But Mrs. Ware had not yet learned, although Rhoda had been giving her constant proof of it for more than twenty years, how different were their viewpoints, their modes of thought, the results toward which their temperaments bade them aim. Rhoda was always surprising and disappointing her, and yet she had such faith in Rhoda’s good sense that she could never believe, beforehand, that the girl would fail to see things just as they appeared to her. And one such surprise was even now awaiting her. “Maybe you’re right, mother, and I’ll do as you like about it, only it seems to me that Charlotte ought to go into the room as much as I do.” Mrs. Ware looked at her daughter in blank surprise. “Charlotte! Why, Rhoda, that would be the greatest mistake! You know how trying Charlotte is, and Jeff needs rest and quiet!” “His nervousness won’t last long, and it will be good for him to have some one there as lively and entertaining as Charlotte is. It doesn’t look, right, mother, it isn’t quite nice, when there are two of us, to allow only one to go inside his room. I’ll be chief nurse if you want me to,” and she flashed her sudden smile upon her mother, “but I want Charlotte for my assistant.” And finally, with many misgivings and much inward wondering why Rhoda did not know better than to give Charlotte such an advantage, Mrs. Ware gave up her determination. And Charlotte, her eyes sparkling over the triumph she had gained and her cheeks glowing with pleased excitement, helped Rhoda to take in the invalid’s supper. The next day they were both in Jeff’s room, Rhoda with some sewing at which she worked while all three talked and jested together. But Charlotte was making much pretense of putting things to rights. She was of small stature, like her mother, and had a dainty figure, supple and well rounded. It showed to best advantage when she flitted about, as she was doing then, with quick, graceful movements, her body seeming to take unconsciously just the right poses and her arms and neck and head to move as if with some pleasing rhythm. Rhoda, who was tall and inclined to thinness and had long arms, knew with inward bitterness that when she moved about a room it was with no such pleasing effect. As she glanced now and then at Charlotte she could not keep a touch of envy out of the admiration with which she regarded her sister.