+He spoke before Elsie, who was slow of speech and was regretting that
+she didn't share the real Elsie Moss's gift of expression, was able to
+put her feeling into words that would convince him.
+
+"No wonder you felt like putting up your curls and saying farewell to
+youth, Elsie," he said whimsically yet ruefully.  "Your aunt is just
+right, dear, and we'll make a change at once.  What should you say to
+going on to New York to make your little actress friend a visit, and
+then starting anew after you come back?"
+
+Now the color flew to Elsie's cheeks and words came.
+
+"Oh, Uncle John, I wouldn't go now for the world!" she cried in genuine
+dismay.  "I'm just longing to go to the library every day--I think it's
+just--splendid!  And I like it all--everything--so very much.  It isn't
+the least a treadmill, and I'm so happy doing it.  Please, please,
+don't take anything away; only give me more."
+
+He felt the sincerity of her words, and again said to himself that the
+girl was her mother over again.  His wife went over to Elsie, and
+stroking back her hair, kissed her brow fondly.  And the color died out
+of the girl's cheeks and the glow from her heart as she shuddered
+within herself.  And presently when Mr. Middleton went to his study to
+work, she bade Mrs. Middleton a cool good night and fled to her room.
+
+She sat by the window some time, then went to bed; but though the sound
+of the rain was soothing, she could not get to sleep.  It came to her
+that it was very thoughtful of Uncle John to wish to send her to visit
+Elsie; and how she would have liked to go if it didn't entail leaving
+the library and all the fascinating round of her daily life, and
+leaving him to his wife's cold comfort.  How she would like to see
+Elsie Moss at this moment, to confide her troubles and her happiness to
+that sympathetic ear.  If they could talk together, she could make the
+other understand that even with Mrs. Middleton as a drawback, she was
+more content, happier, than she had ever been before.  And she couldn't
+help feeling that she was useful, too, in a measure--that she would be
+missed if she were to go to New York.
+
+Still she could not sleep, and presently she found herself puzzling
+over a problem that had been growing upon her and now bulked big.  The
+truth was that already the weight of the top-heavy household had fallen
+upon the girl's shoulders.  Utterly unprepared and ignorant, she had
+been thrust into a tangled labyrinth of domestic affairs.  The more
+familiar she had become with the internal working of the household, the
+more was she baffled and daunted.  And presently it seemed to her
+youthful inexperience as if it stood upon the brink of ruin.
+
+Though the minister was unaware that the bills were not paid promptly
+at the beginning of each month, Mrs. Middleton owed practically every
+establishment in the place accounts that dated far back.  At this time
+the small sums she could pay on account when her funds came in were
+insufficient to satisfy any one, and one and another began to threaten
+Kate with going to Mr. Middleton and demanding a settlement.  They
+declared it wasn't respectable for him to be giving away so much money
+when he owed probably more than a year's salary.
+
+Kate's only recourse was to her mistress, who would be temporarily
+depressed, now and then to the point of tears.  But shortly she either
+forgot all about it or postponed consideration until another month; and
+meantime she never parted with her last penny: she always kept enough
+on hand for an ample supply of novels, chocolate drops, and
+headache-powders, the latter being especially expensive, according to
+Kate.
+
+Ignorant as Elsie was, it did not take her long to understand that the
+household was managed--or allowed to run on--with the utmost
+extravagance and waste.  She had prevailed upon Kate to set the greater
+part of the big house in order and to keep it tidy, and she tried to
+induce her to be less wasteful and reckless.  But the girl was
+developing a certain sense of justice, and she rather doubted her right
+to insist.  Devoted as Kate was to Mr. Middleton, and attached, in an
+apologetic, shame-faced way, to her mistress, overworked and unpaid,
+save for the sums Elsie forced upon her, how could she demand that Kate
+be more scrupulous about details?  It would seem that she had all she
+could carry without that.
+
+The girl fell asleep at last, and woke next morning with the pleasant
+reflection that she was to begin to-day at the library as a regular
+salaried assistant.  Second thought was still more cheering.  As soon
+as the minister was out of the house, and she heard Kate go down-stairs
+from Mrs. Middleton's room, she betook herself to the disorderly
+kitchen.  At her entrance Kate rose suddenly and went and peered
+anxiously into the oven--which was empty.  Elsie would have liked to
+tell her that she didn't begrudge her those stolen moments for resting
+her tired feet, but she hadn't yet learned to express her new
+sensations.  It was sufficiently difficult to explain her errand.
+
+"Katy, here are your wages for last week," she said rather brusquely,
+trying to press the money into her hands.  "Mrs. Middleton will--I hope
+she'll pay you in full very soon, but at any rate she--that is, you're
+going to get your wages regularly every week, and I'm going to see to
+it so that it shan't be neglected.  And always come to me if there's
+anything to ask.  Please don't go to her unless about the back pay."
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, you're so good!" cried Kate warmly, believing she had
+arranged it with Mr. Middleton.  "I'm sorry I complained.  You must 'a'
+known I didn't mean half what I said.  I wouldn't really 'a' gone to
+himself about it.  But honest, I ain't got a whole pair o' stockin's,
+and can't wear them pumps I got last summer on account o' the holes,
+and her a-growin' yellower every day and a-layin' round and eatin'
+chocolate drops and headache-powders that cost good money and ain't no
+benefit."
+
+She stuffed the money into a drawer of the table with a miscellaneous
+assortment of less valuable things.  While Elsie was wondering if she
+could speak about the condition of the kitchen, which Elsie Moss would
+have pronounced unspeakable, Kate drew near to her with real appeal in
+her blue eyes.
+
+"And, Miss Elsie, I wish you hadn't let what I've confided to you sort
+o' set you against your aunt.  Everybody has their failin's, they do
+say, and after all if she don't do worse than eat choc'late-creams and
+munch headache-tablets, why, she's pretty harmless as ladies go.  Mis'
+Jonathan Metcalf as goes to his church is just as yellow and I don't
+know but what yellower, and bedizened as well, and a regular shrew in
+her own house."
+
+"Katy, I don't know what you mean," Elsie returned with dignity.
+
+"Well, you call her Mis' Middleton, when you speak of her, with your
+voice like a buzz-saw, and it ain't because you're high and mighty with
+me, 'cause you ain't.  You're like a sister to me, and I ain't once
+thought of up and leavin' sence you come as I did frequent before.  And
+besides, when you talk of himself, you always say Uncle John.  And
+she's good at heart, Miss Elsie; honest, she is.  She'd be just as good
+as himself if she knew as much.  Her heart's in the right place, and
+she takes to you and don't mistrust you don't to her."
+
+"Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding' up your kitchen,
+as you call it," said Elsie, rather neatly as she believed.
+
+[Illustration: "Well, I mustn't stay here and keep you from 'redding'
+up your kitchen, as you call it."]
+
+"Oh, there's plenty of time for that," Kate assured her cheerfully; "if
+not to-day, why there's another comin'."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+The kitchen wasn't _redd up_ that day nor the next.  It remained,
+indeed, a sight to make a good housekeeper weep, and closets,
+cupboards, clothes-presses, and the celebrated servants' parlor
+remained untidy conglomerations of rubbish; but the general appearance
+of the place continued to improve.  Kate's gratitude for the regular
+receipt of her wages was continual and practical.  A chance visitor now
+could enter any room in the front of the house at any hour, and there
+was much comment among the people upon the change.
+
+It was generally agreed that Elsie Moss must have been very carefully
+trained by her stepmother to bring about such a marvel.  And presently
+some of the creditors of the household began to wonder if her influence
+couldn't be extended.  One and another began to drop hints to Elsie
+which became so broad that even one quite unaccustomed to any such
+thing could not fail to understand.  The butcher's wife, the grocer's
+sister, and the draper's head bookkeeper had all but informed her in so
+many words that unless their respective relatives or patrons were paid
+in full by the 1st of November, they would present their bills to Mr.
+Middleton, if they had to do so in the vestibule of the church.
+
+And they were only three out of a number that seemed legion.  Others
+spoke more plainly to Kate, and Elsie began to dread seeing certain
+people enter the library during her hours there.  The days being
+shorter, the Howe baby went to bed at five o'clock, and little Mattie,
+who had taken a violent fancy to Elsie, used to run to the library the
+moment he was off her hands, remaining until six to walk home with her.
+And Elsie, who was devoted to the child and never tired of her company,
+was also relieved because her presence protected her from any but
+veiled hints.
+
+The situation wore upon her, and finally she decided to have a frank
+talk with Mrs. Middleton.  She wasn't, it is true, on terms of
+frankness with her, and in a sense it wasn't her place to interfere.
+But she knew that Mrs. Middleton wouldn't want the bills presented to
+her husband any more than Kate did--nor, indeed, than Elsie herself.
+Not that she would have cared, except for Mr. Middleton's sake.  It
+would serve Mrs. Middleton right to be brought up short, but she
+dreaded the thought of his being so distressed; she didn't want him to
+give up the few little comforts he allowed himself, and she knew it
+would hurt him cruelly to have to retrench in his giving.
+
+She wrote to Mr. Bliss, her lawyer, asking him to send her five hundred
+dollars, mailing the letter to the other Elsie to be forwarded from New
+York.  That seemed to her inexperience a large sum and able to work
+wonders.  But before her letter had reached New York she began to feel
+as if it wouldn't be sufficient to make everything straight for a new
+start; and before there was time for an answer from San Francisco, she
+was sadly convinced that it would be only a drop in the bucket.
+Whereupon she decided that if Mr. Bliss sent it to her without comment,
+and didn't evidently consider it a very large sum, she would ask him to
+duplicate it.
+
+With a certain relief, she put off the frank talk with Mrs. Middleton
+until she should have received the money.  It did not arrive so soon as
+she expected it, and she was still waiting when Kate came to her in
+excitement one morning saying that the iceman wouldn't leave any ice
+unless he were paid cash.  Elsie produced her portemonnaie.
+
+"Oh, Miss Elsie, I hate to take your money," protested Kate with tears
+in her eyes.  "I wouldn't 'a' come to you only I'm strapped myself,
+what with buyin' the hat with all them plumes, and the missus after
+borrowin' my last five-dollar bill."
+
+"Katy Flanagan, what made you let her have it?" cried the girl almost
+fiercely.
+
+"Well, Miss Elsie, the truth is, I couldn't resist her.  There's
+something about her, you know--a-askin' so airy like, and forgettin'
+how--goodness, the man'll clear out with his ice if I don't fly."
+
+Thereafter, Elsie paid also for the ice and the milk, leaving, out of
+her allowance and the money she received for the library work, barely
+enough for postage.  But she didn't mind that; it was really a slight
+sacrifice.  She cared so much for the work at the library that she
+would have paid for the privilege of doing it; and she had come so well
+provided with all the accessories of clothing that she hadn't even to
+buy gloves for another year.
+
+Looking forward, she began to speculate on the possibility of starting
+anew after finances were once straightened out.  It appeared doubtful,
+she being herself more ignorant than Kate, but presently a happy
+suggestion presents itself to her.  One afternoon she asked Mrs. King,
+a kind, motherly, grey-haired lady who taught domestic science at the
+high school and came to the library frequently, whether there were any
+book to teach one how much to spend each week on different articles for
+a household.
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, I'm so glad you spoke, for I've been wanting to tell
+you about our seniors in domestic science this year at the high school.
+I think I have the nicest class I've ever had.  We meet three times a
+week at eleven o'clock, and I have wondered if you might not like to
+join?  Knowing that your aunt is an invalid, I thought you might want
+to take the care off her shoulders, and I feel sure our course would
+help you.  You know all the girls, I think, and I should be more than
+pleased to help you make up what they have been over already."
+
+Elsie could scarcely express her delight.  She spoke to Mr. Middleton
+that evening.  He had no idea of her ultimate purpose; indeed, he did
+not realize the confusion in which he lived, and was rather amused at
+the idea, but considered it an excellent method of getting better
+acquainted with the young people, and was pleased at her eagerness.
+
+She entered the class at once, found the study delightful and very
+helpful, and the days fairly flew by.  She was, after all, only
+sixteen, and extraordinarily immature in many ways; and it was not
+perhaps remarkable that after a few lessons, with extra help from Mrs.
+King, she began to feel quite capable of shouldering the housekeeping
+at the parsonage.  But the more ready she felt, the less did she desire
+to propose it to Mrs. Middleton.
+
+Such a step was not made easier by the fact that the latter took a keen
+interest in her lessons at the school.  She endeavored, not always
+successfully, to draw the girl out upon the subject, questioning her
+with some felicity, praising her ambition, and taking it for granted
+that she was an unusual pupil and a great addition to the class.  And
+she constantly bemoaned the fact that it had been necessary for Elsie
+to go outside for the instruction that she would herself have delighted
+to give her, had her strength permitted.  Nothing could have gratified
+her more, she declared, clasping her hands and raising her eyes to the
+ceiling, but she didn't even dare allow herself to dwell upon it.  For
+she had just enough strength to manage her own household (as every lady
+should do), and she hadn't the moral right to use it for other purposes.
+
+Meantime, three weeks had passed since Elsie had written to ask her
+lawyer for the five hundred dollars, and she began to feel troubled.
+Of course, she had to allow for letter and answer going through Elsie
+Moss's hands, but three weeks should have covered that.  She watched
+the mails anxiously.  As she returned from the library on the
+twenty-fourth day since she had sent her request, she decided that
+unless she should hear that night, she would have Elsie Moss telegraph
+from New York.  For the end of October approached, and she felt she
+couldn't face the crisis of the 1st of November, without the aid and
+the moral support of the money.
+
+She was surprised to see the doctor's motor-car standing at the door,
+and startled when Kate, wild-eyed and dishevelled, met her at the
+threshold.
+
+"Uncle John?  Has anything happened?" she faltered.
+
+"No, it ain't him.  He's in the city, pore lamb, and it's myself is
+thankful you'll be here to tell him.  It's her.  Riggs was here
+a-dunnin' me for his money soon after you left, and nothin' would do
+but that I should go up to her whiles he waits in the kitchen.  And a
+lucky thing it was, too, for there he was to go for the doctor--we both
+forgot clean about the telephone."
+
+"But what is it?" cried Elsie.
+
+"I found her on the floor like a log, Miss Elsie.  She ain't dead at
+all, but she ain't come to, and maybe won't from taking of too many of
+them headache-powders as I knew was no good but didn't think no harm
+of."
+
+On a sudden, without warning, Kate dropped her head upon Elsie's
+shoulder and began to sob wildly.
+
+"Oh, Katy, don't," begged Elsie, truly distressed.  "You and I must
+keep up for the sake of----"
+
+"Of himself, miss, I know," sobbed Kate, "but, oh, I feel as if it was
+my own mother--or my own baby, I don't know which."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Elsie Moss's school was quite unlike her expectations, and her
+companions not at all like those of her eager dreams.  Just as at art
+school one begins, she knew, with the study and copying of the antique,
+so the girl had supposed that in studying for the stage, one would
+approach it through the masterpieces of the drama.  On the contrary,
+she didn't so much as hear the name of Shakespeare or of any other dead
+or classic dramatist during the first two months; and though she had to
+work as hard as she had expected to do, it sometimes seemed as if it
+were practice that didn't really count.  The drill seemed to be all in
+the way of suppleness of limb and facility of facial expression without
+intellectual stimulus; indeed, it almost seemed as if the whole
+tendency of the school was rather narcotic than stimulating.
+
+Further, the girls with whom she came in contact shared her ideals as
+little as their pasts had anything in common with hers.  Many of them
+were not older in years, but one and all were incomparably older in
+other ways and painfully sophisticated.  Pretty in a coarse way,
+painted and powdered, bold and often vulgar, they were almost without
+exception girls whose whole lives had been spent in the atmosphere of
+the stage, and that in its cheaper and poorer aspects.  One or both
+parents, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle had figured in shows or
+exhibitions of some sort, and they had fallen into the profession in
+that manner.  None had, like Elsie, chosen it as a calling.
+
+Disappointed as she was, disheartened utterly at moments, the girl
+hugged her class motto to her breast and struggled on.  So deep was her
+purpose, so strong her interest, that she not only pressed doggedly on,
+but forced a certain amount of satisfaction out of the struggle.  How
+it might have been had she not possessed in Miss Pritchard a solace and
+refuge, it would be difficult to say.  Elsie herself hardly knew how
+much courage and strength she gained during the evenings and other
+fragments of time spent with her.  Looking forward to that
+companionship gave her patience to endure many a difficult hour which
+perchance she had not endured otherwise.  But with that always before
+her, despite the hardships that were so different from those for which
+she had been prepared, she was nevertheless wonderfully happy--perhaps,
+happier than she had ever been before.
+
+Sometimes, when the day had been unusually trying, she would greet Miss
+Pritchard at night with a warmth that almost frightened the latter,
+clinging to her as if she would never let her go.  But she never
+confessed any of her troubles connected with the school.  She talked
+much of it, but it was always of the most interesting occurrences and
+of amusing incidents.  For her heart was in the matter as much as ever,
+and Miss Pritchard wasn't so favorably inclined toward it as to make it
+prudent to let her know of the disadvantages.
+
+But it was terribly hard for one of her nature to have no one in whom
+to confide, and she longed for Elsie Marley.  If she could have talked
+things over with Elsie Marley it would have made it easier.  Simply to
+unburden her heart would mean much.  Ever since she had been in New
+York she had longed to see Elsie again; and with this added reason, and
+a desire to learn more of her life in Enderby than she could gather
+from her stiff and rather non-committal letters, she began to feel,
+about the time that she forwarded a letter to Elsie's lawyer in San
+Francisco, that she must induce her to come to New York for a visit.
+
+A letter from her stepmother seemed to render it almost imperative.
+Mrs. Moss, who was devoted to Elsie and missed her sadly, was greatly
+troubled by the irregularity of the girl's letters and hurt by their
+want of frankness.  Knowing that John Middleton had not approved of
+Elsie's father marrying her, she began to fear lest he be trying to
+turn his niece against her.  Now she had written to protest against the
+perfunctory letters, which, instead of allowing her to share in any way
+in Elsie's life, shut her out.
+
+Elsie was deeply moved and full of compunction.  She loved her
+stepmother dearly and thought of her constantly, faithful soul that she
+really was.  She was always wondering how _auntie_ would take this or
+view that; but the very topics she was moved to enlarge upon in her
+letters were those which circumstances forbade her to mention.  All her
+interests were connected with Miss Pritchard, of whose very existence
+Mrs. Moss was unaware, with the school, and less directly with Elsie
+Marley, whose name she was masquerading under.  Leaving all these out
+of consideration, and depending almost wholly upon the fragments she
+received concerning life in the parsonage at Enderby, a brief letter
+once in three or four weeks was the utmost the girl could compass.
+
+Immediately upon receipt of her stepmother's letter, she determined to
+ask Miss Pritchard if she might invite her friend Elsie Moss to come on
+for a week or a fortnight.  As she waited for Miss Pritchard to come
+from the office that night, however, it suddenly occurred to her to
+wonder if it would be quite safe.  Despite her enthusiastic admiration
+of Elsie Marley, which had not in the least abated, and despite the
+unfavorable impression she had of the Pritchards, which only deepened
+as the days passed, she had come to feel that in personal appearance
+and somewhat in manner her friend must resemble her kinsfolk.
