"I do not think that I can consent to your going, Beth," said her father gravely. "And I cannot consent to staying at home, Father," Beth returned decidedly. "Dr. Randolph, our college physician, will dress my hands for me every day. I promise to be very careful." "If you are willing to have her go," Dolly said anxiously, "I will do everything that I can for her during the next two or three weeks. I feel as if this were all my fault, anyway, for I had promised Mrs. Newby that I would look after the birthday cake. Then I was attending to something else when it came in and I forgot all about it. If it had not been for Beth--" She stopped shudderingly. "I know that you would do all you possibly could for Beth," Mr. Newby said slowly. "Still I do not feel that she ought to go." "I must, Father," and Beth turned away with an air of finality, as if the matter were settled once for all. Mr. Newby said nothing more at the moment, but he looked far from satisfied. He followed Beth from the room presently, leaving Dolly and his wife alone, for Baby Nell had fallen asleep and the tiny guests had all gone home. Mrs. Newby turned to Dolly with tears in her eyes. "Elizabeth has saved me from a lifetime of sorrow, but she will not even let me thank her. If she only loved me--" She broke off as if afraid to trust her voice. Dolly broke in impetuously: "I do not see how anyone can help loving you, Mrs. Newby." Mrs. Newby smiled rather sadly. "I cannot blame Beth at all, nor myself, either, for that matter. I believe I will tell you about it, Dolly, if you care to hear. I have never discussed the subject with anyone before, but Elizabeth's coldness and want of affection have been very hard to bear." "Yet you said that you did not blame her, Mrs. Newby?" Dolly said, a little wonderingly. "And I do not. It is rather strange that I should be mentioning this subject to you at all, when you are such a mere child yet; but you understand Elizabeth, and she seems more like a girl with you than I ever saw her before. I have tried to give her everything that I have fancied she wanted, but there were some things that I could not give her--that she would not let me give her. I do not know whether Elizabeth has ever talked to you about her own mother or not. She must have been a very beautiful woman; she and Elizabeth were passionately devoted to each other. They were always together, and I have been told by the old servants here in the family, that they seldom saw such absolute love as Elizabeth gave her mother. She deserved it, for she was an ideal mother in every respect." Mrs. Newby stopped and caught her breath. The hardest part of her story was still to be told.