"I should have enjoyed an answer about your new life," he replied with interest. "I am very glad this happened to you instead of an uneventful summer on the farm and retrograding, I am afraid. And you like this"--old lady, he was about to say, but checked himself--"this Mrs. Van Dorn." "It's something more than _like_. I cannot describe it in any word, that I know, unless it is like something I was reading a few days ago, fascination. When she talks about the places and people she has seen it seems as if I could listen forever. And then, you may think this queer," and she colored vividly, "sometimes I like Mrs. Dayton the best. I wish I didn't change about so. It is the same with books. Am I very inconstant, fickle?" "If we couldn't change our minds, think what fossils we should soon be," and he laughed good-humoredly. "Yes, I should like to see her." She started, then she came back a step. "I have not really talked over the plan of--of earning my way with her," and her voice fell a little. "Mrs. Dayton thought it best not to say anything until we had some certainty. She is going away soon. Her real companion comes next week." He nodded that he understood the delicate charge. "And where is Mrs. Dayton?" "She went to market, and to do various errands. I should like you to talk to her about it." "Yes, I want to," he replied decisively. Helen went upstairs and was gone quite a while. He was thinking of the bright, earnest, energetic girl, willing to work her way. He must plan it out with Mrs. Dayton. She was the one girl out of fifty who could rise above circumstances. Yet her aunt would be more than vexed, positively angry. Mrs. Van Dorn experienced a curious pang, when the girl's face brilliant with a definite emotion, flashed upon her with ardor in every line. What had moved her so? The eyes were luminous, the voice freighted with a new depth. "Yes," she answered stiffly. "I must see this young man--he is young, isn't he? It seems to me he has been making a long call." "Oh, we had so much to talk about, my summer here and all its pleasures, and the knowledge. Why, I told him I felt as if I had been at school all the time, I had learned so many things from you, and that you----" She paused and flushed, wondering if the talk had been just right in the more delicate sense. "That I was cross and queer, and full of whims----" "Oh, I couldn't say that. It was about your journeys, and the people you had met. And he was so interested." Mrs. Van Dorn was mollified, and added a few touches to her toilet, picked up a fleecy scarf, came downstairs with her hand on Helen's shoulder, and was duly presented. The man _was_ young. But the lady was an agreeable surprise. He had been a little biased by Aunt Jane, he admitted to himself. She was like some of the fine old ladies he had met abroad, who carried their age with a serene unconsciousness. Mrs. Dayton was coming up the path, and gave them a little nod.