+
+In which case it would be as dangerous for the well-being of the one as
+of the other for her to be brought in contact with Miss Pritchard.
+For, stiff as were her letters and non-committal, Elsie knew that there
+was little difference in the strength of attachment that held the wrong
+Elsie to the place she had usurped in either instance.  Whatever she
+might do, therefore, she mustn't bungle or err in that respect.
+
+The Pritchard estate was not yet settled.  The house had been sold and
+such personal effects and heirlooms as were to be kept for Elsie Marley
+put in storage for the time in San Francisco.  Elsie Moss understood
+this, and knew that Miss Pritchard did so; but she felt that the latter
+wondered that she had no relics or keepsakes with her.  She had had to
+confess one day that she had no photographs of her family she would be
+willing to show, leaving Miss Pritchard to make such inference as she
+would.
+
+That evening at the dinner-table--she felt it would be easier to
+approach the matter in semi-public--Elsie asked her if she happened to
+have any old Pritchard photographs.
+
+"Yes, dear, I have an old album in the chest by the window that has
+pictures of Aunt Ellen, Cousin Ellen, and Cousin Augusta.  There are
+half a dozen, I think, of Cousin Ellen, and three or four of your
+mother, but no baby picture of you, nor any other, if that's what
+you're looking for.  After my father died we began to lose connection
+with one another, and after that visit I made when you were a baby, all
+communication ceased.  So I got no photographs after that."
+
+"No, I wasn't thinking of my kid pictures, Cousin Julia.  I was
+just--wondering," the girl returned.  "Would it be an awful bother to
+get out the album?"
+
+"No bother at all, child.  To tell the truth, I love to get it out, for
+there are a lot of other pictures besides the Pritchards that I like to
+look over.  There's a picture of my Cousin Arthur Moore, who fell in
+the battle of Lookout Mountain, that I'd like you to see."
+
+When the old-fashioned, velvet-bound, nickel-clasped book was produced,
+Elsie almost forgot her immediate purpose in her interest in the
+likenesses.  But one of Ellen Pritchard at fourteen, Miss Pritchard's
+cousin and supposedly _her_ aunt, brought her up sharply.  For Elsie
+Marley was the very image of it.  Rearrange her hair, put her into the
+beruffled skirt and polonaise, and she might have sat for it.  Or part
+this girl's hair and gather it loosely back, dress her in a tailored
+suit and correct blouse, and she would be Elsie Marley.  What a
+frightful thing this family resemblance was!  Elsie stifled a sigh.
+Her cake was dough, sure enough!
+
+Partly to ease her dismay and postpone considering her problem until
+she should be alone, the girl gave herself up to the study of the other
+pictures.  It wasn't difficult to lose herself, for she found them of
+absorbing interest.
+
+Among the Pritchards, Elsie's grandmother was the most striking
+personage.  The strength and sagacity of her handsome face, which the
+expression of pride could not conceal, related her to Miss Pritchard
+unmistakably.  Pride, mingled with frailty and general lack of other
+expression, characterized the invalid daughter; and pride that was
+arrogance, the bored face of Augusta Pritchard, who was supposed to be
+her mother.
+
+It was late when the girl finally closed the album.
+
+"Many thanks, Cousin Julia," she murmured rather absently, a far-away
+look in her dark eyes.
+
+After a little she rose and began to wander about the room.
+
+"Cousin Julia," she said presently, "I can't help wondering--honestly,
+don't you ever wish I looked more--I mean that I looked any like them?
+They're mighty aristocratic-looking guys after all."
+
+"My dear, when you talk like that you know as well as I that you're
+fishing," insisted Miss Pritchard.  "I have told you that I'm too
+well-satisfied.  I have to watch out for flaws."
+
+"Well, don't you ever think, anyhow, that such _whopping_ dimples
+are--almost vulgar?"
+
+"I adore them," responded Miss Pritchard calmly.  "But anyhow, you
+know, they are supposed to be Pritchard.  Didn't you tell that
+what's-his-name boy you got them from your mother?"
+
+Elsie colored.
+
+"I loathed that gump," she said.
+
+Miss Pritchard did not press the matter, though she wished very much
+Elsie had explained or made other amends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, how perfectly gorgeous!" cried Elsie, "but oh, I
+don't need it, and--oh, please take it back.  You just shower things on
+me, and I feel so wicked to have you spend so much on me."
+
+"Elsie, child, don't you understand yet how happy I am to have you to
+spend it on?" returned Miss Pritchard.
+
+It was quite true that the latter was constantly bestowing not only
+small, but rich and costly gifts upon the girl who had come to live
+with her and for whom she had come to live.  In this instance it was an
+opera-cloak of rose-colored broadcloth, wadded, and lined with white
+brocaded satin, soft and light and warm.  The two went often to the
+theatre, and it would be useful, though Miss Pritchard herself had
+never owned such a garment, and it was certainly rather elegant for a
+girl of sixteen.
+
+"Now, Elsie," Miss Pritchard went on, "I want to ask you something--I
+have more money than I know what to do with.  Whom should I spend it on
+if not on you?"
+
+Elsie winced.  Her little face grew wistful.  "Then it's because I'm a
+Pritchard you do it?" she demanded.
+
+Miss Pritchard laughed.  "My dear, how you pin one to cold facts.  If
+you must know, then, it's because you aren't a Pritchard.  It's because
+you're yourself, through and through, and haven't a trace nor a look of
+the Pritchards that I love you so and long to have you happy here with
+me, who am not a Pritchard either.  No doubt your family rubbed that
+fact in sufficiently, so you didn't expect me to be.  To tell the
+truth, I could never abide the Pritchards.  I was such a misfit when I
+visited Aunt Ellen's years ago, that I rather dreaded your coming,
+though I did feel that being so young you might not be inveterate, and
+that we might manage to hit it off, as they say."
+
+Immensely cheered, Elsie kissed her warmly.  Miss Pritchard threw the
+cloak over her shoulders, produced a rosy silk scarf to tie over her
+bobbed hair, and they were off.
+
+The conversation came back to Miss Pritchard next day as she sat at her
+desk near a great window whence the streets below were like canyons.
+
+"Dear me, how little Elsie must have had in her life to be so absurdly
+grateful as she is," she said to herself.  "And what a life those women
+must have led her to make her so ready to refuse what meant so much to
+her if it came to her as to a Pritchard."
+
+Which suddenly reminded her of the Pritchard family lawyer and a letter
+she had found on her plate that morning with the name of the firm Bliss
+& Waterman on the envelope.  Not caring to open it before Elsie, she
+had brought it to the office.
+
+Breaking the seal, she was amazed to learn that the lawyer wished to
+consult her in regard to a request for five hundred dollars Elsie
+Marley had recently made.  He would not, of course, hand over a
+comparatively large sum like that without her guardian's sanction, and
+he felt constrained to add that certain outstanding obligations against
+the residue of the property had recently come to light which might
+curtail the income for a year.  He still felt that if Miss Pritchard
+remained willing to pay Elsie's general expenses, that the allowance
+which they had agreed upon and which he had sent regularly ought to
+cover pin-money and something more.  Elsie had made no explanations.
+Of course, if the money were for educational purposes, he would arrange
+to send it.  If Miss Pritchard would kindly make the situation clear to
+him, he would follow her instructions, but he awaited her reply before
+acting upon her ward's request.
+
+Miss Pritchard felt absolutely at sea.  She was as puzzled as she was
+troubled.  Elsie had seemed so frank and open, and, despite her
+generous nature, had seemed so frugal in her expenditure, making a
+little go much further than Miss Pritchard herself could do, that she
+couldn't imagine her demanding this sum without consulting her in
+regard to it.  She knew exactly what Elsie paid at the school--she had
+insisted upon paying her own expenses out of five hundred dollars she
+had brought with her and deposited.  She knew, too, practically every
+penny she spent in other ways, the total of which was always far below
+the amount of her allowance; she knew her associates, and could have
+accounted for every hour of her time.  She could almost believe that
+Mr. Bliss had made a blunder.
+
+After pondering upon the subject all day, she telegraphed him not to
+send the money, and decided to question Elsie that night.
+
+She had no opportunity that evening, however.  A certain Madame
+Valentini, a former prima donna who had been a famous soprano in the
+early days of "Pinafore," and who came to Miss Peacock's each year for
+opera, had arrived during the day, and she and Miss Pritchard being old
+friends, the evening was devoted to her.  Madame Valentini was
+white-haired now, and very stout, with chin upon chin; and the real
+Elsie Marley would have thought her vulgar, for she rouged her cheeks,
+laughed out heartily and frequently, and wore colors and fashions
+ill-suited to her age and size, with jewels enough for a court-ball.
+But she was full of life and spirit, warm-hearted, invariably cheerful,
+an amusing and fluent talker, and musical to the ends of her be-ringed
+fingers and the satin tips of her shoes.
+
+Like every one else at Miss Peacock's, she took to Elsie at once.  She
+understood that the girl was studying for the stage, but recognized in
+a twinkling that she had a singing voice, and finally prevailed upon
+her to try it.  She herself played the accompaniment with a skill that
+was a revelation to Elsie, who had never enjoyed singing as she enjoyed
+it that night.
+
+When she had done, the prima donna threw her arms about the girl and
+drew her to her bosom.  Elsie Marley must have shuddered, but her
+namesake, thrilled with singing to the sympathetic accompaniment,
+kissed her warmly on her unnaturally pink cheek.
+
+"Oh, my angel, what a voice, what a voice!" cried madame.  "Entrancing!
+marvellous!  It's simply perfect in tone and quality, and correct
+practice would increase its range.  And when you put on a little more
+flesh (here, even Elsie Moss groaned silently) you'll get volume, too.
+Stop everything, child, and cultivate it.  It's worth millions."
+
+Elsie flushed.  She couldn't help being pleased by the extravagant
+praise, but she couldn't bear to be advised to give up the dramatic
+stage.
+
+The older singer turned to Miss Pritchard.  "My dear Miss Pritchard,
+why do you let this charming child waste her time learning to do
+vaudeville stunts that any limber-jointed, pretty-faced chit could do,
+with a glorious voice like that?"
+
+"It seemed wonderful to me, and Charley Graham confirmed me in the
+belief," Miss Pritchard owned, "and Elsie herself confesses that people
+have always advised her to study singing rather than acting."
+
+"Only because they thought it was more respectable," protested Elsie,
+pouting.
+
+"But, foolish child, wouldn't you far and away rather be a singer--a
+famous singer?" demanded madame.  "You'd get into grand opera, you
+know.  You'd be lovely as Juliet or Butterfly even now."
+
+"I'd rather be an actress," pleaded the girl so sweetly deprecating
+that Madame Valentini hardly wondered that Julia Pritchard should give
+her her way.
+
+So long as she remained at Miss Peacock's, madame devoted much time,
+very happily, to Elsie's musical education.  She made the girl sing for
+her every day, giving her assistance that was really invaluable.  She
+took her to the opera twice a week, where she was a wonderful
+companion, calling attention to fine points that all but a connoisseur
+must have missed, and discussing all sorts of pertinent musical topics
+between the acts.  And she rejoiced with Miss Pritchard because of
+Elsie's obvious enjoyment.
+
+Meantime, Miss Pritchard found occasion to speak to Elsie on the
+subject of Mr. Bliss's letter.  She handed it to her; the girl read it
+quietly and passed it back without speaking, yet meeting her eyes
+frankly.
+
+"I confess, Elsie, I can't conceive how you should want so large a sum
+at this time," Miss Pritchard began.  "I trust you so thoroughly that I
+believe it must be for something worth while--at least you think it is,
+child.  And I feel that you so trust me that you will explain to me if
+you can.  In any event, I have decided to give it to you out of my own
+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 seemed a great pity that
+there should be any concealment between herself and the other Elsie.
+As things stood, she was sufficiently involved in concealment, to give
+it no worse name, without that.  It had been understood that she should
+read all the letters that came before sending them on to Enderby; but
+to keep one and never mention it, necessary though it was, and demanded
+by circumstances, seemed somehow almost like stealing.
+
+And the worst was that circumstances might go on making demands, and
+she might have to do yet more reprehensible things--things that weren't
+merely _almost_ like wrong-doing.  Some day she might have to lie right
+out.
+
+Well, as to that, what had it been when she said that her mother's name
+was Pritchard?  That had been acting--a part of her role.  And then, of
+course she constantly deceived Miss Pritchard, in a way, though not
+dishonestly.  That was acting, too.  She and Elsie Marley had entered
+into a contract, indeed, each to act the part of the other.  They
+weren't hurting any one: each fitted into the wrong place as she
+couldn't have into the right.  And yet in very truth it was very much
+like plain lying!
+
+Elsie Moss flinched.  Then she recollected how once at home some of the
+girls of her class at school had been discussing a subject given in the
+rhetoric they studied under "Argumentation"--"Is a lie ever
+justifiable?"  These girls of the "Per aspera ad astra" motto had
+decided the question in the affirmative.  They had agreed that lying to
+a burglar wasn't wrong--it might prevent him from robbing a widow or
+one's own mother--the same with regard to a murderer, an insane person,
+or one sick unto death.  And one and all had declared with spirit that
+if they lived in England and a hunting-party should come along with
+their cruel hounds and ask which way the fox or hare had gone, they
+would point in exactly the wrong direction.  Elsie herself had declared
+that she would have said that the little creature hadn't come this way
+at all.
+
+Not that that was exactly similar.  The girl owned that however she
+might please Miss Pritchard, and Elsie Marley might gratify Uncle John,
+in each case it was the girl herself who benefited chiefly by the
+scheme, and for whom it had been arranged and carried through.
+Pleasing Uncle John and Cousin Julia was what is called in chemistry a
+by-product.
+
+Furthermore, there was the question as to whether Cousin Julia, in any
+event, would value satisfaction secured thus by indirection?
+Absolutely straight-forward, as she was, mightn't she judge their
+action severely, label it plain deceit, and--oh, no! she couldn't
+refuse to have anything further to do with her!  It began to seem as if
+even failure in what she had always considered her life-work wouldn't
+be so terrible as that.  The girl didn't put it into so many words, but
+as the days passed she seemed to have a vague sense of another
+life-work which might consist in growing up toward Miss Pritchard's
+standards of what is fine and good and worth while.  But Elsie wouldn't
+dwell upon it, for she couldn't, of course, begin to approach any such
+goal--she couldn't even make a start--without confession.  And
+confession wouldn't mean only the loss of her chance to realize her
+ambition; it would mean the loss of Cousin Julia herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+Meantime, when the sum of money reached Enderby, Mrs. Middleton still
+lay unconscious--at death's door, it was said.  And one whispered to
+another that it was, perhaps, better so, that it would be a blessing to
+the minister if she were to be taken away.  She had been worse than a
+drag upon him all these years.  Foolish, idle, lazy, extravagant, she
+had exaggerated her physical delicacy and given herself up to indolence
+and self-indulgence, running the household into debt until it was a
+disgrace to the minister and to the church.  Mr. Middleton, dear saint,
+hadn't known order nor comfort nor companionship for years until his
+niece had come.  And when all was said, she could do better for him
+without her aunt.
+
+However that might be, the minister himself took his wife's sudden and
+terrifying illness sadly to heart.  He hung over her bed and haunted
+her room, watching and praying for the return of consciousness and
+life.  Not, perhaps, his peer in the first place, Mildred Middleton had
+not grown, had not kept pace with her husband, and she had truly of
+late fallen into deplorable habits for the head of a household.
+Nevertheless, he believed in her; loved her for her real warmth of
+heart, which her veil of sentimentality did not in any degree alter for
+him, for her optimism, her absolutely unfailing good nature, and for an
+intuitive womanliness he believed to be eminently her gift.
+
+And presently when she rallied, his heart grew light, indeed.  The
+doctor said it might be long before she would get her strength back,
+but he believed it possible that when she had regained it, she would be
+better than she had been for years.  He told the minister quietly that
+it was fortunate she had been stricken as she had.  The
+headache-powders she had been taking constantly contained a drug that
+had been slowly poisoning her.  A little longer and her heart would
+have been permanently affected.
+
+Meantime, before this, while she lay unconscious, the bills had begun
+to pour in.  Along with the domestic science, Elsie had taken up
+bookkeeping at the high school, and fortified by that knowledge and the
+possession of the five hundred dollars, she summoned her courage, went
+to Mr. Middleton and asked if she might take the accounts in hand this
+month in Aunt Milly's place.
+
+Pleased by her thoughtfulness, he proposed that they should do them
+together.  Elsie begged to be allowed to try them alone, just for once,
+but he insisted upon sharing the task, though he confessed that she
+would find him very rusty about such things, his wife having taken them
+off his hands for so many years.
+
+Elsie's heart sank.  She knew that practically every tradesman had sent
+a bill in full, and apprehended that the totals would be appalling.
+She feared, too, that it would be awkward about the five hundred
+dollars.  But there was nothing to do but to comply with his desire.
+
+At his bidding, she brought the collection into the study that evening.
+He got out a check-book and they sat down, Elsie at the desk, and he by
+the side with one of the sliding shelves drawn out.
+
+"You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though Aunt Milly will
+have none of them," he remarked, and took up the pile of envelopes.
+
+[Illustration: "You and I will do better with checks, Elsie, though
+Aunt Milly will have none of them," he remarked.]
+
+"We'll begin with the top one--Mason," he said.  "Fill in the date and
+name--James S.--and now, let's see the sum."
+
+He drew out the bill, glanced at it, then looked sharply as if it were
+hard to decipher.
+
+"A hundred and seventy-five dollars!" he exclaimed.  "Of course that
+can't be.  It should be a dollar and seventy-five cents, I suppose, and
+yet--it's quite plain--see--one hundred seventy-five and two ciphers.
+There's some mistake.  I'll just put it aside and telephone in the
+morning.  Leave that and start another, dear.  Andrew White's the
+next--no middle letter."
+
+He opened the next with the same confidence.  Eighty-six dollars was
+large for a milk bill.  He glanced at it doubtfully.  _Bill rendered_
+indicated that it wasn't all for this month.  It must have slipped by,
+somehow.  And of course Mrs. Middleton had to have egg-nog and cream
+and all that.  He bade Elsie draw the check, feeling that they must
+have paid the largest first.  But Elsie's heart sank as he took up the
+next envelope with Berry's name in the corner.  Berry was the grocer.
+
+"Four hundred ninety-two dollars!" he gasped.  "Wait, Elsie, we'll look
+them all through before we do any more.  There's something wrong.  Now
+this goes back--let me see.  Bill rendered--bill rendered--it seems to
+go back a year or more.  I wonder if perhaps your aunt has asked for
+statements for a year in order to see what her expenditures amount
+to?"--He shook his head--"No, here's a credit.  And this is plain
+enough 'Amount due November 1.'"
+
+He opened the others one by one.  None was so large as the grocery
+bill, though that of the market was above four hundred dollars, and the
+others large, the sum total being, as Elsie had foreseen, appalling.
+It did not take long to discover that Mrs. Middleton was behind in her
+accounts for a year or more.
+
+It must have been hard for her husband to understand what had become of
+the monthly household allowance she had had in cash regularly.  Credit
+was given here and there, indeed, but always in small sums.  It must,
+too, have been hard for John Middleton to face the facts, but he stood
+the test.  He looked weary and worn--he certainly grew haggard and
+seemed to grow old; but no word of impatience escaped him.  Indeed, he
+did not appear to have an impatient thought.
