"When I was not so very many years older than you, say about eighteen, your grandmother decided that I was to marry your father Tom, and my parents thoroughly agreed to the plan. Your father and I, however, did not. In fact I might say that we thoroughly disapproved. We were the very best of friends, but we were both in love with other people; Tom with your beautiful mother and I with Mr. Todd. You know quite well how your grandmother acts when anybody goes against her wishes, so I need only say that my father was just about as stubborn and they had both determined on the match. Now then! to make a very long story short, I ran away with Mr. Todd, and that made them both, your grandmother and my father--my mother, bless her dear heart, understood--very angry. Your grandmother said that I was never to enter her house again. I never did until the other day when I went with you. My father was just as severe and told me that I could never come home with my husband. Well, of course, there was never any idea of my returning without him, and so we stayed away and traveled in every country under the sun and had the happiest three years imaginable, and then he died." There was a long pause before Mrs. Todd continued her story. "I went home after that with my baby boy and--oh, my dear child, you will think this a very dismal tale, but it's best to finish it. My baby died the next year, and I left the house, I thought, forever. It was mine for my father had died the year after my marriage and left it to me, but for so many years I had been unhappy there that I determined never to come near it again. That was thirty years ago and I have just come back. "To-day I determined to go and see how the old place looked, I was afraid it would be in ruins. On my way I stopped in at the Simpsons and there my courage failed. So, I sent Mr. Simpson up to look at it and see if there was any chance of repairing it. I thought perhaps if it were patched up and swept out and tidied a bit it would not be as hard to return. Now I know I was a very silly and sentimental old lady, and I will go myself to-morrow morning and see about hurrying up the work of repairs. With two caretakers I am sure it has not suffered too much." Mrs. Todd stopped as shortly as she had begun and picked up the reins and chirruped to the horse, as though to say the conversation was finished now and forever. Janet knew it was, and without quite understanding it she realized the effort it had taken to tell it. She wanted to say something to Mrs. Todd, but she knew there was nothing that could be put into words, so she sat silent for the rest of the drive. This was the second "story" she had heard that day, and the combination of the two opened up a world beyond Old Chester and gave her a sudden glimpse of life, its sorrows, its struggles, its joys and, above all, its victories. The knowledge made her restless, but it made her happy and above all expectant.