"Not for you!" Maggie dashed a tear from her eyes. "An' why not for you, I'd like to know? Isn't ivery wan sayin' ye've got the voice fit for the oppayra? An' isn't all the children an' the quarrymen just mad over yer teachin' an' singin'? An' look at what yer know an' can do! Didn't wan of the Sisters tell me the other day: 'Mrs. McCann,' says she, 'Aileen Armagh is an expurrt in embroidery, an' could earn her livin' by it.' An' wasn't Mrs. Caukins after praisin' yer cookin' an' sayin' you beat the whole Gore on yer doughnuts? An' didn't the Sisters come askin' me the other day if I had your receipt for the milk-rice? Jim says there's a man for ivery woman if she did but know it.--There now, I'm glad to see yer smilin' an' lookin' like yer old self! Just tell me if the curtains be up straight? Jim can't abide annything that ain't on the square. Straight, be they?" "Yes, straight as a string," said Aileen, laughing outright at Freckles' eloquence--the eloquence of one who was wont to be slow of speech before matrimony loosened her tongue and home love taught her the right word in the right place. "Straight, is it? Then I'll mount down an' we'll sit out in the kitchen an' hem the rest. It's Doosie Caukins has begged the loan of the two little gells for the afternoon. The twins seem to me most like my own--rale downright swate gells, an' it's hopin' I am they'll do well when it' comes to their marryin'." Aileen laughed merrily at the matrimonial persistence of her old chum's thoughts. "Oh, Maggie, you are an incorrigible matchmaker!" She picked up the baby and the yards of muslin she had been measuring for window lengths; leaving Maggie to follow, she went out into the kitchen and deposited Billy in the basket-crib beside her chair. Maggie joined her in a few minutes. "It seems like old times for you an' me to be chattin' together again so friendly-like--put a finger's length into the hem of the long ones; do you remember when Sister Angelica an' you an' me was cuddled together to watch thim dance the minute over at the Van Ostends'?--Och, you darlin'!" She rose from her chair and caught up the baby who was holding out both arms to her and trying in his semi-articulate way to indicate his preference of her lap to the basket. "What fun we had!" Aileen spoke half-heartedly; the mention of that name intensified the pain of an ever present thought. "An' did ye read her marriage in the papers, I guess 't was a year gone?" Aileen nodded.