+
+"This has all been too much for your aunt, Elsie," he said finally.
+"She wanted to spare me, and when the task got beyond her strength she
+wouldn't give in.  She has been a greater sufferer than any of us
+dreamed.  Apparently she has had those terrible headaches almost
+constantly, hiding the pain from every one and trying to get relief by
+taking those strong tablets.  And no doubt these accounts gave her no
+end of pain and worry, and got into confusion in spite of her."
+
+He bowed his head in his hand and sat thus some little time, aware of
+Elsie's silent sympathy.  He smiled wearily when he raised it.
+
+"We'll give it over for to-night, Elsie.  I'll see what I can do
+to-morrow and then we'll tackle them again.  I think I shall be able to
+do something, but we may have to go carefully for a time."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"Kate's the most faithful soul in the world, but I doubt if she gives
+her orders carefully," he remarked.
+
+"I've started in giving them since Aunt Milly's illness," said Elsie
+shyly.  "Katy doesn't mind.  I learned how at school, and I keep them
+in a little book so as to compare them with the bills at the end of the
+month."
+
+"Elsie Moss, you are certainly a trump!" he cried.  "Do let me see your
+book, dear."
+
+She produced it and he examined the neat items with interest, praising
+her warmly and seeming greatly cheered already.  And then the girl made
+an effort and mentioned a sum of five hundred dollars which she had on
+hand and wished he would use.
+
+"My dear child!" he cried, smiling tenderly, "I wouldn't touch your
+money for the world.  The truth is, I ought to pay you a salary as
+housekeeper and pastor's assistant, though I couldn't begin to
+compensate you for the better part.  You have been like the daughter of
+the household, or such a sister as your mother was."
+
+The following day Mrs. Middleton regained consciousness, and the next
+day the minister went into Boston and made arrangements to secure the
+money to meet his obligations by reducing his life-insurance policy
+one-half and disposing of some bonds.  That evening they drew checks
+and settled everything in full.  Thereafter Elsie gave the orders,
+checked the accounts at the end of the month, and made out the checks
+for Mr. Middleton to sign.  On the whole she did remarkably well and
+reduced the general expenses considerably.  She made mistakes, but they
+were few; for her mind was of the type that takes to figures and
+details, and she was naturally methodical and accurate.  Mr. Middleton
+smiled at the neat little packets of receipted bills, docketed and
+filed, but he was extravagantly grateful to her for all that.
+
+Mrs. Middleton gained slowly.  One day, a fortnight or more after she
+was convalescent, the minister came to Elsie with a good-sized check in
+his hand made out to her.  The girl looked at him in amazement, filled
+with vague dismay.
+
+"For your winter clothes, Elsie," he explained.  "Aunt Milly reminded
+me.  In fact, she rather scolded me for not thinking of it earlier.
+And she suggests that you get one of the schoolgirls and go into Boston
+for a day's shopping on Saturday."
+
+Elsie paled--she had begun to show a pretty color of late.  This was
+her first realization of the discomfort of a false position.  Long
+since, Mr. Middleton had come to seem her real uncle, and her affection
+for him was as deep as if he had truly been; indeed, nowadays she
+seldom realized that the relationship was not real.  But to accept
+money from him--from that she shrank instinctively.  And that proved
+the difference.  For though not in the least drawn toward Cousin Julia,
+for all the other Elsie's enthusiasm, she could have accepted a larger
+sum from her without a qualm.
+
+"Oh, Uncle John, I really don't need a thing!" she cried beseechingly,
+and he had to smile.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear, I have the word of your aunt that you will need
+everything.  Kate has told her that during the summer all the fashions
+have flopped completely over, so that last year's clothes wouldn't even
+keep one warm.  Biases and bulges that formerly came at the top of the
+gown now come at the bottom; sleeves are big where they were little,
+and vice versa, and collars the same.  As for hats--there the
+transformation is so great that I pause before it."
+
+Elsie laughed.  "Well, if it's so bad as that, I'll spend my five
+hundred dollars--blow it in, as--as my friend in New York would say."
+
+"Ah, Elsie, I see through you now!" he exclaimed.  "You think I can't
+afford it, because of those big bills.  As a matter of fact, I could do
+it easily even if you weren't managing things so economically.  And,
+besides, Aunt Milly has set her heart on it.  And oh, Elsie, I'm so
+thankful to keep her with us that I should like to do something
+extraordinary, something really rash and extravagant.  Please head me
+off by letting me do this simple, natural thing which is less than
+just, and which will please Aunt Milly more than anything I could do
+for her.  Why, my dear Elsie, pray why shouldn't I do it?  Wasn't your
+mother my only sister and dearest friend?"
+
+On a sudden Elsie buried her face and wept--the only tears she had shed
+since her coming to Enderby.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+Touched and perplexed, Mr. Middleton gave over for the moment; but
+presently he had his opportunity to be extravagant.  As soon as his
+wife was able to leave her room, the doctor ordered her to pass a
+portion of every day out-of-doors.  This was partly to strengthen her
+lungs and partly for the moral effect.  Doctor Fenwick feared that if
+she should revert to the long days upon her couch or bed with the
+novels and chocolates, the headache-powders or a substitute would
+follow, soon or late, with more perilous results.  She submitted to his
+dictum with resignation, being, indeed, rather captivated by the idea.
+
+Her husband and Elsie went into Boston and selected a rich and warm fur
+coat, fur-lined gloves and overshoes, and three warm, dark-colored
+serge dresses which were a great improvement upon the wrappers.  On the
+day after she received them, Mrs. Middleton spent two hours on the
+porch with ill-concealed delight.  And, thereafter, rising and
+breakfasting with the others, she passed the whole of every forenoon
+out-of-doors, not only with beneficial results but with continued
+enjoyment.
+
+The sentimental aspect, of course, appealed to her strongly.  Sometimes
+she pleased herself by fancying that the doctor had discovered that one
+of her lungs was quite gone and the other a mere fragment, and feared
+to tell her.  On such days her voice was feeble but breathed the same
+sweet patience that her face wore.  Again, it was her heart "outwearing
+its sheath," as she put it.  Always, however, she felt herself an
+interesting and picturesque invalid, and her martyr-like expression
+scarcely disguised her enjoyment of the role.
+
+Unconsciously, her somewhat torpid mental powers quickened.  The house
+being on the main highway, there was always something to look at
+against the background of the beautiful common, and she conceived a
+vivid interest in the passing show.  An active in lieu of a passive
+mind did its part in the improvement of her health.  The tables were
+turned.  Now it was she who told Kate that the Berrys had a fine new
+motor-truck, and had apparently disposed of their dappled greys to the
+grain-man--she only wished _they_ traded with the grain-man--couldn't
+one buy oatmeal of him?  And Rachel Stewart actually had a new dress in
+which she looked very trim, though it was too long right in the back.
+Perhaps Elsie could speak to her about it at the library?  Little
+Robbie Caldwell had begun to go to school alone since the new baby had
+come.  And they had a new perambulator and had given the old one to the
+Howes, which would make it easier for little Mattie.
+
+People passing began to run up and ask the minister's wife how she did.
+She was never very well; but she was so sweetly patient and so truly
+grateful that they lingered and their visits became frequent; children
+came on Saturdays and made children's long flattering stays; and
+presently there was never a morning when she did not have some one, and
+often she was not alone at all.  And thus it came about that for the
+first time she came to know many of her husband's parishioners with
+some familiarity.
+
+More than one reversed their judgment, and almost every one revised it.
+Mrs. Middleton was sentimental--there was no gainsaying that; she was
+rather gushing.  Yet she was truly kind-hearted, generous to a fault,
+thoughtful in many ways, with really keen intuition in certain
+directions.  As people came again and again, she guessed many a hidden
+trouble or vexation, and her sympathy was warm and very grateful; while
+now and again she had a flash of inspiration that was marvellously
+helpful.
+
+No one's revision of judgment was more sweeping, perhaps, than that of
+Elsie Marley.  Somehow her former shrinking had quite disappeared
+during the long illness, and the change in Mrs. Middleton's appearance
+helped bridge the way to a better understanding.  The old wrappers and
+tea-gowns had gone to the ragman.  The new afternoon gowns Elsie had
+selected were yet prettier than the morning ones and very becoming.
+The out-of-door air had already almost made over her complexion: her
+skin looked healthy, her color was good; and with the new fashion of
+wearing her hair, she began to look attractive and almost pretty.
+
+She had not curled her hair since her illness, and now it was soft and
+smooth and seemed warmer in color.  The nurse having parted it one day
+when Mrs. Middleton was convalescent, and coiled it upon her head
+simply, had declared it made her look like a Raphael madonna.  The
+allusion was far-fetched, but it touched Mrs. Middleton's sentimental
+fancy, and she adopted that style of hair-dressing permanently.
+
+In the morning, Elsie attended to her household duties and helped the
+minister.  She fell now into the habit of spending the early part of
+the afternoon with Mrs. Middleton, going over to the library just
+before four.  Doctor Fenwick having suggested knitting as a soothing
+indoor occupation, his patient sent for an immense quantity of
+wool--enough to keep half a dozen pairs of hands busy all winter--and
+began to make red-white-and-blue afghans for the Labrador Mission.
+Whereupon Elsie proposed reading to her while she worked.  Mrs.
+Middleton was delighted, but when Elsie got "Adam Bede" from the
+shelves, she confessed that it tired her head.  "Henry Esmond" was
+likewise too heavy, and Elsie groaned inwardly, expecting to be asked
+to read some of the paper-covered novels she was addicted to.  She said
+to herself she simply couldn't: she had never in her life read any such
+trash and she would have to excuse herself.  Then, looking up,
+something made her change her mind and decide to be a martyr.  But
+before she could speak Mrs. Middleton herself had a happy inspiration.
+
+"Oh, Elsie, I know what I'd just love to hear," she cried, "and what my
+poor head could take in as it couldn't Thackeray to-day, though when
+I'm strong I dote on him--I always took naturally to the classics.  But
+now I feel like one of Miss Alcott's books.  I suppose you have read
+them over and over?" she asked rather wistfully.
+
+Elsie confessed that she had never done so, but would be glad to make
+their acquaintance.
+
+Mrs. Middleton was truly amazed--as was the minister, indeed; for his
+sister had known them almost by heart.  They had the whole set in the
+house, and Elsie began with "Little Women" that afternoon.
+
+For the first time she was reluctant to go to the library when the hour
+approached.  It was hard to stop reading.  And they laughed together in
+an easy, natural way that was quite new to their intercourse as each
+exacted a promise from the other not to look at the story again until
+they should go on with it together.
+
+They went through the whole set that winter and sighed when they had
+come to the last volume.  Perhaps no single thing had influenced Elsie
+Marley more than the reading those sweet, wholesome stories at that
+time and in that manner.  She had already changed much, and was perhaps
+just ready for the influence.  Reading them with Mrs. Middleton, she
+was drawn to her as she would never have believed it to be possible, as
+they laughed and cried together over the pranks and trials, joys and
+sorrows of those New England boys and girls of a singularly happy
+generation.  And, unawares, she was strengthened for the hour of trial
+that was to come to her as it comes to every one that tampers with the
+laws that are inherent in the structure of the universe.
+
+Meantime, circumstances were leading on toward that hour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+Late one afternoon early in December, Miss Pritchard telephoned to
+Elsie to say that she would not be home to dinner as she was going
+directly from the office to see a friend who had been taken suddenly to
+a hospital.  She was to dine in town on her way back and would be late
+home.  Mr. Graham, whom Elsie would remember, had spoken of calling in
+the evening, and Miss Pritchard asked her to explain the circumstance
+to him and keep him until her return.
+
+As she turned away from the telephone, Elsie sighed deeply.  Mr.
+Graham's name stirred up uncomfortable recollections.  In any case,
+much as she had admired and liked him, she would have dreaded meeting
+him again; and to entertain him alone for an indefinite period, with
+his undivided attention focussed upon her, seemed an ordeal not only to
+be dreaded but truly to be shunned.
+
+Suppose he should refer again to her darling mother--as he surely
+would!  Acting or no acting, the girl felt that she couldn't deny her
+again.  Should she do so, it would be like the Palladium ceasing to
+stand and Troy falling.  And yet, what was she to do?  If she didn't
+hold to her statement of the summer, wouldn't she hazard spoiling
+everything, not only for herself, but for the Elsie at Enderby?
+
+Too wretched to allow herself the comfort of the window-seat in the
+bow, Elsie dropped down on the floor before one of the long, low
+windows of the adjacent side of the room, and gazing drearily out into
+the dusky street, tried to prepare herself for an impromptu scene with
+the coming guest wherein the matter of extraordinary dimples or sticky
+babies might come up at any moment and be skilfully parried.  But
+stage-fright, confusion, and tears threatened imminently, like an ugly
+nightmare, and she said to herself there was no use, she simply dared
+not face it.
+
+The temptation came to her to avoid the whole encounter by going to bed
+at once.  She certainly felt queer--almost faint; and when she should
+be missed at the dinner-table and some one came up to see what had
+happened, she could truly say she didn't feel able to see Mr. Graham,
+and send word that he was to wait for Miss Pritchard.
+
+As she considered the suggestion, reaching the point where Cousin Julia
+came in, the girl's heart smote her.  Cousin Julia would be
+startled--yes, frightened.  What a wretch she was deliberately to plan
+to cause her utterly gratuitous anxiety!  And how practised, how
+_grounded_, in deceit she had grown, to turn thereto so readily for
+help out of difficulty!  How very far she was getting from her class
+motto, "Per aspera ad astra"!  And she recollected a word, strange
+hitherto to her, which Cousin Julia had used in the summer.  She had
+mentioned her hope, as she had looked forward to the coming of the real
+Elsie Marley, that she shouldn't have, at sixteen, become _inveterate_
+in the ways of the Pritchard family.  Well, wasn't she fast becoming
+_inveterate_ in the ways of deceit?  Wasn't she, perhaps, already
+inveterate?  Truly, she must be perilously near it.  And oh, wasn't
+this a far, far worse sort of _inveterateness_ than the Pritchard sort?
+And if Cousin Julia had dreaded that, how, pray, would she feel in
+regard to this?
+
+Rising suddenly, Elsie rushed into her own room as if she were running
+away from the visions she had conjured.  As she made herself tidy for
+dinner, her desperation grasped at a third expedient, a middle way.
+Couldn't she get around the difficulty by preventing or forestalling
+the introduction of any doubtful topic into the conversation?  During
+the time that would elapse between Mr. Graham's arrival and Cousin
+Julia's return--three-quarters of an hour at the longest, she
+supposed--she would keep him from bringing up any matter of
+resemblances, of big dimples, of madonnas, or sticky babies.  She would
+monopolize the conversation, so far as she could, and direct it all the
+time.  At the risk of utterly losing the good opinion of one of Cousin
+Julia's most valued friends, of appearing forward, conceited, tiresome,
+she would rattle on like the empty-headed society girl in certain
+modern plays.  She would introduce utterly impersonal subjects, such
+as--at the moment she couldn't think of anything but prohibition, which
+would last about two minutes--and chatter foolishly and fast upon them,
+one after another.  Then, if she exhausted them and all else failed,
+she would make such pointed and brazen references to her own singing
+that he would be obliged to ask her to sing--and once going, she could
+easily keep that up until Cousin Julia came to the rescue.  And she
+certainly wouldn't sing "Elsie Marley" nor anything that would in any
+way remind Mr. Graham of it.  Either she would shock that elegant
+gentleman's taste with the ugliest of ragtime, or she would inflict him
+with a succession of the operatic selections she had taken up with
+Madame Valentini.  The latter choice would probably, upon Miss
+Pritchard's arrival, serve to bring up the unhappy matter of her
+abandoning the stage for music, but that would be a minor evil.
+
+Mr. Graham appeared promptly at the hour Miss Pritchard had predicted,
+and Elsie greeted him in the role she had chosen and proceeded to give
+him a gushing account of their journey back to New York at the end of
+the summer.  The artist, who had looked forward to seeing again the
+charming little creature who had been such a vision of grace and
+loveliness as she had sung and danced on the hotel veranda that summer
+day, was surprised and dismayed at the change, the almost distressing
+change, that had come upon the girl meantime.  At first he took it for
+granted that it was the coarsening effect of studying for the stage,
+but very shortly he had decided otherwise.  Whatever his skill in
+reproduction, Charles Graham had the eye, the mind, and the heart of
+the portrait-painter; and now he read the little actress's behavior
+with a good measure of precision.  Her restlessness, her chattering,
+the high, unpleasing pitch of her naturally lovely low voice, her
+assumption of the manner and speech of the blase young person of the
+stage, he saw to be primarily the cover of nervousness.  He understood
+that the girl was troubled about something, was perhaps suffering, and
+tried to conceal it in this way.  Moreover, he felt that, whatever it
+was, she was bearing it altogether alone, hiding it from everybody.
+
+So far, so good.  But presently he jumped to a false conclusion.  As he
+referred casually to Miss Pritchard as an _inveterate_ optimist,
+suddenly all the color died out of the girl's face, the shadow in her
+eyes became momentarily genuine distress, and the bravado dropped from
+her manner.  It struck him that there was some misunderstanding between
+his friend and her young cousin.  And the pain this realization brought
+him was curiously acute.
+
+"But, my dear child," he exclaimed earnestly, "hers is no cheap
+optimism.  Miss Pritchard's wise, sane outlook upon life is the
+courageous, positive optimism of the seasoned soldier.  She has known
+hardship and suffering, and it is victory over them that makes her
+serenity and strength so impressive."
+
+As the artist paused, he glanced with searching kindness at the girl
+who was such a mere child, after all.  But he seemed to feel a touch of
+hardness or of obstinacy in the way she set her lips.  He couldn't bear
+the idea of her misunderstanding Miss Pritchard.
+
+"I wonder, Miss Marley, if you ever heard about Miss Pritchard's
+love-story?" he asked rather hesitatingly.  "It all happened of course
+before you were born; but your family may have spoken of it to you?"
+
+Elsie raised her eyes quickly, regardless of the fact that there were
+tears in them.
+
+"Oh, no, Mr. Graham, I never knew--anything about it," she almost
+gasped.
+
+"Then I believe I will tell you," he said gravely.  "If ever you
+should--well, it makes one understand why Miss Pritchard so impresses
+even a chance stranger with the strength of her personality."
+
+He sighed.  "It was years ago.  Miss Pritchard was a newspaper woman at
+the time--the most brilliant reporter, man or woman, in the city, we
+thought her, in the little coterie of journalists and artists to which
+we both belonged.  More than one of us would have given all he had to
+win her love.  I don't mind saying to you, Miss Marley, that it was
+because I could not win it that I have never married.  She bestowed it,
+however, upon an older man and a more brilliant than any of us.  At
+that time he was city editor of one of the big dailies; he had invested
+a moderate inheritance wisely, and was worth millions when he died.
