t morning, but I was too tired and worried

many days more, and then I went down and knocked at the door of Miss Patty's room. She hadn't been sleeping either. She called to me in an undertone to come in, and she was lying propped up with pillows, with something pink

r to the foo

e here,

some letters s

he repeated. "Do

Their train was held up by the blizzard and they won't come in until

bed and closed the door into her sitting-room-Mrs. Hutchins' roo

How can my sister and her-her wretch of a husband have come last night

dn't have known in a thousand years-that I wanted to save the old place not to keep my position-but because I'd been there so long, and my father before me, and had helped to make it what it was a

tting what I came for. You'll have to go out to the shelter-house, Mi

stening her long

g to help them with father; I wouldn't if I could, and I can't. He won't speak to me. I'm in disgrace, Minnie." She gave her hair a shake, twisted it into a rope and

word she meant, but

irl, he put his cane through a window in the spring-house, because

, "and now he's putting a cane through every

t over it. All those foreigners expect pay for taking a wife. Didn't the chef here want to marry Tillie, the diet cook, and didn't he want her to turn over the thr

e," she said, sitting down on t

same," I retorted,

ly, "and when you begin to argue

alone heartburn, and I'll be glad when the Jennings

t the door behind me, but I st

was still sitting on the floor, trying to put

ir and let me put them on. And if you will wait a jiffy I'll bring you a cup

ughed together, rather shaky. But as I buttoned her shoe

how peculiar they are in Europe! They'll

uld be the better for h

of the rest was around. They knew the housekeeper was gone, but I guess they'd forgotten that I was still on hand. I put a k

said, "can y

d up from

not, I always ha

st you? That's m

and came over to me, wi

if you've forgotten the time I went to the city and brought you sulphur and the Lord on

ut I want four raw eggs in a basket, a pot of coffee and cream, some fruit if you can get it wh

said, with h

s hadn't wanted her, but, as I told the old doctor at the time, we needed somebody in the kitchen to keep an eye on things for us. It was through Tillie that we disc

ve her some coffee from the basket, in the sun parlor. It was still dark, although it was nearly eight o'clock, and nobody saw us go out together. Just as we left I h

much, and the tracks we had made early in the morning were still there, mine off to one side alone, and the others close together and side by side

was educated to; woman wasn't made to live

ry and determined. At the spring-house I gave her the basket and took an armful o

robe around him, and she was lying by the fire, with Mrs. Moody's shawl over her and her muff under her head. Mi

ke up, you wretched chil

d yawned, and opened

Patty she sat up at once, l

d at that Mr. Dick wakened and jumped up,

r knees beside Mrs. Dicky, "what a bad little girl you are!

to spoil my honeymoon like that. For heaven's sake, Pat, d

didn't bow. She gave him one l

LD you!" she sa

etter than I expected. He went over and gave his wife a hand t

w she could myself. The more you know of me the mor

unpacking the breakfast, putting the coffee-pot on the fire and getting ready to cook the eggs and make to

n-Pat, you'll tell father, won't you? He'll take it fr

e girls have their father's mouth-and held he

ick puckered her face to cry, and Mr. Dick took a step forward, but Miss Patty waved him off. "You know father as well as I do, Dolly. You know what he is, and lately he's been awful. He's not well-it's his live

grily. "I'm of age. And I can support

that's just as bad. Dolly,"-she turned to her sister imploringly-"Dolly, I can't have a scandal now. You know how Oskar's people have taken this, anyhow; t

They only tolerate you-us-for our money. You needn't look at me like that; O

t be wit

rything to me, Pat, and I'm so happy now-I'd rather be here on a soap box with Dick than on a throne or a dais or what

Patty said, going over to her, "you'll go

nd and gave Mr. Dick an adoring glanc

there some place near where he could

said Mrs. Dic

ick objected. "Got t

l father, Dorothy, but you know what will happen. You'll be back in school at Greenwich by to-night, and your-hu

"they'll have to keep him o

y ring, and then she glanced back into the room where Mr. Dick and

tepped into the snow. But th

s very comfortable-that is, it's livable. There's plenty of fresh air, anyhow, and everybo

in Mrs. Dick. "And after your wedding he will be in a bett

he shelter-house again an

tantrums, and he won't go, or let me go. The idea!-with Aunt Honoria on the long-distance wire

usly. "And the family jewels being reset in Vienna for you and all that!

atty f

e things had been hidden, trying to hook up a can of baked beans. "If it doesn't turn out well, you and father have certainly done your part in the way of wa

as turning the eggs. Mrs. Dick went over

sed, I've got the Sherwood liver. I guess I'm common plebeian, like dad, too. I'm plebeian enough, anyhow, to think there

he eggs into the fire. I'm an advocate of marrying for love every time, a

ut me?" Miss Patty replied in an angry undertone. "Couldn't he have married a t

voice sounded older than Miss Patty's, and m

y said indignantly. "D

we all sat around the soap box and ate. I wished that Miss Cobb could have seen me there-how they insisted on my having a second egg, and was my coffee cold, and wasn't I too close to the fire? It was Minnie h

Alstyne opened the door and looked in. His face was stern, but when he saw us, with Miss Patty on her knees toas

fe, and they both came in, covered with sno

Mrs. Dick wouldn't tell her father, and Miss Patty wouldn't do it for her, and the minute Mr. Sam made a suggestion that sounded rational Mrs. Di

edding journey, and if they wanted to be a pair of fools it wasn't up to him-only for heaven's sake not to cry about it. And then

oing to be separated we had more coffee a

to him every evening for orders about the place if he accepted, and everybody felt he would-and I was to come at the same time and bring a basket of provisions for the next day. Of course, the instant Mr. Jennings left the young couple could go into the sanatorium as guest

ning, looking lemon-colored and mottled. He insisted that he wasn't able to

dn't count on Mr. Thoburn, and we didn't know Mr. Pierce. And wh