"Experience?" queried her father; "I always hoped you'd feel that experience is a treasure." "Of course," responded Brenda, "but I was thinking of Maggie McSorley; she may prove of more worth than twenty dollars if she becomes my candidate for Julia's school,--a perfect bargain, in fact." "If she keeps her promise--" "If! why, Mamma, I am sure that she will." "Speaking of losing," interposed Agnes, Brenda's sister, "Arthur lost his temper to-day when he found that you were so ready to break your appointment." "Oh, he'll find it soon enough; besides, he can't expect me always to be ready to do just what he wishes." "Well, this involved some one else. He had promised young Halstead to take you to his studio to see a picture, and he was greatly disappointed, for the picture is to be sent away to-morrow." "There!" exclaimed Brenda, "why didn't I remember? I thought that we were simply going for a walk to Brookline, but they shut off the telephone, or cut me off, and that was why he couldn't remind me. I'm awfully sorry." "You won't have a chance to tell him so this evening. What shall I say when I see him?" "You needn't take the trouble, Ralph," replied Brenda; "we're to ride to-morrow, and I can explain." "It will be his turn to forget." But Brenda did not heed Ralph's teasing, for already at the sound of three sharp peals of the door-bell she had rushed out to meet her cousin Julia. "Oh, Julia, I have found _just_ the girl for your school; she is an orphan and hates study, and--" "Well, upon my word!" exclaimed Ralph, "those are certainly fine qualifications,--'an orphan and hates study'!" "I understand what she means, or thinks she means," responded Julia, as she laughingly advanced to the centre of the room, greeting the family cordially, while Agnes helped her remove her hat and coat. "You've come for a week, I hope," exclaimed her uncle, kissing her. "Oh, I shall be here several times in the course of the week, and I shall stay now overnight. But a whole week away from my work! Ah! Uncle Robert, you're a good business man, to suggest such a thing!" And, seating herself on the arm of Mr. Barlow's chair, Julia shook her finger playfully in his face. "When do you have your house-warming?" asked Agnes, taking up the bit of sewing that she had dropped on Julia's entrance. "We are not to have a house-warming, but later we shall invite you one by one, or perhaps two by two, to see the house." "I suppose you've taken out all the good furniture, and in a certain way the Du Launy Mansion must be greatly changed." "Don't speak so sadly, Aunt Anna; it is changed, and yet it is not changed. But I did not know that you were attached to the old house?" "Hardly attached, Julia, for I was there only once, when I called on Madame Du Launy the year before her death. But in its style of architecture and its furnishings it seemed so completely an old-time house that I regret that it has had to be changed into an institution."