+Miss Pritchard was in her late twenties, and though she was called
+plain, possessed rare beauty of expression that is of course the
+highest beauty of all; and it was no mere girl's heart that she gave
+that man.  She loved him with the intensity and maturity of a generous,
+noble woman.  He returned the love and he appreciated her fineness; and
+yet he was unworthy of her.  In the course of his business life, at a
+certain stage of his career, he did something which, while it wasn't
+dishonorable, wasn't strictly honorable.  By means of this action,
+which no one else of the few who knew it deemed reprehensible, he
+gained prestige for his paper as well as for himself; but he lost Julia
+Pritchard.  Had he yielded in a moment of temptation, though it would
+still have hurt her cruelly, I believe she would have overlooked his
+fault.  But the act was deliberate; and though he regretted it bitterly
+and to his dying day, it was only because Miss Pritchard looked at it
+as she did.  Of the act itself, he never repented."
+
+
+When Miss Pritchard came in, she noticed at once that Elsie looked very
+pale--almost ill.  After greeting her old friend warmly, she turned
+anxiously to the girl.
+
+"Has it been a hard day, honey?" she asked tenderly.
+
+"Oh, yes, Cousin Julia," Elsie returned mournfully.  And Mr. Graham
+felt not only that his suspicion had been correct but that his relating
+the story had truly had the desired effect.
+
+"I think I'll go now, and--write a letter," the girl faltered.
+
+"Go by all means, dear," Miss Pritchard bade her, "but don't write the
+letter to-night unless it's imperative.  I have tickets for 'The
+Good-Natured Man' for to-morrow night, so if you can put off the
+letter, hop right into bed and get a good rest in order to be fresh for
+it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+It was Sunday afternoon, nearly a week later.  Elsie sat alone by the
+window with a writing-tablet in her lap, gazing out at the row of
+houses across the street.  But though the new-fallen snow on roof,
+cornice, and iron grating transformed the familiar scene, and though
+snow in such profusion and splendor was a new and wonderful experience
+to her, the girl wasn't really seeing the landscape any more than she
+was writing a letter.  Realizing the fact after half an hour of stony
+silence, she rose, dropped her writing materials, and crossing the
+room, threw herself down on the hearth-rug with a gesture of despair.
+
+It wasn't merely because she couldn't write the letter--which, by the
+way, was that which she had given as an excuse for withdrawing on the
+evening of Mr. Graham's call.  It was true that writing to her
+stepmother--something that had been growing increasingly difficult for
+some time--had become practically impossible since that evening.  But
+that was, in a way, a minor detail.  For everything, _everything_ had
+become impossible since the hour she had heard his recital of that
+experience of Cousin Julia's youth.
+
+"There's no use," the girl cried out within herself, "I simply cannot
+stand it.  I can't go on so.  Cousin Julia's gone to a funeral.  I'll
+have one while she's gone and bury everything deep down.  There's
+nothing else to do.  Now that I know for deadly certain that Cousin
+Julia would hate me if she knew, I can't go on being--as I am.  Why,
+what _he_ did wasn't dishonest.  It was only, as Mr. Graham said, less
+than honest.  And look at me!"
+
+It was true that Cousin Julia hadn't _hated_ him, even when he wasn't
+sorry about the wrong itself, Elsie repeated; for this was by no means
+the first or second time she had gone over the matter since that night;
+indeed, she had scarcely thought of anything else since.  Still, she
+wouldn't have anything more to do with him, and must have despised him,
+which was worse.  And it was also true that she would even have
+forgiven him utterly if he had sinned in a moment of temptation.  And
+again the girl lamented bitterly that she hadn't done something even
+worse if it could have been committed in hot blood, and therefore
+followed by repentance, confession, and forgiveness.  Only last evening
+Cousin Julia had read some verses from Browning which had filled her
+heart with a longing that was like remorse--something about a "certain
+moment" which "cuts the deed off, calls the glory from the grey."  Were
+her wrong-doing only of the sort to be neatly cut off in that manner,
+how gladly would she own up.  How certain would she be of obtaining
+full forgiveness, and how blissfully could she go on thence-forward!
+
+But hers wasn't that sort.  Hers was the sort that goes on and on and
+on.  After making the beginning, there was no hope, any more than there
+was of stopping a ball when one starts it to rolling down a steep,
+smooth hill.  And besides, it was of the very nature of that which had
+hurt Cousin Julia so cruelly in the case of her lover of twenty-odd
+years ago.  For it was for Elsie's own advantage that she had entered
+upon the course of deceit, and it was she that was profiting by it,
+daily and hourly.  She had imposed herself upon one whom she had no
+claim whatever upon for the sake of making things easier and pleasanter
+for herself--of gaining her own way.  And wasn't she continuing the
+imposition largely for the same reason?
+
+No, she wasn't doing that--at least not now.  Absolutely selfish as her
+motive may have been in the first place, these last days had shown her
+that another element was now involved.  Her longing to be an actress
+remained the same.  Her distaste for the idea of life at the parsonage
+in Enderby had been increased almost to horror by the glimpses she had
+had through her friend's letters of what seemed to her its dreary and
+complacent domesticity.  Nevertheless, at this moment she felt that she
+would give up the former and accept the latter without a murmur if she
+could thereby measure up to Cousin Julia's standard, and yet, in the
+process, hurt neither her nor Elsie Marley.
+
+But there was no blinking the fact that Cousin Julia's heart was so
+bound up in her that the discovery of her duplicity would wound her
+cruelly; indeed, Elsie couldn't bear to contemplate what it would mean
+to her.  As for Elsie Marley--she was apparently, for her part, equally
+bound up in the Middletons, and the shock and change would be terribly
+painful to her.  Moreover, she was, in a way, almost as innocent as
+Cousin Julia herself.  Her masquerading was only masquerading.  She had
+only accepted, in her sweet, docile manner, her part in the plan that
+Elsie had made to further her own interests.  The wrong was all her
+own, truly; but any attempt to undo it would hurt the innocent Elsie at
+least equally.
+
+What could she do?  Was she really, as it seemed, bound hand and foot?
+The girl wrung her hands, and there was no thought of the dramatic in
+the gesture.  Must her punishment be to keep on and on with her
+wrong-doing, with the consciousness, increasingly more painful, of
+deceiving Cousin Julia, of being, not only _not_ the person she
+believed her to be, but exactly the sort of person she most despised?
+Could that be her fate?
+
+Looking ahead, Elsie said to herself she couldn't stand it--not now.
+Before, she had had her uncomfortable moments; but since that talk with
+Mr. Graham she had had no moment that wasn't agony.  He had roused her
+out of her dream of making things right by calling them so.  And yet,
+less than ever since that knowledge had come to her, was she ready to
+hurt Cousin Julia, as confession or discovery would hurt her.  Could it
+be that it was impossible for her to straighten out her own conscience
+without wounding the hearts of others?  Was there no way whereby she
+could make things right without involving Elsie Marley and Cousin Julia
+in misery?
+
+Staring wretchedly into the fire, the girl was unaware that she was
+grappling with a big moral problem: that her personal perplexity was a
+part of the old problem of evil: that what daunted her was the old
+paradox that has confronted mankind since before the time of Job.  She
+understood dimly that the lines between good and ill do not converge
+any more than unmoral geometrical parallels; but she still felt that it
+must be possible to limit the consequences of wrong-doing to the
+evil-doer so that the innocent should wholly escape.
+
+But what, short of her own death, would bring that about?  In that
+event, indeed, Cousin Julia's natural grief would not be bitterly
+painful; and Elsie Marley would simply go on as she was.  But she
+wasn't likely to die, and besides, wretched as she was, she didn't want
+to.  And even if she did, she wouldn't be so wicked or so cowardly as
+to do anything to hasten her end.
+
+But her consideration of that solution of her problem made way for
+another.  On a sudden a substitute solution presented itself to her
+mind.  Having gone so far, it was but natural that the girl's dramatic
+instinct and her familiarity with romance and melodrama should suggest
+something that would answer the purpose of death without occasioning
+the same measure of pain--namely, her own disappearance.  And the
+suggestion no sooner appeared than it was accepted.  Before Miss
+Pritchard returned the idea was already so familiar as to seem to be of
+long standing.
+
+Her mind was quick and her invention fertile, and before she slept that
+night her plans were well along.  She was to lose herself
+utterly--where and how she would determine later.  She would, at the
+proper moment, disappear absolutely and mysteriously, yet not without
+leaving behind her satisfactory and reassuring explanation for the two
+persons to whom it would mean most--nay, three--she mustn't forget her
+stepmother.  She would write to Elsie Marley that she had felt obliged
+to take the step for the sake of her own future, and would entreat her
+to go on as she was and never to let any one know what had happened.
+And she would leave a long letter for Cousin Julia to discover on her
+return from the office the day of her departure.  She would tell her
+how she loved her--better than any one else she had ever known except
+her mother--and how she had never been so happy in her life as with
+her.  Then she would make the same enigmatical but satisfactory
+reference to her future and how it made the step imperative, adding
+that if Cousin Julia could understand, she would agree that she
+couldn't have done otherwise.
+
+When she had reached this point, Elsie's heart sank.  Disappearance
+might be preferable to death, but it seemed as if it were going to be
+quite as painful.  But only for her, and after all, that was where the
+pain belonged.  The girl cried herself to sleep that night, but she
+woke next morning with a sense of relief so active and positive that it
+seemed like refreshment and almost like joy.  She realized why it was:
+her mind hadn't been wholly at ease before since the day in the summer
+when she had first seen Mr. Graham, and for the past days she had lived
+in torture.  The removal of the burden was almost like unsnapping the
+cover of a Jack-in-the-box.  She was going to be good and straight and
+honest again.  She was going to make amends, so far as in her lay, for
+the wrong she had done.  She was going--_away_!
+
+Here Elsie faltered.  But she sprang from bed before depression could
+swoop down upon her.  And while she was dressing a suggestion came to
+her that sent her to the breakfast-table with a serene and even joyful
+face.  It had come to her that she would better not attempt to carry
+out her resolve until after Christmas, lest she mar Cousin Julia's or
+Elsie Marley's enjoyment of the day.  She would act immediately after
+Christmas, beginning the New Year with a clean slate.  And meantime she
+would devote herself to making every one she knew as happy as possible,
+particularly Cousin Julia.
+
+And she would be happy herself.  There would be sufficient unhappiness
+coming to her later to pay her in full for all the mischief she had
+done; and she saw no harm in putting the matter from her thoughts for
+the interim, and making the most of the eighteen days.  Then, Christmas
+being over, one day, or two at most, would suffice her to decide where
+to go and to make her preparations.  Another day would give her time to
+write the letters with due deliberation, and on the third she would be
+off.
+
+Wherefore, her resolve being fixed and her conscience accordingly
+clear, she adventured the first precious day with a light heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+Elsie Marley had never been happier than as she prepared for her first
+Christmas at Enderby.  But that festival seemed the high-water mark of
+her happiness.  The close of the day found her strangely depressed and
+thereafter she had more frequent periods of being ill at ease.
+
+She had learned to knit and had spent most of her leisure time for
+several weeks in making a soft white woollen shawl for Mrs. Middleton,
+into which went a rather surprising amount of affection.  She went into
+Boston with one of the high-school girls and bought a charming little
+plaid woollen frock for Mattie Howe and a beautiful doll to fill the
+little mother's arms when they were not occupied with a real baby.  For
+Charles Augustus, she selected an harmonicon, and toys for the other
+three Howes.  She wanted to get a warm winter coat for her staunch ally
+Kate, the jacket she wore being short and so thin as to require an
+undergarment that spoiled what little shape it had.  On the day before
+she was to go into town, she consulted Mrs. Middleton.
+
+Thus far Elsie hadn't accepted a penny of pocket-money, and the
+Middletons were filled with dismay to have her spend her own money so
+lavishly.  But Mr. Middleton had told his wife that he meant to give
+Elsie a check for Christmas, which being also her birthday, made a
+large one legitimate.  Consequently, at this time Mrs. Middleton did
+not remonstrate.  She only called herself heartless for not noticing
+poor Katy's need and so forestalling Elsie.
+
+After she had sufficiently exclaimed over it, she asked what the girl
+meant to get.
+
+"I thought of black broadcloth, rather plain.  Should you think that
+would be right, Aunt Milly?"
+
+"Quite right, dear.  It would be, of course, the proper thing," Mrs.
+Middleton returned, "but I can't help wondering whether Katy herself
+wouldn't fancy something not so plain and rather more stylish.  After
+all, we can hardly expect her to share our quiet tastes."
+
+Elsie didn't resent the _our_ nor question the fact.  She was only very
+grateful.
+
+"Oh, Aunt Milly, I'm so glad I spoke to you!" the girl cried with
+unwonted warmth, for she felt immediately the cogency of Mrs.
+Middleton's remark.  "What do you think she would like?  I might have
+her go in with me and pick it out herself, only----"
+
+"Only half the fun would be lost not to have her surprised on Christmas
+morning?  I don't know what she would like, I'm sure, but leave it to
+me and I'll find out from Katy herself and without letting her mistrust
+anything.  Leave it to your Aunt Milly, dear.  She is of so little use
+that she has to seize upon whatever she can discover."
+
+And truly she learned the desire of Katy's heart and reported to Elsie
+that night.  Green was Kate's first choice for color and blue next, and
+she admired especially a long, loose garment with "one of them fur
+collars that folds up like an accordion or a gentleman's opera-hat."
+And Elsie succeeded in finding the very thing--not a difficult task,
+Kate's choice being the latest fashion and very common.
+
+Though her gifts gave extraordinary pleasure in every instance, the
+reaction upon Elsie herself was yet greater.  Her satisfaction was
+increased by the fact that Mr. Middleton told her it was the happiest
+Christmas he remembered, and that her being with them was largely what
+made it so.
+
+"Besides which," he added, "I realize that most of the other factors
+and changes that contribute are really due to you and to your
+influence, Elsie dear."
+
+That was very precious to Elsie, but it couldn't ward off the reaction
+that was to follow.  The lavishness of the Middletons' gifts to her,
+which they justified by reminding her that it was her birthday (she had
+quite forgotten that Elsie Moss celebrated hers on Christmas!), quite
+weighed down her spirits.  On a sudden she seemed to herself to be
+accepting what didn't belong to her, what wasn't meant for her.
+Despite the placid way in which she had gone on acting the part of the
+real niece, she pulled up and shied, so to speak, at this instance of
+extravagant giving and a false birthday.  It seemed as if she could not
+bear it, could not accept the money, the jewelry, furs, books, and
+other gifts showered upon her.
+
+But there was no way out.  She had to accept everything, and she had to
+keep everything but the money.  That she sent directly to Elsie Moss,
+explaining that she couldn't possibly accept it, as it was especially
+for her Christmas birthday.  But Elsie Moss, probably with her friend's
+recent request for the five hundred dollars in mind, sent it directly
+back.  Whereupon she wrote again, saying that she had more money than
+she knew what to do with, and that she would be broken-hearted if Elsie
+returned it a second time.
+
+
+The letter in which Elsie Moss returned the money was written on the
+very day when the girl had planned to write the letter announcing her
+disappearance.  It was only a short note, however, and contained
+nothing of that nature.  Her next letter, in which she reluctantly
+agreed to accept half of the Christmas-birthday gift, was long and
+surprising, but delightfully so rather than mysteriously or painfully.
+
+Her Christmas had been quite as happy as that of the other Elsie.
+Indeed, her greater capacity for blissful and ecstatic joy would have
+rendered it even happier but for the valedictory character all its
+details held secretly for her.  Her youth and temperament, however,
+which had carried her through the days following her momentous
+decision, upheld her spirits even when she approached the brink of the
+crisis.  Her determination to right the wrong she had done at what she
+believed the first possible moment had cleared her conscience so
+completely that in the interim she had been able to enjoy the fruits of
+that wrong-doing as never before since the very first.
+
+She had herself made her gift for Cousin Julia and little things for
+Miss Peacock and nearly everybody in the house.  On Christmas Eve she
+sang in the parlor for Miss Peacock, the servants, and those remaining
+in the boarding-house over the holidays.  First she went through the
+carols.  Then she sang the favorite song or songs of every one present,
+including several of Miss Pritchard's.  And though the programme was
+haphazard it wasn't motley--only simple and old-fashioned and full of
+sweetness and melody.  The girl must have been dull indeed not to have
+guessed something of the exquisite and genuine pleasure she gave.
+
+In truth she lay long awake, thrilled by the remembrance.  It had been
+her swan-song, she told herself, half-tremulously, half-buoyed by the
+excitement of it all.  For she was passing out of their lives, in very
+truth--even out of Cousin Julia's, and--forever.  And Cousin Julia,
+who, Elsie knew had basked in the enjoyment of the others, would have
+it for a happy memory, when----
+
+But she mustn't go further now.  It was hardly safe.  To-morrow was
+Christmas Day.  Until the day after, she wasn't going to think ahead.
+Only on the 26th of December would she begin to make definite, final
+preparations.  She wouldn't spoil tomorrow by looking beyond it.
+
+Christmas was a wonderful day.  Elsie did not realize how delirious her
+enjoyment was nor how painfully she was keyed up because of her
+underlying apprehension of coming agony.  Neither did she understand it
+when she waked suddenly from sleep the following morning, feeling so
+exhausted as to be almost ill, and with a terrible sinking at heart
+which settled into depression the like of which she had never
+experienced before.
+
+It might have seemed that she was in no condition to complete the
+proposed plans.  But as a matter of fact, there was little to do.
+Though the girl hadn't deliberately or consciously looked ahead, the
+matter had been in her mind; and now when she came to consider the
+question as to where she should go, she found it practically settled.
+When she brought up the idea of going to California and trying to get a
+chance as a moving-picture actress, she was ready with the objection
+that the films were most likely to reach New York and that her dimples
+would give her away at once.  Her wisest move would be to take refuge
+in some place equally distant from her stepmother in San Francisco and
+from New York.  Which, of course, was no other than Chicago.  She had
+enough money to take her thither and take care of her until she should
+get a start--in some vaudeville house as she hoped.  And then she would
+be truly lost--forever, in all probability, and perhaps in more senses
+than one.
+
+
+Miss Pritchard was struck by the change in Elsie that morning at the
+breakfast-table.  The child looked almost ill.  She said nothing to
+her, however, feeling that it was the reaction from the excitement of
+Christmas, and believing she would be better for the distraction of the
+school.  But she couldn't dismiss the matter from her mind all day, and
+the more she thought of it the more serious it seemed.  She realized
+that Elsie hadn't looked merely tired or even exhausted.  It was worse
+than that.  For the first time since she had come East, Miss Pritchard
+thought she saw in the child indication of genuine, positive suffering.
+
+She decided that she herself had been gravely remiss.  The strain of
+giving herself so generously and whole-heartedly had worn upon the girl
+disastrously, and--she had had warning and hadn't heeded.  Until
+recently, it is true, Elsie's blithe buoyancy had seemed always the
+normal, unconscious, almost effortless efflorescence of a lovely
+nature, as natural as playful grace to a kitten, as simple as
+breathing.  But once or twice back in the fall, Miss Pritchard had been
+startled into wondering if the sweet instrument wasn't in danger of
+being strained through constant playing upon it, and to be fearful that
+Elsie might truly be rarely sensitive in a personal, as she seemed to
+be in an artistic, way.
+
+The first time when this had presented itself to her mind had been a
+matter of a month or six weeks previous.  At that time she had seemed
+to discover a shadow in the sparkling eyes and a transient pensive
+droop of the lips.  Then on the night of Charley Graham's visit, she
+had been frightened by the worn look upon the beloved little face, and
+had feared some definite trouble.
