A Houseful of Girls

hinking herself that she had left school, accordingly she must be grown up, or on the brink of it, if Annie would but allow

s-Rose and me-go with Ella and Phyllis Carey a walk to the Beeches. Ella says she saw some periwinkles and young ferns there, and we need, oh! ever so many fresh roots for the rockery. We should have gone without com

sappointed, but you must not think of such a thing. Ella and Phyllis don't understand-don't know-that their mother

wn person, sitting leaning back in her chair doing nothing; she whose moth

the bed, but still wearing her jacket; and Dora, in her walking dress, wa

rst pair did not tell the second more or less curtly, as the elder girls had been in the habit of doin

Cyril Carey, with his plush waistcoat and gold chains and odious snuff-box? He had no means of keeping a wife, unless his father took him into partnership in the bank, and their father would not hear of Cyril; besides, A

n preferred before her, though it was only by the head of "Robinson's." Was it possible that now it might be Rose, unsuspecting, unconsulted? Could her own mother and

to see both behind and before her. She had a head for

responsible, is capable of arriving at independent conclusions and reversing existing conditions. "They are, as Rose s

ense of personal importance in being the mouthpiece which was to announce the calamity to her younger sisters

shut this room door which you have left wide open. Thanks, May. Don't bang it! You are not to show that you know what is going to happen. And, after it has happened, you are not to chatter ab

se into the bargain? Dora and you are not so much older, as you confess; neither are you so much wiser with all your pretensions. If something of so much consequence to everybody is on the eve o

murmur like Dora. She was not content, with her art as a balance to Annie's beauty and May's

eply. "Mother only told Annie and me thi

eeping it from you as long as I could, as I dared," was the mother's weary reply. "Besides, your father did not wish it spoken

f father disapproves of our hearing it," said Rose magnanim

May affectionately, with something of a childish ring in her voi

on, "because you must hear soon anyhow. There is something wrong with the bank, Mr. Carey's bank.

telligence in her astonishment. "I understand now

her, in case I should look as if I knew something. Poor Mr. Carey! he was always so kind to us. I am so sorry; but the b

ek Testament and have something to say to Tacit

n, they will be no better than waste paper. But that is not the worst. The shares make him responsible for the bank's debts-I am sure I cannot tell you how far; he told me, I daresay, but I was so

ce and the father of her friends. The fact was that the young girl, brought away suddenly from her girlish interests and her whole past experience, and plunge

nce to father and the rest of us?" asked Rose, in spite o

nswer, with a mixture of fire and convic

May looked scared, and dropped her gloves without noticing it. "You must do what you can to help your poor dear father, and I

ld her in concert that she was not to be concerned for them. They were ready

es and rise triumphant over them all, and be such a help to you and father. Think of that, May, you little coward," appealing to her younger sister who, in spite of her small dabbling in masculine acquirements, did not look as if the pr

the "yes" with

oved of her juniors, and rewarded t

nd I will have to march under your wings. You, Rose, must be quick and paint Academy pictures, get them hung on the line, and have them sold before the opening day. May must pass all her exami

ttle they know of life, it is little they guess what will befall them," sighed Mrs. Millar to herself. Nevertheless, in the mi