Mabel rubbed her eyes sleepily. She had been dreaming that her cousin lay dying, and this vision of her, flushed and excited over the prospect of turning over pretty dress goods, was so absurd a contrast, that as she realized it, she could not help laughing. "What are you laughing at?" asked her cousin. "At you, to be sure," answered Mabel. "Am I such a figure, then?" said Isabel, going to the looking-glass and surveying herself. "No, no, it was not that. But my dreams and your talk last night have got mixed up somehow, and I wondered how you could be so eager about this shopping." "But why shouldn't I be eager?" said Isabel. "I could dance for joy about it, because we are going to make so many people happy and comfortable again who have been very uncomfortable lately." "So many people!" repeated Mabel. "Yes, dear. To begin, there was dear papa, the dearest father that ever a girl had. Well, I began to see that he looked uncomfortable when you came into the breakfast-room of a morning in such a warm dress—the sight of it seemed to make him hot," laughed Isabel. "Then mamma would frown and look across at Julia, and Julia would shake her head at me as though she thought it was all my fault." "And you, what did you feel?" laughed Mabel, for she could laugh about it now. "Oh, I don't know what I felt. But make haste and dress, Mabel. We must be in good time this morning, for I am going to ask mamma to go with us." But when they descended to the breakfast-room, they heard that Mrs. Randolph was not well, and would not get up until the middle of the day. Isabel looked dismayed at the news: "Oh, papa, we wanted to go shopping." "Well, dear, I will arrange that for you with mamma. I should think you might be trusted to buy a dress or two after such a lesson—eh, Mabel?" "Yes, uncle, I will be very careful not to spend more than I ought to do. Mamma sent me a list of what she thought I should require, and the probable cost, so I will take that with me as a guide." "That's right, dear. Then I am sure you and Bella might come to the town by yourselves, and when you have done your shopping you can drive round to my office and we will all come home together." This was an arrangement that delighted Isabel. But the shopping itself was not such an unmixed pleasure, for she found that her aunt's list did not embrace anything very costly or elaborate, and her plan of persuading Mabel to order an outfit the counterpart of her own did not succeed at all. Mabel carefully counted the cost of every article, and compared it with her mother's list, and Isabel could not but own she was right. "Yes, yes, you are right, Mabel. But I cannot help feeling disappointed, for I thought that cheque would have bought so many more things. I wonder whether I should ever learn the value of money?" she added musingly. "To be sure you will when it is needful." "Ah, when it is needful! But perhaps it never will be needful, and that is why I am so slow at learning."