Martha By-the-Day

sh of cold water square in the face. She quite gulped from the shock of it. How in the world was she to adapt herself to this

own, p

ntly s

-tells me, your fath

hig

rand R

a college

lesl

e taught

whole summer. Prepared her fo

sed cred

conditioned

you on di

n't k

? Never tried your hand at

cious, and the bridge of her short nose wr

never been brought up, until I came along. He used to say I ruled him with a rod of iron. Bu

g, she met an expression so mild, so full of winning kindness, that she suddenly remembered and understood what

I remember to have heard some one say of him once-'He was a judge after Socrates' own heart. He heard courteously, he answered wisely

She nodded rapidly once or twice in a quaint, characteristic little fashion, and then

old you that my young nephe

d Claire at once. "I

y-eight varieties. Are you prepared to sma

lips, there's always the al

nced regretfully. "My sister won't have it.

, please? H

"Perhaps a little of both. Do you think you could supply y

ng definite in connection with your little boy, because, you see, I've never been a governess before. I've only had to do wit

nobly. Angles could no more,' as I wrote in my sister's aut

appreciation. "I'd love to co

her altered position, that she was no longer one whom these people woul

n't improve, I should say-if you don't like

to visualize the picture she had drawn, the possibility of his not liking her and sending her away, you know, and that, to his utter consternation, he found it was something he could not in the least conceive of himself as doing. That, on the contrary, the vision of her going away for any reason, of her passing out of his life, now she had once stepped into it, left him with a chill s

without fail on

y we

so sharply in contrast with her former piquant fr

for you to come

fect

rman, will take up with you th

a little shudder,

it shall be made so," sa

d hurriedly, anxious to escape the distasteful subject, still smarti

indness on their part meant patronage, on hers presumption. Of course, she deserved the snub she had received. But, all the same, it hurt!

on which preceded it, just as when we are satisfied with a sense of glowing

abrupt change in her voice and manner, saw her che

ked, after a second of tr

let on to 'em, any of your worries. The rich must not be annoy

ome, you can be under the care of your old

cally repeated, preoccupied wi

g to those who care for you, to know you are being

She was hardly consc

arm feeling for you. I think she considers you in the light of personal property, like a child of her own. That's ex

, so confused in her mind with her duty to Martha, her duty to herself, and to these people-her fear of being again kindly but firmly put back in her place if she ventured the mere

Then there was the dim vista of the long hall stretching before her, like a path of escape, and she fled its len

she had taken. Then, abruptly, he seized the telephone that stood upon the table bes

nald speaking.

hold the wire, a

qu

s,

voice repeated his na

rt

briefly. "I do not think she's sick, but as she was talking to me, I noticed she g

over the wire, as Mrs. Slawson sna

hem, and by the time she had mounted the stairs leading to the Elevated, and stood panting for breath on the

speculated as to the

diate concern

ore the stirrin' begins. If they're stirred up too soon, they're ap' to cruddle on you, an' never get that nice, smooth, thick, gooey look you like to see in rich custuds, same as love-affairs. I hope she didn't go an' have a scare on, an' give 'em to think she ain't healthy. She's as sound as a nut, but if Mis' Sherman o

the gutter-curbstone, just ahead of her, stood waiting an ambulance. Her healthy, normal mind did not easily jump at tragic conclusions. She did not, as a general thing, fear the worst, did not even accept it when it came, but now, somehow, a close a

pushed her way on through the press to the very edge of the crowd. A crying w

y an automobile! O God help the poor mo

ild-Miss Claire's such a little thing, no wonder they think she's a child

know

Miss C

of it, and there-sure enough, there was Claire, but Claire crying and kn

Francie!" said