"Endeavoring to fit a glass into his eye" 203 "Maud was going in for china painting" 220 "'Mr. Welling looked at me in that ... quizzing way of his'" 223 "They found Mrs. Harrison ... before the open fire" 230 "He... stumbled over a rug and slopped the cream" 240 "He below, lifting his hat" 254 "'You haven't spoken to Papa about it?'" 258 "Selina ... fell on her knees" 270 "They boarded the street car" 282 "Flowers take patience and faith, and tendance and waiting" 305 "She watched the flying scene from the car window" 321 "Culpepper ... leaned over the back of her chair and spoke softly to her" 344 "'More uplift, more culture is the cry of the moment'" 362 "For a full minute he did not speak" 373 "And whistled real softly under Juliette's window" 382 "Everybody waved and Culpepper was left standing there" 408 SELINA CHAPTER ONE "There must be something wrong, Lavinia, with our way of managing," said Auntie. "If you think you can do it better than I, Ann Eliza--" came from Mamma, with dignity. Selina, scant seventeen in years and sweet and loving and anxious, felt that she could not bear it. To sit in consultation thus, with her mother and her aunt because the family purse was at one of its stages of being exhausted, was desperate business enough, but to look from the face of her little mother to the countenance of her auntie under these circumstances was anguish. Negative character has been turned to positive by less, inertia forced into action, the defenceless made defender. And while the endeavors, about to be related, of this young person to add to the income of her family by her own efforts, may call to mind one Baron Munchausen lifting himself by his boot-straps, let it be borne in mind that the boot-straps may be the inconsequential thing, and that where the emphasis is to be laid is upon the good faith put into the lifting. [Illustration: "She referred to the cook, faithful and efficient colored plodder."] "It seemed wise to reduce the grocery bill as far as we could," her mother was saying deprecatingly, "but in doing so, I should have considered that I was leaving myself nothing to pay Aunt Viney." She referred to the cook, faithful and efficient colored plodder. "Last month it was the iceman who was kept waiting because we paid everything to the butcher," said Selina. "Why is it," a little desperately, "there's never money enough to go around?" Her mother disliked such a display of feeling. "If you mean that in criticism of your father--" she began.