+
+It was not long after the affair of the five hundred dollars, and Miss
+Pritchard had wondered if the difficulty might not be somehow connected
+with that.  She had just reached the decision to question the girl when
+suddenly the weariness, the sadness, the pensiveness, the shadow,
+vanished utterly, leaving Elsie not only herself again, but even more
+glowingly and infectiously happy and buoyant than before.  And from
+that moment until this morning at the breakfast-table she had remained
+so.
+
+It was natural that now Miss Pritchard's mind should hark back to those
+former suspicions.  All day she vacillated between the fear that Elsie
+was beset by some secret trouble or by the solicitations of some
+unscrupulous person, and the apprehension that she was on the verge of
+nervous exhaustion.  Her face was anxious indeed as she left the office
+that night.
+
+She opened the door of her sitting-room with strange sinking of heart.
+Then she almost gasped.  Her breath was almost taken away by sheer
+amazement.  Elsie was waiting for her--yet another Elsie.  For, radiant
+and sparkling as the girl had been, she had never before been like
+this.  She was fairly dazzling.  If Miss Pritchard hadn't been almost
+stunned, she would have made some feeble remark about getting out her
+smoked glasses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+"My dear child, what has happened?" Miss Pritchard cried as Elsie
+relieved her of her wraps and bag, and she dropped weakly into a chair.
+"I believe your dimples have actually doubled in size since morning.
+It's positively uncanny, you know, anything like that.  Suppose it
+should go further?"
+
+"Like the Cheshire cat's grin?  Well--we should worry, Cousin Julia,
+dearest.  But--what do you think has happened, truly?"
+
+"Your friend from Enderby hasn't appeared?"
+
+"No, this is another sort of bliss.  This is--well, dearest darling,
+it's just that Mr. Coates has started me on something that--that I
+could go on the stage with!"
+
+Miss Pritchard's face fell.  "Oh, Elsie, child, what do you mean?" she
+asked anxiously.  The dimples disappeared but though Elsie spoke
+quietly, still there was that wonderful lilt in her voice.
+
+"Just this.  He called me into his office this morning and spoke to me
+about--my specialty, you know, 'Elsie Marley, Honey.'  One day back in
+the fall I was showing off with that to some of the girls that were
+eating their luncheon together, and he happened by and made me repeat
+it.  To-day he said he had had it in mind ever since, and had found
+that he could adapt it and change the music and make it into a regular
+vaudeville feature.  He thinks it's a real crackerjack.  He's going to
+begin right away to give me training in it."
+
+For a moment Miss Pritchard couldn't speak.  Then she had to stifle
+what started to be a groan.  "Oh, my dear child!" she exclaimed.
+
+"It seemed such a lovely ending to a lovely Christmas," said Elsie
+wistfully.  The girl was absolutely carried away by the excitement of
+it.  It didn't even occur to her--until she was in bed that night--what
+the "ending" of the lovely Christmas was to have been--the ending that
+alone was to justify her enjoyment of the holiday and of the days since
+she had weighed her action in the balance and found it wanting.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, really when you understand, it's simply wonderful,"
+she went on eagerly.  "I'm the only one picked out thus far, and you
+know most of the others are related to the profession, too.  And even
+if that thing is so old, I can't help liking it.  Most of the things
+_are_ rather awful, I must confess."
+
+"But the first year--the first six months!  I never dreamed of such a
+thing!" Miss Pritchard cried.
+
+"Neither did I, darling dear; that's what makes me so wild with joy,"
+said the girl softly.
+
+Touched and almost remorseful, Miss Pritchard kissed her fondly.  But
+she couldn't restrain a sigh.
+
+"Surely it doesn't mean--going on the stage?" she inquired.
+
+"Oh, no indeed, Cousin Julia, at least not right off.  Only--well, just
+being ready if anything should happen, you know."
+
+Then suddenly at the thought of that wonderful eventuality, the girl's
+dimples came out and her eyes so shone that Miss Pritchard felt as if
+she should burst into tears.  It seemed as if she couldn't bear it!
+Again she lamented inwardly.  Why should the child have had that crazy
+desire for the stage?  Why shouldn't it have been a passion for
+music--for opera, indeed?  Nearly every one who had heard Elsie sing on
+Christmas Eve had spoken to Miss Pritchard of the girl's wonderful
+voice, and the question of her cultivating that instead of working for
+the stage; and Miss Pritchard had yesterday decided to make a fresh
+plea to Elsie to that effect.  What joy would it not be to share the
+child's enthusiasm, had it been a matter of music!
+
+However, it would be worse than futile to drag in any such thing at
+this moment, she saw clearly.  Carried away by her delight, Elsie would
+have no ears and no heart for anything else.  Miss Pritchard told
+herself she must wait for the infatuation to cool--and when that might
+be, she couldn't in the least foresee.  Would it ever happen in truth?
+
+As she couldn't possibly force herself to rejoice with Elsie, and
+couldn't bear not to share in her joy, as they had come to share
+everything, she suddenly proposed attending a concert that evening to
+be given by a visiting orchestra from the Middle West.  Elsie entered
+into the plan with spirit, and they went off gayly together.  Miss
+Pritchard knew that Elsie was dreaming dreams to the strains of Bach
+and Schumann, and wished with all her heart they were another sort of
+vision; still, it was a happy evening for both where it had threatened
+to be uncomfortable.  But on the night when Elsie Moss had expected to
+lie awake in agony because of the imminence of her parting with all she
+loved most, she had only a brief moment of compunction, which she
+dismissed easily, falling asleep in the midst of radiant and enchanting
+visions of life on the stage.  It was Miss Pritchard whose rest was
+troubled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+The answer of the real Elsie Marley to the letter in which her friend
+enthusiastically related her advance toward the stage might have
+indicated how far she had gone since the day on the train when she had
+opined that the girl who thinks of becoming an actress has to undergo
+much that isn't nice.  It so sympathized and rejoiced with the other in
+her happiness that it was solace and inspiration at once to Elsie Moss,
+who was living at a high and unhealthy pitch of excitement, and
+welcomed, indeed craved greedily, anything in the way of approval or
+sympathy.  For the girl feared that if ever she should stop to
+consider, she should find her heart a black well of wickedness.  But
+that she wouldn't do.  She _would not_ stop to consider.  She had her
+chance now, the chance she had waited for all her life, and she wasn't
+going to hazard it.  She was going to make the most of it, let her
+conscience go hang!
+
+
+For her part, the real Elsie Marley was led at this time to consider,
+and the more seriously.  To her inexperience, it looked as if Elsie
+Moss were very near the stage, as if another year might find her a
+fixed star in that firmament.  And what then?  She would be independent
+of Cousin Julia and the boarding-house, and might she not want to
+resume her own name and make herself known to her own relations?  Or
+would she, out of her abounding affection for Cousin Julia, suffer the
+present state of affairs to continue?
+
+The girl pondered long and rather sadly over the dilemma, but always
+inclined to the belief that the latter was really the only possible
+sequel.  It wasn't that the question of what would become of her in the
+former instance was all-important; it wasn't that Elsie Moss would
+probably not think of any other course of action.  It was the fact that
+some one very much like herself was needed here at Enderby.  Mr.
+Middleton depended upon her.  Mrs. Middleton would hardly know how to
+get along without her.  Katy counted strongly upon her sympathy and
+co-operation.  And even Mattie Howe and Dick Clinton would miss her.
+
+And, after all, didn't the fact of Elsie Moss's securing her heart's
+desire almost immediately, together with the working out of her own
+presence at Enderby to the satisfaction of a few very dear people,
+quite justify the exchange they had made?  Hadn't it really proved a
+beneficent idea?
+
+Arrived at this point, the girl was reassured.  The only difficulty was
+that the question didn't stay settled.  It came up again and yet again
+and the whole argument had to be redebated.  And finally she came to
+the conclusion that her wisest plan was to ward it off.  Like the other
+Elsie, she decided to avoid meditation and plunge into action.  And
+though the sort and amount of action to which she was limited wouldn't
+have seemed action at all to the other girl, it answered her purpose,
+nevertheless.  Elsie Marley threw herself into the performance of the
+various duties she had assumed with more fervor than ever, and
+presently had recovered a good measure of her former serenity.
+
+But it seemed only to have been regained to be threatened.
+
+One night early in February, when Miss Stewart relieved her and she
+left the library, she found Dick Clinton waiting outside.  He often did
+this, for he and Elsie had become good friends since the day he had
+first appeared at the library and asked for help.  She had seen him at
+all the parties of the high-school pupils which she had attended, and
+had gone coasting on his double-runner with other girls a number of
+times.  And no Sunday passed that he didn't seek her after service and
+walk home with her.
+
+He was strangely silent to-night.  His first shyness having worn off,
+he had since always had plenty to say.  Elsie was always quiet, and not
+a word was spoken until they were next door to the parsonage.
+
+"Oh, Miss Moss, would you just as lief walk back a little way?" he
+asked suddenly.  "I had something I wanted to say to you, and there's
+the parsonage and I haven't begun.  I won't make you late for your
+supper--or dinner, whatever it is."
+
+Rather surprised, Elsie complied willingly, and they had no sooner
+turned than he began.
+
+"It's something I've done," he blurted out.  "I feel sort of--like
+thirty cents, you know.  I should sort of like to know--what you think
+of it."
+
+"Whatever it is, I don't believe you need to feel that way about it,
+Dick," she said gently.
+
+"I do, just the same, though I'm not sure I should have before I knew
+you, Miss Moss, you're so awfully sort of square, you see," he owned.
+"I'm glad anyhow it ain't so bad but what I can tell you.  This is what
+it is: one of the other fellows that's about my height and build wanted
+to go to the motor-show in Boston last week and his dad wouldn't let
+him.  He's simply wild over aeroplanes, and there was a model there,
+and when the last night came, he got me to help him out.  He pretended
+to go to bed about a quarter of nine.  Instead, he sneaked me up the
+back-stairs and left me in his room, and he caught the nine o'clock for
+Boston.  I went to bed and put out the light.  After a while his mother
+put her head in the door and asked if I was asleep, and then came in
+and kissed me.  About two o'clock he came back, climbed in the window,
+and I vamoosed.  It seemed all right, and I couldn't have refused him,
+and yet I felt queer."
+
+"I should think you were innocent enough.  It seems to me the other boy
+had all the responsibility of it," Elsie observed.
+
+"That's just what I thought.  And I'm dead sure it would only have
+seemed fun last winter.  And I'd have to do it again if he asked me.
+But--you know that little Howe kid that's trying to stretch himself out
+to get big enough to be a boy scout?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Charles Augustus Howe."
+
+"Well, he's always asking me things, and taking my answers so solemnly,
+and yesterday he wanted to know if I thought it was wrong to tell a lie
+to yourself in the dark.  I tried to reason out the thing with him
+and--great snakes, but it made me feel queer all over!  Talking to that
+kid about truth and honor and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I
+sort of hypnotized myself; but afterward it made me feel cheap.
+And--and there you are!"
+
+"But you didn't get anything out of it for yourself, Dick," said Elsie.
+
+"Nothing but feeling cheap before that kid."
+
+"Then I don't believe it's wrong for you--only for the other boy," she
+averred.
+
+They turned.  Nothing more was said until they reached the parsonage.
+
+"Much obliged, Miss Moss," the boy said quietly.  "And that's good to
+remember--not getting anything out of it for yourself.  Good night."
+
+She heard him whistling cheerily as he went on his way.  But her own
+heart was heavy.  Not to get anything out of it for oneself!  Oh, what
+would Dick Clinton think, what would every one think, to know that she
+wasn't Elsie Moss at all!  He had been sadly troubled because he had
+played the part of another one night--a silent part that required no
+spoken words.  What would he think to learn that she was an interloper
+at the parsonage?  It was in part, it is true, for the sake of another.
+But it was also in part--in large part, now--for her own sake.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+One evening in the early spring, during the interval between the films
+in a motion-picture theatre on lower Broadway, a thrill of excitement
+went through the audience, which was of the sort that desires to live
+on thrills.
+
+Perhaps to-night, however, there was reasonable excuse for genuine
+anticipation.  For the song-dance specialty that was about to take
+place was of a different order from anything that had been known in
+that theatre heretofore.  There was real grace and beauty in the
+dancing, genuine melody in the voice of the singer, and something sweet
+and wholesome about the whole performance.
+
+The act was entitled "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  And one
+whispered to another that the best of it was, that that was her real
+name--honestly it was--at least it had always been her stage name, so
+that probably the song had been written especially for her--and she
+that young--and it wasn't real ragtime either.  And her dimples were
+real too; possibly they were enlarged and deepened by the make-up, but
+she had them off the stage.
+
+Heavy applause greeted the entrance of the actress.
+
+She was only a slip of a girl--a mere child she looked, partly, they
+said, because of her hair--the "Castle bob," you know.  She tripped
+lightly before the footlights, smiled charmingly as she put the
+question of the first line, and sang the song through with dancing
+between the stanzas and dramatic rendering of the lines.  She smiled
+and sparkled and dimpled; but though she was so pretty and piquant and
+coquettish, so graceful and vivacious, so completely the actress, there
+was a look of youth and innocence about her that pleased the blase
+audience, and touched one alien member of it to tears.
+
+Once and again was Elsie Marley recalled to repeat the act.  The young
+actress had other things prepared, but though they might be well
+received, they were followed by clamor for "Elsie Marley, Honey," until
+only the forcible resumption of the pictures availed to quiet it.
+
+And on Saturday night at the end of the second week, even that did not
+avail.  The last appearance of that bill having been announced, the
+audience could not let Elsie Marley go.  Finally, the manager came out
+and announced that Miss Marley had been engaged for another week.  And
+again, while there was intense satisfaction elsewhere, to one person
+the statement was like a blow.
+
+In truth, on the day when Elsie had announced the opportunity that had
+been offered her of appearing in a "specialty" on the stage of a
+second-class cinema theatre, Miss Pritchard had been aghast.  The
+chance had come through the school in the person of Mr. Coates, who had
+first seen possibilities in the song the girl had known since
+childhood, and who had developed it to its limit, and trained her in a
+more artificial though still charming rendering, the music having been
+adapted more nearly to music-hall ragtime.  When he had announced to
+her what he had known from the first--that she was to go upon the stage
+with it--Elsie had been so elated that Miss Pritchard had been
+powerless before her.  She couldn't be a wet blanket; neither, however,
+could she force herself to express any gratification.
+
+And when first she had seen this last member of her family before the
+footlights of the cheap little theatre, with the bad air, the mixed
+audience, and the poor pictures, she felt she couldn't endure it.  The
+image of the stately, aristocratic Aunt Ellen Pritchard rose before her
+vision, overwhelmingly severe and reproachful.  It would actually have
+killed her to witness once what Julia Pritchard had to witness every
+night for two weeks--or so she thought at first.
+
+On this Saturday night when the engagement was extended, they were
+later than usual in getting to their carriage.  Elsie was wrapped
+snugly in the rose-colored opera-cloak.  Her eyes were very bright, her
+cheeks flushed.  She had not really required any make-up, but they had
+insisted upon deepening the color of her lips and darkening the lower
+eye-lids.  Miss Pritchard, too depressed to force any semblance of
+cheerfulness, saw her dimples appear and disappear in happy reverie.
+She sighed.  Through it all, the child was absolutely enchanting to her.
+
+Elsie, catching the sigh, snuggled up to her.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I'm so happy, so happy I'm afraid I'll just burst
+like a circus balloon.  Oh, dear darling, you're so good to me.  And I
+suppose you're sick to death of the same old thing, and dread the
+thought of another week of it."
+
+As a matter of fact, Miss Pritchard was as captivated by the song
+specialty as any of the audience.  She confessed that it wore well.
+"But, oh, Elsie," she couldn't forbear adding, "I do wish you weren't
+going to have another week in that cheap place."
+
+"Oh, but Cousin Julia, one can't begin at the top," remonstrated the
+girl.  "Why, I'm the luckiest guy ever was.  How much do you suppose
+I'm going to get for this next week?"
+
+Miss Pritchard had no heart for guessing.  The sum the girl mentioned
+was indeed surprising, but it only seemed to remove her further from
+her and from the family they both represented.
+
+"I should be only too glad to do it for the experience alone," Elsie
+rattled on, "and of course what I get is only what is over and above
+what they pay the school.  And I shall get other chances, Mr. Coates
+says, and--oh, Cousin Julia, I don't dare tell you--you don't"--there
+was a catch in her voice--"you don't sympathize.  You were so
+different!  And now you're just like--well, almost as bad as the
+others."
+
+Miss Pritchard drew the little rose-colored figure close.
+
+"Yes, I do sympathize, dear little cousin," she said, "only----"
+
+She could not go on.  And they went the rest of the way in silence.  It
+was the first time that anything, recognized by both of them, had come
+between them.  As the excitement that had buoyed her up for the evening
+began to die away, Elsie's heart was like a stone.  Later it would
+ache.  She wondered rather drearily how it would be after she was in
+bed.  Even now she recognized something that would have been absurd if
+it weren't so terribly serious.  To think of her demanding sympathy
+from Cousin Julia--of appearing almost aggrieved not to receive it--she
+who should be cowering beneath her scorn!  How was it that she should
+so forget, should feel and act as if everything were true--and square?
+
+It was being on the stage, she supposed, a real actress at last.  At
+last!  Why, it was almost _at first_.  Who had ever been so fortunate
+as she!  To be on the stage in New York well within a year of her first
+entering the city!  And only to think that this might have been the
+last night of her engagement!  How terrible that seemed now!  How would
+she ever live without the evening to look forward to?  How blissful to
+have another week before her--six more appearances before that vast,
+applauding throng!  How happily would she go to sleep tonight to the
+music of the lullaby of the thought: "Another week at the Merry Nickel,
+another week at the Merry Nickel!  Bliss!  Bliss!  Bliss!"
+
+And yet it wasn't at all a blissful face which Miss Pritchard bore in
+memory to her own room that night after she had kissed Elsie, put out
+the light, and opened the windows.  Since the girl had been at the
+theatre, Miss Pritchard had dropped into the habit of going in to her
+the last thing every night and tucking her in as if she had been a
+child.  For somehow she had seemed, since striking out into
+professional life, only the more a child, more innocent, more
+appealingly youthful, more than ever to be sheltered and guarded.  She
+had tried her wings, it is true; she believed she had proved them (and
+perchance she had!); but more than ever was she a precious and tender
+nestling.
+
+As she sat by her window in the darkness, Miss Pritchard shook her head
+sadly.  She said to herself this couldn't go on--this state of things
+couldn't continue.  Despite Elsie's elation over the fact that she was
+booked for another week at the theatre, she looked more mournful and
+wistful and worn than ever.  Some strain was wearing the child out.  It
+wasn't the work, nor yet the excitement, for she lived on them, and not
+altogether unhealthily.  There was no other possible explanation: it
+was nothing less than the strain of combating her own disapproval,
+tacit or expressed.  Elsie was too warm-hearted to enjoy her legitimate
+happiness alone, too sensitive not to suffer from want of sympathy.
