"Now slip off your skirt," ordered her mother, and Maria complied and stood in her little white petticoat, with another glance of the exaggerated modesty of little girlhood at the window. "Now," said her mother, "you go and hang this up in the kitchen where it is warm, on that nail on the outside door, and maybe some of the creases will come out. I've heard they would. I hope so, for I've got about all I want to do without ironing this dress all over." Maria gazed at her mother with sudden compunction and anxious love. After all, she loved her mother down to the depths of her childish heart; it was only that long custom had so inured her to the loving that she did not always realize the warmth of her heart because of it. "Do you feel sick to-night mother?" she whispered. "No sicker than usual," replied her mother. Then she drew the delicate little figure close to her, and kissed her with a sort of passion. "May the Lord look out for you," she said, "if you should happen to outlive me! I don't know what would become of you, Maria, you are so heedless, wearing your best things every day, and everything." Maria's face paled. "Mother, you aren't any worse?" said she, in a terrified whisper. "No, I am not a mite worse. Run along, child, and hang up your dress, then go to bed; it's after nine o'clock." It did not take much at that time to reassure Maria. She had inherited something of the optimism of her father. She carried her pink dress into the kitchen, with wary eyes upon the windows, and hung it up as her mother had directed. On her return she paused a moment at the foot of the stairs in the hall, between the dining-room and sitting-room. Then, obeying an impulse, she ran into the sitting-room and threw her soft little arms around her mother's neck. "I'm real sorry I wore that dress without asking you, mother," she said. "I won't again, honest." "Well, I hope you will remember," replied her mother. "If you wear the best you have common you will never have anything." Her tone was chiding, but the look on her face was infinitely caressing. She thought privately that never was such a darling as Maria. She looked at the softly flushed little face, with its topknot of gold, the delicate fairness of the neck, and slender arms, and she had a rapture of something more than possession. The beauty of the child irradiated her very soul, the beauty and the goodness, for Maria never disobeyed but she was sorry afterwards, and somehow glorified faults seem lovelier than cold virtues. "Well, run up-stairs to bed," said she. "Be careful of your lamp."