aimed Mrs. Sanford to her hu

nder that Helen has a

is, really it is the one thing she

when Henriette has all the good

g through the gateway. Mrs. Sanford drew a deep breath as one wil

a of becoming a nurse, He

Helen's eyes, accompanied

o and mother thinks I ought to; but I've delayed because I-- Oh, I know what you're thinking!" S

into her lap, lowering her head in the

gular features with singular expressiveness. "I was going to arrange the flowers for the table for our seventeenth cousin and also-do you think cook would let me?-tr

y gentlewomen were nurses. "You'll have to bar

Mervaux, if not Helen of Troy, in Hampshire? Cry Harry, England a

trawberries was with their stems on and dipping them in sugar, or else as jam. In either case

t's not done,' oh,

mean by that

xplained, without in the least explaining to cook. "I mean, I take the respon

d that a fatal result was inevitable but sat

British household. Her task well under way, Helen returned to the garden to pick flowers for the table, the while humming French songs. She had finished with the flowers when M

your ancestor, Hel

from the seventeenth t

in love with me. He's the only man who ever will. Being th

o you get all you

ued. "I'm sure he liked rum and took snuff and swore. And you'll please

n. Helen was never more puzzling to her aunt than when she laughed; for then sh

resence. It was the sure match to her temper. She would not bear to be "poor deared," as she called it, even by Henr

, too?" she asked, wi

aid the vicar, smiling, and he caught her hand in his in a way that would have been

rew attractive to Mrs. Sanford. She herself showed him to his room to make sure that everything was right. The hot water "can," as he would hav

at for you in En

urs?" she

coddle if I permitted it. Sometimes they do it in country hou

!" she m

I mean my boots, outside th

elf, being apprehensive of some A

rse," s

said drily. "I'll try if you will not tell Jane when you come to visit us

ough years which had had their omnipresent sadness, had possessed her since she had looked at the portrait in the dining-room. The cheer of it was in her voice

ly a fit expression of sincere gratitude for nature's kindness. She might enjoy the grace of the mo

en she had wished for some magic that would show a new one. Plain people, she thought, ought at least to have a change of plain faces for

her hair a hurried doing in order to escape enforced companionship with her features. To-night they insisted on a prolonged glance of attention. She made a grimace which was reflected back, and then she laughed at the reflection, making light of her self-consciousness

whose prolongation apprised her of its existence and brought a shrug of disgust. The next impulse turned her to some charcoal drawings on the table-her own offspring. She loved them, punished them, disowned t

e cried. "I'm no

r gown when the gong sounded, which was no new thing for her. It was not much of a gown. That being the case, why not jump into it? If it appeared t

, made it as suitable for dinner at the vicarage as at a more pretentious board. Experts who charge more for their talents than for the material they use had fashioned it to make the most of Henriette, a delightful task be

ulders and the white column of neck supporting the small head. She did not appear to direct the talk, yet it seemed only natural that she should be its creative spirit. Mostly it was between the two. The vicar and his wife were glad enough to listen

see," she said, "and H

Henriette say that I'm wise, she is so convinci

t dinner. An exclamation from the others first apprised him that the strawberry shortcake thing had arrived. By all external criter

," said Hel

d as

ow

it with ju

ity means lack of adaptability. Next to my mother's, it is the

r you," pu

isation," said Phil. "I wai

process; and-well, they both had second helpings. The strawberry shortc

rginia ham and shortcake that led to your Declaratio

wards we became a nation of coffee drink

rtlets as only a French cook can and omelets so light that they have to be weighed down le

the monopoly o

the grass and watch you paint, or shall I be requ

urmured thoughtfully as

ng face underneath the frame was in the same pose as its prototype. Phil's unconsciousness of what was so apparent to other eyes ga

You mus

f attention on Henriette to Helen's eyes, flaming with inten

?" he

there were an alarm of fire. L

e face, lean, with a humorous curve to the mouth and eyes surveying the world with ready

Helen, speaking what was

the eyes of the plain girl opposite him. They seemed to have unexplored depths. If she were having so

"Wait! Everybody wait!" She was g

t Helen is going to do ne

ood," murmured

mirror which she had take

he would be the last to recognise it," she told Phil, as she held the mirror at

f centuries stood between the two Sanfords. Add thirty years to those of the man sitting at the table and dress him in the same garb as the man in the portrait and it would be difficult to tel

sn't it?" she

and the reflection was gone, leaving

her was the founder of the American family and your father and you

kens, I suppose," Phil remarked

efore dinner. She noted a shade of surprise in his eyes, and realisation that the cause of it was his discovery that when she laughed she did have a certain charm that brought the blood to

t in his surprise. "I mean--" embarrassedly, "it's your joke. I

y; and then, from the infection of surprise in his eyes, a gathering,

conscience, Helen. Ex

" said Helen. "I've only

the backs of mirrors,

r never looking at the back

or having a mirror set in front of him for

her. But she had dropped her gaze to her coffee

to say foolish things

ld be accusing him of blindness, wouldn'

ch revenge and that things were getting brittle; while Mrs. Sanford,

too, though he did not exactly know why. Henriette was taking another deliberate sip o

cousin!" He

The vicar was holding against the frame beside the face of the

ent it to me,"

but a treble!"

enerations, but it's always there-early in the seventeenth ce

yal to our German king!" Helen put in again, yielding to

her aunt. "It was on

have been on George Washington's ri

ight well have been in doubt which was his own. If he were expected

ing he seized Helen's hands, pushing the mirror away at the

s of her hair. How strong he

g for everybody!" she retorted. "And if you

. It was not a plot and we are all very inte

d on the table Helen took up; and the change of subject so e

t he ever did and there is not his equal in all this island-nowhere outside of Franc

your ecstasy shan't we go out on the

over her shoulder as if it were something he had never seen; but upon her uncle's hint he sa

e photograph from

Shall we walk?" she asked Phil, leading the way. "We ought to have a portrait of the seventeenth cousin as well as of the ancestors," she continued. "I may tr

not be in prof

she understood the intimation, as she pretende

l be best!" she decided.

shadows of moon rays which gave lustre to her eyes! In months to come there were to be other evenings equally fine by nature's gentle beneficen

her and Helen sometimes quite by herself. The happiest of all were the vicar and his wife. They were old eno

two white heads, much like the two at their dinner

Dr. Sanford that we claim part o

oes not die out," she said, in relief at

rthily over the seas

matures, though I confess young people of this age puzzle me. I couldn

rows more te

n't know what wi

he buckles of her slippers smiled at her, and she held the foot which she withdrew arched and turned it for inspection before thrusting it into the softer slipper fitted to enjoy the bare intimacy of such a sma

joyment of an old trick of hers. Mirrors were of no use to her in undoing and brushing her hair; yet as she laid the brush back on the table she had a glimpse of herself and it was the smiling self. She lau

I was flirting!" she muse

when she found herself sobbing she turned on the light and took up her charcoals. But they seemed crude and self-accusing,