+
+The change in the girl had begun to be apparent directly after
+Christmas.  Elsie hadn't been herself since that time, which proved
+beyond peradventure that Miss Pritchard's suspicion was correct.  The
+joyous, sparkling little creature whom she had found in her room on the
+day after Christmas, bubbling over with excitement, eager to share her
+good news, had become thin and wan.  Her charmingly brilliant little
+face was not only peaked, but in repose was generally wistful or
+plaintive.  Many a time one could have looked on it without suspecting
+the existence of dimples.  Only in the evening did she resemble her
+real self.  From dinner until the moment she lay in her bed, she was
+the Elsie Marley she had been (with negligible interruptions) since the
+night when she had walked straight into Miss Pritchard's heart before
+she had known who she was.  At other times she was a pale shadow, the
+little ghost of the girl she had been or should be.
+
+Miss Pritchard sighed deeply.  If it were for want of
+sympathy--approving sympathy--the child drooped and pined, must she not
+have it, willy-nilly?  But again she sighed, and yet more deeply.
+Whatever her effort, was such a thing possible?
+
+As for Elsie herself, the lullaby didn't prove a lullaby at all, and,
+as usual these days, the girl cried herself to sleep.  Every night, of
+late, the reaction came.  Every morning she awoke with a sense of a
+heavy burden weighing her down.  All day her heart ached, though dully
+and vaguely for the most part; for if the pain threatened to become
+acute, she could still drug it with anticipation of the excitement of
+the evening.
+
+In the weeks that had passed, Elsie hadn't once faced her conscience.
+She had never squarely confronted the situation which was now so much
+further complicated.  When the unexpected and thrilling opportunity had
+come to her the day after Christmas--the very day that was to
+consummate her renunciation--the girl had been completely carried away
+by it.  She hadn't repudiated the decision she had come to so
+painfully, she had simply disregarded it--ignored it utterly as if
+there had been no such thing.  And she had gone on ignoring it.  In the
+very first of it, the excitement of working directly for the stage had
+rendered her oblivious of everything else.  Then when certain faint
+murmurings of conscience began to be audible, came the actual prospect
+of the Merry Nickel to stifle them, and then there was the stage itself
+and the actual footlights.  Nevertheless, avoid the issue as she would,
+more and more had her daylight hours come to be haunted with
+misgivings, and now her heart was never light except in the evenings.
+And combat any such direct thought as she might, she felt dimly that in
+giving over her purpose to square her conduct with the right, she had
+doubled and trebled the original wrong.  Unvowing a vow must be
+equivalent to signing a covenant with the powers of darkness.  Now and
+again lines from the poem Cousin Julia had repeated to her so
+impressively that she could never forget it, came to her suddenly in
+uncanny fashion.  At such times, if questioned, Elsie would have
+acknowledged that her Palladium had indeed fallen, with all the awful
+consequences.
+
+Lines from another and more familiar poem came to the girl the next day
+as she sat in the afternoon with Miss Pritchard in their sitting-room,
+the snow falling outside as if it were December.  As she gazed at the
+steadily falling, restful, soothing curtain of flakes which deadened
+all sound and veiled all save its own beauty, unconsciously she was
+repeating verses of a poem she had learned as a child.  But as she came
+to the words, "I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn," she recollected
+herself.  And somehow her mind turned instinctively to Miss Pritchard's
+lover.  It was because he, too, was dead, she supposed, and this snow
+was rounding above his grave.  But before she made the natural
+application or drew the familiar comparison between his failure and her
+own, Elsie clapped the lid down on her thoughts with a thud.  Turning
+resolutely to Miss Pritchard, she asked her, with strange intonation,
+if she thought the snow would continue all night.
+
+"I rather hope so," Miss Pritchard returned in a quiet voice that was
+like a part of the silent storm, "for it's so late that we can't expect
+another snowfall, and it seems really a privilege to have it now--like
+plucking violets at Thanksgiving."
+
+For a little, her gaze, too, lost itself outside.  Then she turned and
+looked at Elsie with a kindness in which there was something wistful.
+
+"I know what you have been thinking, dear," she said.  "You're thinking
+that I'm not consistent nor fair--and you're right.  I am neither.  I
+agree with you absolutely.  Having in the first place consented to your
+studying for the stage, I should have looked ahead and faced just this.
+As you say, one can't begin at the tip-top--nor yet at the top.  One
+must make use of humble stepping-stones."
+
+But it seemed that the struggle she had been through to bring herself
+to this attitude had been in vain.  On a sudden she lost all that she
+had gained.  Her heart sank as Elsie's face brightened eagerly--became
+transformed, indeed.
+
+"The trouble is," she went on sadly, "that the stepping-stones--oh,
+Elsie, I'm so afraid the stepping-stones will only lead on and on and
+on--never higher.  They'll be and remain on a dead level, and you will
+step from one to another, one to another, year after year, over the
+same dreary waste.  I hate awfully to say all this, dear, but when
+those people refuse to allow you to do anything but the Elsie-Honey
+business over and over, it comes to me what a fate it would be to be
+doomed forever to that one stunt."
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia!" Elsie cried deprecatingly.
+
+"Yes, dear, that's what I am exactly, an old killjoy; but truly I
+cannot help it, though I have tried.  I have struggled hard against my
+prejudice.  Elsie, last night you stopped yourself as you were about to
+tell me something, but I fear I can guess what it was like.  Some one
+suggested your going on the road, as they say, with that one thing as
+your repertoire--making a tour of the cheap moving-picture houses of a
+certain section?"
+
+Elsie grew very pale; her lips trembled.  One interested wholly in her
+dramatic career, seeing her at that moment, might have concluded that
+the girl had it in her to develop a capacity for tragedy as well as
+comedy.
+
+"Cousin Julia," she said with tremulous dignity, "I don't want you to
+come with me this week.  I can go back and forth in a carriage by
+myself.  I've got to go through it, for I promised and they will have
+made arrangements, but--please don't come with me any more."
+
+She gazed at Miss Pritchard through reproachful tears, but when she saw
+tears streaming down Miss Pritchard's plain, staunch face, she ran to
+her arms.
+
+"My dear, it's only because I love you so, because you are the very
+apple of my eye, that I talk so," the latter declared, and the warm
+words went straight to the girl's sore heart.  "I know I'm not just,
+but dear, we won't let anything come between us--ever.  I'll do my best
+to see your side of it, and you must be patient with me.  It's hard, I
+know, for youth to bear with age, for inexperience to hear the ugly
+words of experience; but now we'll just go through the week together
+and await what comes."
+
+What came demanded further patience on her part and increased Elsie's
+infatuation.  Before the end of the week the young actress had an offer
+from a rival establishment which would take her to the edge of summer
+at a salary that fairly made her gasp.  The second theatre was perhaps
+a shade better, but not sufficiently so to reconcile Miss Pritchard to
+it.  But she held her peace.  Whereupon the first manager increased the
+sum offered by his rival, and, Miss Pritchard still tolerant, Elsie
+agreed to remain there until June.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+Miss Pritchard acknowledged to herself that Elsie Marley had the right
+stuff in her.  She did not grow careless, never let herself down.  The
+audience was uncritical and wildly demonstrative, but the girl did her
+level best at every performance.  Up to a certain point, she even
+improved.  The possibility of so doing in this case was limited, but
+having reached that point she held it.  Further, her wonderfully sweet
+voice seemed to grow sweeter every day.
+
+Therein lay Miss Pritchard's one hope.  Presently, she sought out an
+old friend who had been a musician of note and later a teacher and
+musical critic on an evening paper, and confided her difficulty to him.
+Hearing her story, he was interested and very sympathetic.  He advised
+her to drop the concert idea and dwell wholly upon the possibility of
+opera as a lure: only the dramatic form and setting could compete
+successfully in a case of stage-fever like that.  And where Miss
+Pritchard had hoped only to be allowed to bring Elsie to him, he being
+an old man, he agreed to go to the theatre and hear the girl when she
+would be off her guard.
+
+"I'll go any night you say, Miss Pritchard," he proposed.
+
+"Don't make _me_ choose, Mr. Francis," she begged.  "There's so much at
+stake that if I knew when you were to be there, I should be so nervous
+I couldn't sit still."
+
+"You _nervous_, Miss Pritchard!" he exclaimed incredulously.
+
+"Alas, yes, Mr. Francis," she acknowledged, laughing.  "These young
+people with their careers are too stimulating for spinster cousins who
+have never had anything more exciting than night-work on a city paper.
+Well, I dare say I have only my come-uppings.  You see, I was afraid
+Elsie wouldn't be lively enough!  I had visions of an extremely proper,
+blase young person moping about, and rather dreaded her.  Getting Elsie
+was like finding a changeling."
+
+"Rather too much of a good thing?  Well, we're all that way, Miss
+Pritchard.  If we're looking for a quiet person, we want a peculiar
+sort of quietude; and the lively ones must be just so lively and no
+more.  Do you remember in one of the old novels, where a sister
+enumerates in a letter to her brother the charms of the young lady she
+wishes him to marry?  At the end of the list she adds that the lady has
+'just as much religion as my William likes.'  Now isn't that human
+nature and you and I all over?"
+
+
+As she left the house, a suggestion came to Miss Pritchard in regard to
+a lesser matter she had had in mind.  Elsie having agreed to drop
+everything for July and August and go into the country with her, she
+had been studying prospectuses and consulting friends as to the
+whither.  Seeing Mr. Francis, suddenly recalled a summer twenty years
+before when he and his sister had passed a month at a place called
+Green River in eastern Massachusetts, and she had driven over a number
+of times from a neighboring town to dine with them.  It came to her
+suddenly that Green River was exactly the place she had been looking
+for, and she believed it must be near Enderby, where Elsie's friend
+lived.  And now she couldn't understand why she hadn't thought before
+of going where the friends might meet.
+
+Making inquiries, she discovered that the name Green River had been
+changed to Enderby, and that Enderby Inn was considered quite as good a
+hostelry as the Green River Hotel had been.  She wrote at once to the
+proprietor to see if she could engage rooms, saying nothing to Elsie
+lest the plan miscarry.
+
+So eager was she, that when she found a telegram on her plate next
+morning (almost before her letter had left New York) she opened it
+anxiously, uncertain whether such promptness meant success or failure
+for her.  But it was from Mr. Francis, asking her to lunch with him.
+She got through the morning in almost a fever of suspense.
+
+He had gone to hear Elsie that very night of Miss Pritchard's call, and
+told her without preface that the girl had a marvellous voice.
+
+"Now, Miss Pritchard, can't you shut down at once on that vaudeville
+business and set her to studying under a first-rate teacher?" he
+demanded.  "She ought not to lose a minute.  Of course she is rather
+small--too bad she isn't taller--but for all that I believe such a
+voice will carry her anywhere.  I shouldn't wonder if she should turn
+out a star of the first magnitude."
+
+He named a teacher with a studio in Boston who could take her as far as
+she could go in this country.  He usually went to Naples in the late
+spring with a pupil or two, but would be at his home near Boston all
+summer this year.
+
+Of course the fact that Enderby was within easy reach of Boston added
+to Miss Pritchard's excitement.  That night she received word that she
+could have accommodations at the inn, and a letter following next day
+offered her a choice of rooms.  She engaged a suite of three with a
+bath, though aware that the single rooms would be satisfactory.  And
+she smiled at herself for assuming airs already, as guardian of an
+operatic star, engaging royal apartments for her.
+
+Filled with enthusiasm, she announced to Elsie that night that she had
+secured quarters for them at Enderby for the two months.  At the first
+breath the girl was quite as surprised and delighted as she was
+expected to be.  The delight was, it is true, but momentary, though it
+sufficed to irradiate her face and fill Miss Pritchard's heart with
+generous joy--also, to hide from the latter the fact that it was
+succeeded by profound dismay.
+
+Those dimples!  Those awful dimples!  As she thought of them, Elsie
+Moss was overwhelmed by consternation.  Of course she couldn't go to
+Enderby.  She couldn't let Uncle John get even a second glimpse of her
+face.  She fled from the room in a panic which Miss Pritchard believed
+to be excited eagerness to impart the good news to her friend at once.
+
+Though, as the days had passed, Elsie had persisted in her refusal to
+face her conscience or look into the future, she had been vaguely aware
+of a day of reckoning ahead.  She had dimly taken it for granted that
+when she stopped she would have to consider--there would be nothing
+else to do.  When she should be out from under the influence of this
+powerful stimulant, she foresaw herself meeting perforce the questions
+she had evaded.  But also she had foreseen herself with two clear
+months before her and with Cousin Julia beside her.
+
+Now, on a sudden, all was changed.  She seemed to have no choice.  She
+had no control over her future.  She had delayed so long that the
+choice was no longer hers.  Her path was sharply defined.  There was
+nothing she could do except to disappear on the eve of Miss Pritchard's
+departure for Enderby.  And at that time there would be nothing to
+sustain her, no moral or redeeming force about an act that was
+compulsory.  It was like being shown a precipice and realizing that at
+an appointed time one must walk straight over its verge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+Mrs. Moss, who had loved her brilliant, impulsive little stepdaughter
+like her own child, had given her up unwillingly.  But it had been her
+husband's wish that Elsie should go to her uncle; the latter could give
+her advantages her stepmother could not afford; and she supposed it was
+right and natural for the girl to be with her own people, even though
+they had been strangers to her up to her sixteenth year.
+
+At first her loneliness found some solace in Elsie's letters.  They
+were short, but seemed brimming over with happiness.  Mrs. Moss didn't
+get any dear idea of the household at Enderby, but it was apparently
+all that the girl desired.  Then gradually the letters began to fall
+off, and before Christmas-time she felt a decided change in them.  They
+had become unsatisfactory, perfunctory; the girl seemed to be slipping
+away from her.  She began to wonder if Elsie were not concealing
+something, and soon after Christmas was forced to the conclusion that
+she was unhappy and would not acknowledge it.
+
+She endeavored to regain the confidence that had been fully hers; she
+tried in her own letters to prepare the way, to make confession easy,
+but she received no response.  In such circumstances letters are at
+best unsatisfactory, and it was maddening to Mrs. Moss that she was at
+such a distance that her warm words must grow cold in the five or six
+days that elapsed between the writing and the reading.
+
+Christmas passed, and the winter, and she was unrelieved.  She was busy
+with her teaching, but except when engrossed by that, was haunted by
+anxiety and apprehension.  She had finally decided to go East during
+the long summer vacation, ill as she could afford to make the journey,
+to investigate for herself, when one night after school she dropped in
+to see a friend, and while waiting picked up a New York paper.
+
+Some one in the house had that day returned from a journey East, and
+the paper was dated five days earlier.  It happened to be folded with
+the page given over to amusements uppermost.  Glancing carelessly over
+columns that devoted a paragraph each to an amazing number of cinema
+theatres, her eye suddenly caught the familiar name, _Elsie Marley_.
+
+With a vision of her stepdaughter as she had sung the old rhyme, she
+mechanically followed the words until the word "dimples" arrested her
+attention.  Then she read the paragraph with beating heart.  She read
+it twice before she fully comprehended--understood that Elsie Marley
+had completed her sixth week at the Merry Nickel in her song-dance
+specialty, "And Do You Ken Elsie Marley, Honey?"  Miss Marley was
+declared to be more popular than ever; managers were clamoring for her
+and she had engagements a year ahead.  The notice added that despite
+the fact that her voice was so wonderful, her dancing and acting
+inimitable, some people declared that it was her dimples that wrought
+the spell--that she might stand dumb and motionless before the
+footlights if she would only smile.
+
+Mrs. Moss's first clear sensation was indignation toward Mr. Middleton.
+She felt she could never forgive him for allowing this situation to
+come about without warning her.  Then she realized that this was the
+key to the whole situation.  She had not heard from the girl for six
+weeks--just the length of time she must now have been at the theatre.
+Excusing herself before her friend appeared, she hastened home in a
+tumult of emotion.
+
+She did not know which way to turn.  She couldn't bear the idea of
+Elsie being on the stage of a motion-picture theatre; it seemed as if
+it would break her heart.  And still worse was the knowledge that the
+girl had deceived her; that she had written empty, non-committal notes
+calculated to make her believe she was staying quietly with her uncle,
+when she was all the time preparing for this.  And she had always been
+so frank and upright, so easy to appeal to and to persuade!  It seemed
+to Mrs. Moss that she must have come under unfortunate influence.
+
+Her first impulse was to write to Elsie; her second, to Mr. Middleton;
+but she did neither.  The situation was now too critical to be handled
+from a distance.  There were only two weeks more of school.  She
+secured accommodations on the railway for the evening of the last day
+of the term.
+
+On the sixth day after, she appeared without warning at the parsonage
+at Enderby.  A pleasant-faced woman who might be Mrs. Middleton, though
+she did not look like an invalid, sat on the veranda entertaining a
+little girl with a big baby in a perambulator.  She asked at the door
+for Mr. Middleton and was shown into his study.
+
+He came in directly, and the sight of his handsome, refined, strong and
+serene face, with a vague resemblance to Elsie's, revived her drooping
+spirits.  Suddenly she felt that whatever he sanctioned must be right.
+She inquired falteringly for Elsie before she announced her name or her
+errand.
+
+She learned that the girl was well, and, to her surprise, would be in
+presently.  Then the season was over, she decided, and recollecting
+herself, gave her name.
+
+He smiled.  "I thought as much from the way you spoke her name," he
+said.  "Elsie will be delighted.  May I call Mrs. Middleton?"
+
+"Just a moment, please.  I felt troubled about Elsie, Mr. Middleton,
+and came on without writing or sending word.  I'm impulsive too, like
+Elsie, though only her stepmother."
+
+He had never felt that Elsie was impulsive, and as he looked up in some
+surprise, she wondered if he minded her comparing herself to Elsie, and
+so to his sister.
+
+"Perhaps I should have sent word," she went on.  "But I hesitated.  I
+knew you didn't approve of Elsie's father marrying me."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, if I had any such feeling, it has long since
+disappeared," he assured her earnestly.  "From the moment I saw Elsie
+and realized what you have made of her, I have felt only the gratitude
+I am sure my sister would have felt for your devotion to her motherless
+child."
+
+"Thank you," she said.  "Now about Elsie----"
+
+But she couldn't go on.  A sudden wave of indignation swept over her.
+If he had felt kindly toward her, why hadn't he warned her?
+
+He glanced at her with some concern.  She seemed so fatigued and
+overwrought after the long journey that he begged her to let him call
+Mrs. Middleton that she might have a cup of tea and go to her room
+before Elsie's return.  The latter had gone into town but would be back
+very soon, for she went into the library at four.
+
+Mrs. Moss stared at him, and he asked if Elsie hadn't told her that she
+had been assistant librarian since September.
+
+She shook her head.  He wondered, and when she had again refused
+refreshment or rest, explained.  As he did so, it came out that she
+knew little or nothing of Elsie's activities, and he launched into
+glowing descriptions.  And the further he went, the more she marvelled.
+She couldn't understand how Elsie had become the sedate, dutiful girl
+he portrayed unless some great blow had fallen upon her.  Then she
+recollected what had brought her hither.
+
+"Elsie has been away lately?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, no, Mrs. Moss, she only went into Boston to do some shopping."
+
+"But she was in New York in May?"
