The following morning the family arrived. “It seems awful, coming away without Carrie Cora,” said Mrs. Burrell. “I declare I didn’t hardly have the courage to set out. I said to Father--” Here the old lady glanced quickly at her daughter and then at her husband and Douglas Briggs. She hesitated. Then she ran over to where Helen was sitting and whispered in her ear. “Oh!” Helen exclaimed, laughing and flushing. “Isn’t that splendid?” “Well, we’re all feelin’ kind of happy,” said Burrell, and the girls turned quickly to the window, while their mother held a whispered conversation with her hostess. Finally, she said aloud: “An’ now I want to have a good talk with you alone. I don’t want pa or the girls or even you, Mr. Briggs, to hear one word.” “All right,” said Briggs, cheerfully, and he pretended to dash for the door. “Well, ain’t he wonderful?” exclaimed Mrs. Burrell. “I knew he’d be just like that. He’s always the same, ain’t he?” “Well, you didn’t think that such a little thing as an election was going to put me out, did you?” Briggs asked. “The children are upstairs,” Helen explained, “in the library.” “I’ll take them up,” said Briggs quickly, “and then Burrell and I will go where we can have a talk and a little--” He looked mockingly at Mrs. Burrell. “Oh, I forgot.” “Go ahead!” the old woman cried with a wave of the hand. “I feel so happy that I can’t oppose anybody anything. I kind of think I’ve done too much opposin’ in my life.” As soon as the door had closed behind the others, Mrs. Burrell embraced Helen wildly, the tears filling her eyes. “I declare I did feel sorry for your husband’s failin’ in re-election. I did want him to succeed so. Father says I’m altogether too ambitious for other people. He says I’m the one that made him run for Congress. Well, he was mighty glad not to be up again. But ain’t it wonderful about Carrie Cora? When I think of the way I treated that girl I almost feel as if I’d die of shame. An’ it’s you that kept me from makin’ a fool of myself and from spoilin’ her chances of bein’ happy. An’ if she ain’t the happiest thing! An’ Rufus! Well since they got married, he ain’t hardly let her out of his sight except when he’s away to work. Father’s thinkin’ of settin’ him up in business of his own. I guess he’ll be a rich man some day, from what father says. That only shows you never can tell. But he gives all the credit to Carrie Cora. He says if he didn’t have her he wouldn’t take the trouble to go on workin’. He says queer things sometimes. He’s kind of notional, I guess.” Mrs. Burrell hesitated, drawing a deep breath. “But that ain’t what I come to talk to you about, though the two girls say I’m runnin’ on about Carrie Cora all the time. They pretend to be jealous; but they’re just as fond of her as they can be. And as for pa! Why, he spends most of his evenin’s down there. They’ve got a lovely home. I wish you could see their parlor carpet. But I guess I’ve told you about it. Well, pa spends most