+
+"Why, no," he returned with some surprise.  "I'm sorry to say she
+hasn't been away overnight since she came.  But we have made up our
+minds she shall have a change this summer, and now that you are here,
+we shall surely be able to put it through.  Perhaps you will go to the
+shore with her?  Of course you will spend the summer with us?  Mrs.
+Middleton will insist."
+
+Mrs. Moss was too dazed to reply.  Indeed, the only statement she had
+taken in was that Elsie had not been away since she came.  For an
+instant she wondered if she could have mistaken.  But that could not
+be.  Surely there were no two girls in the country who would have
+selected that particular song and have had peculiar dimples into the
+bargain.  On the other hand, Elsie couldn't have been in two places at
+once.  Neither could she have been away without his knowledge.  It
+wasn't conceivable that he----
+
+It struck her coldly that he was not in his right mind--that this
+handsome, courteous gentleman was mildly insane.  In spite of his fine
+manner and bearing, his every word had been irrational.  She hazarded
+one last question.
+
+"Has Elsie said anything--shown any interest in the stage?"
+
+As she spoke, there was a curious expression on her face--it seemed to
+him so watchful as to be almost furtive.  He began to suspect that
+something was wrong.  She was certainly overwrought and almost
+hysterical--beyond anything the journey would bring about.  Possibly
+that was the explanation of the mystery.  Elsie had rarely spoken of
+her stepmother.  Perhaps her husband's death had unbalanced her mind?
+
+Whereupon he murmured something soothingly and courteously evasive that
+confirmed Mrs. Moss in her suspicion with regard to him, his mind was
+wandering now; he had illusions, without doubt.  Quite likely Elsie was
+now in New York, and he constantly believed her to be in Boston for the
+day, coming back in time for the library.  And Mrs. Moss wondered how
+she could get the ear of the lady on the porch.
+
+She could see her through the window.  Now she saw that she had a mass
+of wool, red, white, and blue, in her lap and was knitting a
+curious-looking article, and it came to her that perhaps she, too, was
+out of her mind?  Perhaps this was a mental sanitarium?  True, she had
+inquired for the _parsonage_.  Could it be that in the cultured East
+that was a new euphemism for insane asylum?
+
+But that idea was too ludicrous, and suddenly struck by the absurdity,
+she laughed out.  Her laugh was so merry and infectious as to lay his
+suspicion at once, and he couldn't help joining her.  And then,
+somehow, each understood the misapprehension of the other, and they
+laughed the harder.
+
+Even as they laughed, there was a light step on the veranda outside,
+and some one cried _Elsie_ in a tone of warm welcome.
+
+Mr. Middleton had risen.  "Shall I tell her who it is, or just send her
+in, saying that it's an old friend?" he asked in a low voice.
+
+Her heart was beating violently.  "Don't tell her who it is," she
+begged weakly and shrank back as he opened the door.
+
+He closed it behind him and she waited breathlessly.  She forgot
+everything except that she was to see Elsie.  At the first sound she
+sprang to her feet, and as the door opened--not with Elsie's
+characteristic fling--she held out her arms.
+
+"Elsie!" she cried, then started violently.
+
+A total stranger stood before her, a pretty girl with a sweet face and
+long light-brown curls hanging from her neck.
+
+"And who are you?" she cried wildly.  "Am I mad or is this a lunatic
+asylum?"
+
+For a moment the girl stared at her with sweet perplexed face.  Was she
+another patient, then? thought the distressed woman.
+
+"I am Mrs. Moss," she said in a sort of desperation.  "Pray tell me who
+you are and where I am?"
+
+All the pretty color left the girl's face.  She stepped back and leaned
+against the door.
+
+"This is the parsonage," she faltered.  "I am Elsie Pritchard Marley.
+Your Elsie is in New York with my cousin.  We exchanged."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+On the Saturday afternoon following the arrival of Mrs. Moss at
+Enderby, Miss Pritchard and Elsie had just seated themselves in the
+former's cool, pleasant room for the purpose of discussing summer
+clothes for the latter.  A maid came to the door and brought in a card.
+
+"Mrs. Richard Moss!  I'm sure I don't know any such person; do you,
+Elsie?" Miss Pritchard exclaimed, frowning as she attempted to
+recollect whether that could be the married name of any one who had
+formerly been at Miss Peacock's.  As she looked up she saw that Elsie
+was almost ghastly white.
+
+She sprang from her chair and went to her.
+
+"Elsie, darling, are you ill?" she cried.
+
+Elsie almost gasped.
+
+"No, Cousin Julia, only--startled, _scared_," she said in a strange
+voice that frightened Miss Pritchard still further.
+
+But the maid waited.  About to ask her to excuse her to Mrs. Moss, she
+looked again at Elsie.
+
+"You don't know her, dear?" she said gently, putting the card before
+her.
+
+"Yes--I do.  That's what--fazed me," gasped Elsie.  "It's
+my--stepmother.  I'm afraid something awful has happened."
+
+Now Miss Pritchard was white, too.
+
+"My child, are you out of your head?" she exclaimed.  "What are you
+talking about?  You never had a stepmother.  You couldn't have."
+
+Then she half smiled.
+
+"Oh, Elsie!" she cried reproachfully, "it's some of your stage friends
+come to see you.  How you startled me!  I'll settle with you later for
+that and give you a good scolding, but I won't stop now.  Will you have
+her up here or down in the parlor?"
+
+"Please, let's have her up here," said the white-faced girl in the same
+strained tone.  "There's nothing to do now but go through with it.  It
+serves me just right.  But----"
+
+Without understanding, her heart beating strangely, Miss Pritchard
+asked that Mrs. Moss be brought up.
+
+They waited in silence.  Presently the caller was ushered in, a slender
+woman clad in black, with a young-looking, sad face.  Seeing Elsie, she
+too became very white.  But the girl rushed upon her, flung her arms
+about her, and hid her face on her shoulder.  And the stranger clasped
+her close.
+
+Miss Pritchard stared in amazement.  She hadn't known of any warm
+friend of Elsie's except the young girl in Enderby; but this was
+unmistakably an affection of long standing.  For a moment she stood
+stock-still.  Then somehow she got them both over to the sofa, relieved
+Mrs. Moss of her wraps, and sat down near.
+
+"I don't understand," she said finally.  "You are evidently an old
+friend of my little cousin's.  Perhaps you are the lady she stayed with
+while she was finishing her school after Mrs. Pritchard's death?"
+
+Mrs. Moss looked hard at Elsie, reproachfully yet lovingly.  It was so
+good to see the girl that the plans she had laid as she came on from
+Massachusetts escaped her.  She spoke at random, and might have
+imparted the same impression of mental irresponsibility that she had
+given Mr. Middleton.
+
+"She hasn't any grandmother.  She never had one.  And she isn't----"
+
+"Oh, _Moss_, I have it!" exclaimed Miss Pritchard.  "You're the mother
+of Elsie's friend at Enderby--though I believed her to be an orphan all
+this time."
+
+"I am Elsie's stepmother, and she isn't your cousin at all," declared
+Mrs. Moss sadly.  "She's only a very naughty girl playing a trick on
+you."
+
+Then for the first time Miss Pritchard spoke sternly to Elsie.
+
+"If this is a trick, a part of your stage business, won't you please
+bring it to a close right here!" she demanded.  "It has gone too far
+already."
+
+"My dear Miss Pritchard, will you allow me to explain?" said Mrs. Moss.
+Then she turned to the girl.  "Or will you do it, Elsie?  I went to
+Enderby to see you and found that other girl and learned the truth from
+her."
+
+Elsie drew away a little.
+
+"You tell her, please, auntie, I couldn't," she faltered.  She clasped
+her hands tightly.  Her face was whiter than before.
+
+"Miss Pritchard, if you will have patience and bear with me for a
+little, I hope I can make things plain, though I can't make them
+right," said Mrs. Moss rather appealingly.  "I have just come from
+Enderby, Massachusetts, where Elsie's uncle and guardian lives.  I got
+worried and went there to see about Elsie.  I came all the way from
+California."
+
+Miss Pritchard stared at her in amazement.
+
+"Oh, auntie!" cried Elsie in distress.  Then she went to Miss Pritchard.
+
+"Kiss me just once, Cousin Julia, kiss me hard," she entreated.  And
+Miss Pritchard clasped her to her heart.
+
+The girl resumed her place on the sofa and sat motionless, her eyes
+upon her clasped hands.  Mrs. Moss endeavored to get the main fact out.
+
+"I found there instead of this Elsie, instead of Mr. Middleton's own
+niece, a strange girl who has lived there since last June as Elsie
+Moss.  Her first name happened to be Elsie, too, but her last name is
+Pritchard--Marley, I should say."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, I must be stupid, but I cannot understand what you
+mean!" cried Miss Pritchard.  And Elsie choked.
+
+"I'll begin again," said Mrs. Moss with mournful patience.  "A year ago
+this Elsie, _my_ Elsie, Elsie Moss, started East to live with her
+uncle, John Middleton, in Enderby, Massachusetts.  On the train she
+fell in with this Marley girl who was coming on to New York to live
+with her cousin, Miss Pritchard.  Elsie was badly stage-struck and wild
+over New York, and the other girl didn't mind a quiet country town, and
+they calmly changed places--and names.  Elsie Moss came to you--with no
+claim in the world upon your hospitality; and your relative, Elsie
+Marley, imposed upon the Middletons in the same fashion.  And they have
+gone on with the imposture for practically a year."
+
+As she continued, one detail after another fitted into the framework
+she made, and Miss Pritchard grasped the situation fully.  Stunned and
+wholly at a loss, she glanced at Elsie.  The girl sat like a statue,
+white with downcast eyes.  Miss Pritchard went to the window and stood
+gazing out for some moments.
+
+When she returned to her place, her expression was composed, but her
+face looked suddenly strangely worn and older.  She looked into Mrs.
+Moss's eyes as who should say "How could she!"  But she spoke to the
+girl.
+
+"Well, Elsie?" she asked quietly.
+
+"That was why I hedged about going to Enderby," said Elsie
+incoherently, "I didn't dare let Uncle John see my dimples.  They would
+give me away, you see, Cousin Julia."
+
+Then she suddenly bethought herself.
+
+"Oh, but you're not my Cousin Julia any more!" she cried, and burst
+into a tumult of weeping.
+
+Her stepmother gathered the girl to her, and Elsie sobbed wildly on her
+breast.  Mrs. Moss, who had been more severe with Elsie Marley at
+Enderby than she had ever been with any one before, was now disposed to
+be very gentle--perhaps over-lenient--with the real culprit.
+
+"Yes, Elsie, I am your Cousin Julia--to the end of things," Miss
+Pritchard assured her.  And she spoke almost solemnly.  "But tell me,
+dear--you didn't know what you were doing?  Oh, Elsie, you didn't
+realize that it wasn't--that it was--wrong?"
+
+"Not at first--not when I did it," sobbed Elsie.  Then she uncovered
+her face.  "But I knew afterward.  It came to me then, and I knew it
+was the sort of wrong you think worst of all.  And so do I, honestly,
+Cousin Julia."
+
+Again Miss Pritchard walked to the window.  Elsie's eyes followed her
+in agonized appeal.
+
+"Cousin Julia!" she cried desperately.  And Miss Pritchard was at her
+side in a moment.  But though her face was all tenderness and sympathy,
+the pain that shone through it would have been severe retribution even
+had Elsie been altogether impenitent.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Julia, I was sorry!" the girl cried, "I was terribly sorry.
+But it only came on me when everything was--sort of--_fixed_, you know.
+I couldn't bear to break up Elsie Marley's happiness at Enderby, and--I
+couldn't bear to have it--hurt you--though I know this is a lot worse.
+So I was going to disappear.  I had my mind all made up.  I was going
+to leave a letter so that you wouldn't feel troubled.  And I thought
+that would sort of make up for everything, because I never would have
+been happy again.  And then--oh, Cousin Julia, then came that chance
+that I knew led straight to the stage, and I lost my head.  I chose to
+be wicked, and I suppose I lost my soul as well as my head,
+only--there's something that hurts as if I still had one."
+
+Again the girl wept wildly.  But now Miss Pritchard's arm was enfolding
+her.
+
+"No, precious child, you haven't lost it.  And if you were sorry--but
+we won't talk more about it now.  I'll hold that in my heart as comfort
+until to-morrow and then we'll see what we can do to straighten it all
+out.  At this moment we must consider that there's the evening
+performance to go through, and being the last, it will be very taxing.
+Somehow, we'll make things right, among us all.  You go to your room
+now and lie down.  If you think of this, only say to yourself that it's
+over, and be thankful for that.  And we two women who love you so that
+we're all but jealous of one another already will plan the next--or
+rather, the first move.  Come, child."
+
+At the door Elsie turned.  "Is the other Elsie all right, auntie?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+"Yes, dear," returned Mrs. Moss rather doubtfully.  "At least--well, as
+a matter of fact the poor child is just--waiting.  I made her promise
+not to say a word to the Middletons until I came on here and returned.
+I am afraid--dear me, I am sure I don't know _what_ I said to the girl.
+I am afraid I must have been rather hard on her."
+
+"Oh, auntie!  And it wasn't her fault in the least!  I just dragged her
+into it.  It was all for me.  And she's the sweetest, gentlest thing!
+And not the least little bit her fault!  Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!"
+
+The girl wrung her hands in genuine distress.  Mrs. Moss shook her head
+mournfully.
+
+"I might have known," she acknowledged regretfully.  "But, oh, Miss
+Pritchard, I was nearly distracted.  It all came upon me so
+suddenly--not a whisper of warning."
+
+Miss Pritchard could understand what that meant.  She led Elsie into
+her room and established her upon the bed.  Elsie talked incoherently
+and at random, until Miss Pritchard had to declare that she must go
+back to Mrs. Moss.  Kissing the girl again, she bade her forget
+everything for the time being and rest.  And though she stifled the
+deep sigh that rose involuntarily, Miss Pritchard felt as if she was
+staggering as she left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+For some time Miss Pritchard and Mrs. Moss discussed, not as they had
+purposed, the way out of it, but the affair itself: the change of names
+and destinations and the year of masquerading.  They marvelled equally at
+the audacity and the success of the scheme, and the various circumstances
+that had favored it.  Miss Pritchard reviewed the year aloud in the light
+of the discovery, with eager comment from the other.
+
+"How Elsie could have accepted so much from you, knowing all the while
+she was deceiving you, I cannot understand!" cried Mrs. Moss, shaking her
+head sadly.
+
+"Accepted!  Oh, Mrs. Moss, if you could only know half the girl gave, you
+wouldn't speak of accepting!" protested Miss Pritchard.  "She has made
+this year the happiest of my life, that captivating, lovely child has.
+As for deceiving--she didn't mean any such thing, and it wasn't real
+deceit in her case.  She said just now she always felt as if I were
+really her cousin.  When she swapped, she did it in such a whole-hearted
+way that she was herself almost as deluded as I.  And later, when she
+began to realize, she suffered--looking back, I begin to understand that
+she has suffered torture."
+
+Mrs. Moss suddenly bethought herself.
+
+"The question is, what is to be done?" she repeated.  "You see, I have
+left that girl in Enderby in a most uncomfortable position.  The
+Middletons as yet know nothing.  I shall have to break it to them, but
+before I do so, I want to come to some sort of an understanding with you."
+
+"I confess, I don't see any way out of it at this moment," returned Miss
+Pritchard.  "Dear me, I can't yet really realize we're in it."
+
+"The simple thing would seem to be to just----"
+
+"Swap back?  Oh, it wouldn't be possible after all this time, my dear
+Mrs. Moss!" cried Miss Pritchard, really aghast.
+
+"We shall have to see how the Middletons feel, of course," admitted Mrs.
+Moss.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, couldn't you go back with me to-night and
+then all of us talk it over together?  I don't believe we'll ever come to
+any understanding unless you do.  My flying back and forth between you
+like a shuttlecock isn't going to amount to anything."
+
+"Yes, I will go on to Enderby--there's no other way," agreed Miss
+Pritchard, "but I can't go tonight, because Elsie has an engagement.
+It's her last appearance at that wretched place, I'm thankful to say.
+She and I will follow you to-morrow.  Meantime, you can give them the
+plain facts to digest."
+
+She smiled half grimly.  "As a matter of fact, I have a suite of rooms
+engaged at the inn at Enderby for the last two weeks in June and for July
+and August, though I never dreamed of any such complication, as you know.
+Like as not we all--you and Elsie and I--can occupy them now--I can
+telegraph presently.  Dear me, dear me! what a pair of thoughtless scamps
+these children were.  And yet--what hasn't it meant to me to know Elsie?
+Oh, Mrs. Moss, I can't face giving her up.  I simply cannot face it."
+
+"Of course, Mr. Middleton is her guardian," remarked Mrs. Moss, who
+sympathized with Miss Pritchard, but felt she might remember that she had
+had to part with Elsie a year ago, after having had her from a child.
+"He seems like one who would do the right thing," she added, "but of
+course he was devoted to Elsie's mother."
+
+"No doubt he'll be glad to hand over little Pritchard to me?"
+
+"Well, he seemed attached to her.  But of course being a clergyman he may
+judge her very severely."
+
+"I wish we could all go to Enderby this very moment," cried Miss
+Pritchard impatiently.  "If it weren't for that old movie-show!"
+
+Then the other forgot Enderby.  "Oh, Miss Pritchard, tell me, is Elsie
+very deeply concerned?" she asked anxiously.
+
+Miss Pritchard related the matter in detail.  Mrs. Moss was distressed
+beyond words, though she was cheered when the other repeated Madame
+Valentini's dictum in regard to the girl's voice, and the yet more
+authoritative word of Mr. Francis.  And then and there the two women who
+cared deeply for one little girl decided that that night should close her
+theatrical career, not only for the season but forever.  And they added
+that whatever be the outcome of the conference at Enderby, Elsie must
+begin in the late summer or early autumn to study with the teacher in
+Boston recommended by Mr. Francis.
+
+"The child has actually grown rich overnight," observed Miss Pritchard.
+"She has saved all she has earned and if need be could pay for her own
+lessons for a time at least.  But I should like nothing better than to
+retire and take her to live in some quiet place near Boston, and then go
+abroad with her when the time comes.  I've got enough to do that and yet
+do something for that girl at Enderby."
+
+She paused in her pacing, sat down suddenly and frowned deeply.
+
+"There's no use," she groaned.  "That Mr. Middleton will take her away
+from me, mark my word.  What sort of a man is he, anyhow?"
+
+Mrs. Moss didn't confess that she had taken him for a lunatic; but her
+description was colorless.
+
+"Of course, I should be only too glad to take Elsie back with me," she
+added wistfully, "though I couldn't give her advantages."
+
+Miss Pritchard gave her a look of sympathy, though she couldn't conceive
+of her wanting Elsie as she herself did.
+
+"Neither you nor I will have any chance," she returned gloomily.  "He'll
+snap her up--that minister.  And I shall be desolate in my old age--for I
+shall grow old in a night if I lose Elsie."
+
+"But there's the other Elsie," rejoined Mrs. Moss plaintively.  "There
+seems to be one apiece for every one except me."
+
+"Oh, _Elsie Pritchard_!  Good heavens!"  Miss Pritchard began her pacing
+again.  "I shall have her on my hands.  I never thought of that!"
+
+"I suppose you'd hardly expect to have them both," remarked the other
+mildly.
+
+"I certainly won't have Elsie Pritchard by herself!" Miss Pritchard
+retorted.  Then she laughed at herself, though ruefully.
+
+"Ah, that accounts for the five hundred dollars!" she exclaimed suddenly.
+
+"I don't understand what you mean," murmured Mrs. Moss plaintively.  Now
+even Miss Pritchard had begun to talk like Alice in Wonderland.
+
+Miss Pritchard paused in her walk and explained rapidly and in great
+detail, leaving Mrs. Moss as much in the dark as before.  Again she went
+the length of the room, pausing before Mrs. Moss to demand: "What sort of
+a girl is this Elsie Pritchard?"
+
+"To tell the truth, I was so taken aback, I scarcely noticed.  She's a
+pretty girl and ladylike."
+
+Miss Pritchard groaned.
+
+"Well, I think she looks as if she had character," Mrs. Moss added.
+
+"Any ginger?"
+
+"Well, perhaps not," the other admitted.  "But you should have heard Mr.
+Middleton talk about her--er--work in the parish."
+
+"Good heavens!  Visiting the sick and distributing tracts?"
+
+"Not exactly," Mrs. Moss smiled.  "He spoke about the library and--well,
+I'm afraid I didn't take in the rest."
+
+"Never mind, I can guess.  And I see my finish when she gets hold of me.
+She'll endeavor to reform me.  A year ago, now, I was prepared for a
+superior person.  But after Elsie----"
+
+"What mischief they made!  And yet, Miss Pritchard, it was all done
+thoughtlessly."
+
+"I know.  And poor Elsie--I'm afraid we came down pretty hard on her.  I
+think I'll just go and see how she is."
+
+Mrs. Moss followed.  Miss Pritchard tapped lightly at Elsie's door.
+There was no response and she opened it softly.  Then she beckoned the
+other with a look on her plain face that made it very sweet.
+
+Together they stood over the little figure on the big bed.  Elsie had
+cried herself to sleep.  She looked young and sweet and innocent, her
+brown head with its short locks against the pillow, her lips parted, her
+hand under one cheek, and the shadow of a dimple visible.
+
+They turned away, the eyes of both being filled with tears.  And when
+they were back in Miss Pritchard's sitting-room they seemed somehow
+nearer one another, almost like old friends.
+
+"She's too sweet and good for the stage," cried Mrs. Moss.  "Do you
+suppose we can get her away?  Do you think she'll be willing to give up
+and cultivate her voice instead?"
+
+"_Willing_?  Not Elsie!  The child's more crazy about the stage than
+ever.  And as for easily persuading her to settle down to daily drudgery
+with no excitement in view for years--"  She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"She doesn't look now as if she had a will of her own, does she, with her
+hand under her cheek and her darling baby lips parted?" cried her
+step-mother.
+
+Miss Pritchard's eyes filled a second time.  Then suddenly an idea
+flashed into her mind.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Moss, you'll be awfully shocked, but do you know what your
+words have put into my head?  I feel like a wicked conspirator collecting
+his pals, but--listen--you and I must attack Elsie at once and get her to
+forswear the stage and take up music."
+
+Mrs. Moss couldn't see any difference in this proposition from anything
+previously proposed.
+
+"What I mean is, we must do it this very day," the other went on.  "We've
+got to strike while the iron is hot.  The child is in a chastened state;
+she's sorry and ashamed and unusually meek.  We've got to be wolves and
+prey upon the poor lamb in her moment of defenselessness.  She'll agree
+to anything to-day.  Oh, Mrs. Moss, it sounds cruel and hateful, but it's
+really for her good.  If you'll stand by me, I'll attempt it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+Elsie Marley had let Mrs. Moss out by the side-door, and half an hour
+later she passed out that way herself.  She had promised not to say
+anything until she returned, and so couldn't even leave a note to explain
+her own going.  She would write one to-night to bid them wait for Mrs.
+Moss's explanation.  And afterward she could tell them that she couldn't
+bear to see them again.  And by that time they would have their own Elsie
+with the dimples.
+
+And she would be with Miss Pritchard?  She supposed so, but she couldn't
+go there to-night.  Eventually, she must; she wasn't sufficiently clever
+or self-reliant to take care of herself; but she wouldn't go to New York
+while Mrs. Moss--that terrible Mrs. Moss--was there.  What she had said
+was quite true, but oh, it had been hard and cruel, and Elsie could never
+forget it!
+
+She had made up her mind to go into Boston to a hotel where she had
+lunched several times, write Cousin Julia from there, and wait until she
+should hear from her.  She was anxious to get away before Mr. Middleton,
+who had gone to the library in her place, should return.  And yet she
+took a wide detour that doubled the way to the station; for she could not
+bear to go near the street on which the library stood.
+
+Forgetting her haste, before she had gone far, she turned and looked back
+at the parsonage.  It was like home to her.  Leaving it forever, she
+realized dimly that it was home to her, the only real home her life had
+known.  And Aunt Milly?  Once, not so long ago, Elsie couldn't have
+imagined herself wanting to go back and throw her arms about her and tell
+her she wished she had understood and loved her long before.  And
+Katy--dear old Katy!----
+
+Turning away, she almost ran.  She met no one in the out-of-the-way path
+she chose, and she was to take the six-two train for Boston, which
+Enderby people rarely used.
+
+The station stood on a hill.  As she climbed it, Elsie decided to ask the
+agent, whom she knew slightly, to telephone to the parsonage after the
+train had gone to say that something had called her away, and that Mrs.
+Moss would explain.  Fearing lest he might forget the latter clause, she
+stopped and wrote the message out.  As she did so, it came to her that
+they might think she had gone away with her stepmother, and wouldn't be
+disturbed.
+
+As she took up her satchel again, she heard some one behind her on the
+wooden walk.  Kate had come by the direct way, but she had stopped to put
+a skirt and jacket over her kitchen-dress and to squeeze her feet into
+boots to hide the holes in her stockings.  Warm with the extra clothing
+and the unusual effort, Kate actually panted as she caught up to Elsie
+and seized hold of her as if she were rescuing her from drowning.
+
+"Why, Katy, has anything happened?" the girl inquired anxiously.
+
+"Anything happened?  Well, I like that!" ejaculated Kate between her
+gasps.  "No, nothin's happened yet, but I suspicioned something was
+a-goin' to and so I hiked along after you.  What are you a-doin' up here
+and himself gettin' all tired out at that library?"
+
+Elsie's heart sank yet lower.  "There won't be many in to-day, Katy," she
+said meekly.  "And anyhow--but don't keep me, Katy, I must----"
+
+"No, you mustn't, Miss Elsie, no such thing.  You're a-comin' straight
+home with your own Katy.  Do you want your aunt a-fallin' down in one of
+her heart-spells, and her so well and happy for the first time sence I
+come?  She'll have one sure's you're born if you ain't there for your
+supper--and me after makin' shepherd's pie!"
+
+Elsie paled.  "Oh, Katy, I can't go back, honestly I can't, but you'll
+make it right with them, won't you?  Tell them I _had_ to go and
+she--Mrs. Moss--will explain when she comes back."
+
+"You just come back yourself and wait for her, Miss Elsie.  The missus
+will have one of them flop-overs the first thing if you don't, and then
+for himself to come home tired from the library and find her in that
+state and you not by to break it to him, and him not so young as he was
+once, you know!"
+
+Tears streamed down the girl's distressed face.  Kate took her satchel
+while she got out her pocket-handkerchief, and then would not loose her
+hold on it.  Elsie started on, Kate by her side.
+
+"If you're bound to go, then, you might as well get two tickets, for I'm
+goin' with you," the latter said stoutly.
+
+Elsie looked at her in amazement.
+
+"Sure thing.  If you go, I go," Kate insisted.
+
+"But, Katy, you wouldn't do such a thing?  You wouldn't leave--them?"
+
+"Indeed I would," Kate returned exultantly, feeling that she had scored.
+"I'll go by the same train.  I've got some money in my stocking.  I
+couldn't face the music with her in a dead faint, and himself like as not
+havin' a shock."
+
+Elsie stopped short.  "Katy, why will you say such dreadful things?" she
+cried.  "Honestly, it's only a question of a day or two.  I've got to go
+away, and why can't you let me do it quietly now instead of waiting and
+having it still harder."
+
+"You don't mind the easiest way for you bein' the hardest for them?"
+
+"Yes, I do.  But I can't go back.  I cannot--act another day."
+
+"Oh, yes you can," replied Kate soothingly.  "And, besides, it'll all
+come right if you just hang on.  I knew something was strange--I've
+suspicioned it ever sence you come.  Wasn't it me as went around and took
+all your baby pictures out o' the old albums and others with big round
+dimples out o' velvet photograph-frames, and himself lookin' everywhere
+for 'em and me never lettin' on?  I says to myself you wasn't really
+yourself, but like enough a cousin or foster-sister, and just as good and
+perhaps more satisfactory.  Come, we'll just race around home and go in
+by the back-door so as to be there for supper as if nothin'd happened."
+
+Just before they reached the kitchen door, Elsie spoke.
+
+"Oh, Katy, couldn't I stay in my room until she--Mrs. Moss comes?  My
+head does ache--terribly."
+
+"Well, child, you go up there now, anyhow, and Katy'll see what her big
+head can do."
+
+The quick-witted woman got out of her suit and into her slipshod shoes
+and went straight to Mrs. Middleton.
+
+"That Mis' Moss flew right off, ma'am--forgot somethin' she had to do in
+New York, it seems, and off she goes.  Them Westerners, you know, is
+reg'lar globe-trotters.  She's comin' back to accept our hospitality on
+Sunday, it seems, but here I am with a company supper fit for the Empress
+of Injy and plans for meals all day to-morrow and a bed made up.  I
+suppose you wouldn't want to ask Miss Dunham to make her visit now and
+help eat things up?  The pineys are all in blossom, too."
+
+Miss Dunham was an elderly, crippled parishioner who lived a little out
+of town and came each year to the parsonage for a day or two.  Mrs.
+Middleton threw her arms about Kate.
+
+"Oh, Katy, what a dear you are to think of it!  It's just the thing.  Day
+after to-morrow is children's Sunday and she'll enjoy that, and I'm going
+to church myself and surprise Mr. Middleton.  That is why Elsie went into
+Boston to-day--to get me some gloves and a dove-colored sunshade.  Do you
+think you can get her here to-night, Katy?"
+
+"I'll telephone to himself at the library," said patient Kate, who hated
+the telephone.  "And we'll wait supper."
+
+The plan worked perfectly.  The minister fetched Miss Dunham in a
+motor-car in time for a late tea.  Only Kate and Elsie knew what her
+visit meant to the latter, and Kate didn't understand fully.  Mrs. Moss
+arrived on Sunday shortly after the guest had gone.
+
+But at best Elsie had suffered keenly, and when Mrs. Moss found her pale
+and hollow-eyed, she felt conscience-stricken.  But she had no
+opportunity to give her any of Elsie Moss's cheering messages, for she
+went into immediate conference with the Middletons.
+
+They talked for an hour.  The waiting was agony for the girl, and she was
+at once relieved and desperate when at length she was summoned down to
+the study.  Mrs. Middleton beckoned her to a place beside her on the
+couch, and Elsie dropped gratefully into it.  She could not raise her
+eyes; she sat with her hands clasped tightly, very pale, yet aware
+somehow, at the very first, of the kindness, the sheltering kindness, as
+it were, of the woman at her side.  And while she had steeled herself to
+endure the coldness of Mr. Middleton's voice, it had never been more
+gentle.
+
+"Well, Elsie, we know the whole story, now.  It seemed a sad mix-up at
+first--what a friend of mine up-State would call a 'pretty kettle of
+fish'; but with Aunt Milly's assistance we managed to get at the crux of
+the affair and see things more clearly.  Aunt Milly declares it was just
+child's play: that you girls had no more idea of doing anything wrong, of
+deceiving, than she had last winter when her new hat came from the
+milliner's and she decided to wear it back foremost and never told any
+one what she was doing."
+
+[Illustration: "Well, Elsie, we know the whole story now."]
+
+Elsie knew from his voice that he was smiling.  She wanted to thank him
+for his kindness; she longed to raise her eyes gratefully to Aunt Milly,
+but she was powerless to do even that.  He went on:
+
+"Mrs. Moss brings word that Miss Pritchard has become deeply attached
+to--er--the other Elsie.  Now that isn't a circumstance to our case.  For
+my part, I couldn't possibly have cared more for my dear sister's
+daughter than I have come to care for you, Elsie, and Aunt Milly is
+convinced she couldn't have cared for her nearly so much.  In any event,
+we cannot give you up.  Somehow we shall have to come to an agreement
+with your guardian, Miss Pritchard--that is, if you are willing?"
+
+Elsie knew she should burst into tears if she attempted to answer.
+
+"I'll speak for her.  Elsie won't leave us," Mrs. Middleton declared.
+
+"Not if--if you----"
+
+The bell rang violently.
+
+"That sounds like Miss Pritchard now," remarked Mrs. Moss, thankful to
+have the tenseness relieved.  And, in truth, Kate, who was suspiciously
+near the front door, ushered that lady in at once.
+
+Introductions were gone through hastily.  The Middletons felt their
+prejudice vanish at sight of her kind, worn, genuine face, and she was
+deeply impressed by the minister.  Of his wife, she reserved judgment.
+
+She kissed her young relative with more warmth than she had expected to
+feel, for there were tears on the girl's white cheeks, and she looked
+sweet and sorry and appealing.  She was indeed a Pritchard, though not so
+typically so as she had anticipated.
+
+The minister mentioned the point at which they had arrived in the
+discussion, and for a little they talked all round the matter.  Then Miss
+Pritchard presented her conclusions.
+
+"Those babes took things into their own hands in great style a year ago,"
+she declared.  "They got hold of a deck of cards and shuffled them to
+suit themselves, not realizing that isn't the way to play the game.  They
+shouldn't have touched the cards and they shouldn't have shuffled them;
+but somehow they happened to make a good deal all round.  As the game has
+come out, we all like it.  We shouldn't, indeed, be willing to go back
+and deal out fresh hands.  Am I wrong?"
+
+The rejoinder indicated that she was wholly in the right.
+
+"Now, for my part, I'm used to Elsie Moss and I want to keep her, but I
+wouldn't take her out of reach of her own kin--at least not for some
+time.  There's a man in Boston I want her to study with--she's going to
+be an opera-singer--and we're to be here at the inn all summer so that we
+can get respectively acquainted with our shuffled kith and kin--I want a
+chance to know my little Pritchard cousin, too."
+
+It seemed easier to speak beside the point than to the question.
+Thereupon the minister suggested that Miss Pritchard should remain
+permanently at Enderby.  That might well have waited, but Miss Pritchard
+declared she had already thought of taking a house in the fall.
+
+"I thought if you insisted upon trading back, we'd all be in sight of one
+another that way, even though we elders might be mutually hating each
+other," she added.
+
+Whereupon they began to mention particular houses, and would have gone on
+indefinitely but for Mrs. Moss.  It was she, the outsider, for whom,
+whatever the sequel, there would be no place in the plans, who called
+them back to the real matter at issue.
+
+"Apparently, then," she said, "you're going to let things remain largely
+in the _status quo_.  But one difficulty comes to my mind.  When all is
+said, my Elsie was wholly at fault in all this.  She's sorry now, but for
+all that, I'm afraid she hasn't taken it so hard as this Elsie here, and
+what's more--this is what I'm getting at: Elsie Moss can drop the name
+she assumed falsely and, going elsewhere, resume her own as a matter of
+course.  But this Elsie, who has become well acquainted here and entered
+into the life of the place, cannot suddenly change from Moss to Marley
+without a great deal of pain to herself."
+
+Quite true.  No one had thought of that.  It seemed appalling!
+
+"Of course," Mrs. Moss went on rather doubtfully, "she could keep on with
+the name.  It's perfectly possible to have two Elsie Mosses in one
+family.  People would only take them for cousins."
+
+"It's possible," the minister acknowledged, "but it wouldn't be right.
+It wouldn't be honorable for Elsie to continue to use the name now."
+
+"Ah, but Jack, it would be cruelly hard for her to change back to
+Marley!" cried his wife; and he sadly agreed.
+
+"Do you think you could go through it, dear?" he asked, turning to Elsie.
+
+"I ought to bear something a great deal harder," cried Elsie suddenly.
+
+"No, you ought not, my dear," rejoined Mrs. Middleton.  "No, Jack, it
+would be too hard on Elsie--on any young girl; and, besides, it would
+hurt her influence at the library and with the schoolgirls.  If people
+could understand everything clearly, it would be another matter, but they
+couldn't.  Elsie's best friends know it.  For my part, I don't believe
+she deserves any punishment for doing wrong unconsciously--especially
+since she's been such an angel of mercy to this house.  But even if she
+had, she's suffered enough already to atone--with plenary grace."
+
+"She's got to go by some name," Miss Pritchard remarked palpably, but
+that gave Mrs. Middleton a suggestion.
+
+"I know," she cried.  "Oh, Jack!  Oh, Elsie!" and her face was quite
+irradiated with love and good-will.  "I know exactly what we'll do!
+Elsie is just seventeen.  We'll adopt her, Jack, for our own daughter,
+and she shall wear our name henceforth.  She shall be Elsie Middleton,
+and Elsie Moss shall remain Elsie Moss, and they'll really be cousins."
+
+She held out her arms, and Elsie nestled into them.
+
+"My dearest Mildred!" cried her husband, going over to them in his
+enthusiasm.  "Isn't she wonderful?" he demanded, and almost in the same
+breath asked Miss Pritchard's consent to legalize the adoption.
+
+"Of course, only after suitable arrangements and provision were made,
+Miss Pritchard.  All we want now is your general or conditional approval."
+
+Miss Pritchard smiled as she sighed.  "I'm sure I don't know what the
+Pritchards would say, but if Elsie's willing I confess I don't see any
+objection."
+
+Elsie's expression made any questioning of her unnecessary.
+
+"My own Elsie, my darling daughter," murmured Mrs. Middleton in her
+sentimental way, stroking Elsie's hair.  But, strange to say, Elsie found
+it all very grateful.
+
+"As to Elsie M--" Miss Pritchard began, when she was interrupted by a
+knock on the door, which she had left ajar (greatly to Kate's approval),
+and Elsie Moss burst in.
+
+In the excitement of the moment, she seemed her old self again--though
+Miss Pritchard knew it to be a lovelier self.  She stood a moment in the
+doorway, a charming little figure in a smart rose-colored linen suit with
+a large drooping hat perched coquettishly upon her short locks, her
+dimples very conspicuous.  Then she rushed upon Elsie Marley, who had
+come forward shyly, and flung her arms about her.
+
+Then she turned, her arm still about the other girl, to Miss Pritchard.
+
+"I couldn't wait any longer, Cousin Julia," she said sweetly.  "I just
+had to see Elsie-Honey."
+
+"We're to be real cousins," the other whispered, and the quick-witted
+girl understood at once.
+
+"How perfectly ripping!" she cried.  "Oh, everybody's so dear and darling
+that I should simply die of shame and remorse if I didn't just have to
+stay alive to worship Cousin Julia and get acquainted with Uncle John and
+Aunt Milly and--love my honey!"
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE MARLEY, HONEY***
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