“And we have such a nice visitor here now, Sheila,” she explained, “an old friend of mother’s, though she is not really old—Miss Adene; only she makes me call her Cousin Mary. She had a very lovely voice when she was young, and it’s quite pretty still, though she laughs when I tell her so. She has given me a lot of hints about my songs. She sings little bits to show me how to do it. She must have been splendidly taught herself! Let’s come to the music-room! Perhaps she will come and listen.” Sheila followed her willingly, and on their way to the house May exclaimed, “Oh, there she is!” and the next minute Sheila was shaking hands with Miss Adene. Somehow Sheila’s heart went out at once to this stranger lady. She could not say how it was, but she felt at home with her almost immediately; and Miss Adene seemed to take a liking for the big-eyed, soft-voiced Sheila. She asked her questions about herself, gave her hints about her playing, and was altogether so friendly and kindly that Sheila felt almost more at home in this house after two hours than she had done at Cossart Place after two months. Cyril appeared at luncheon in company with some of the Lawrence sons. They had known each other at Cambridge, and saw a fair amount of one another in the vacation. May was the only daughter; but she had several brothers, and was good at most games herself, and would have liked to play tennis with Sheila, only that her habit was rather against any such plan. “But you must come another day—you must come often. I have so few girl-friends here. There are not many houses where mother cares for me to be intimate. But I should like to have you for a friend! I hope you will come often!” “I should like to,” said Sheila eagerly, “but I don’t know if I can. There is Effie! I am supposed to be her companion. I could not leave her very often.” “I don’t see why not,” said May, with some of the frank and unconscious selfishness of the present-day girl. “You’re not her nurse or her white slave, I suppose?” Sheila laughed and blushed, and Miss Adene came unexpectedly to her assistance. “One need not be a nurse or a white slave, and yet one may have duties and little kindly offices to fulfil. The happy people in this world, May, are those who do their duty from a sense of love, and not compulsion; and we idle people must not tempt them away from the place where they are wanted.” Sheila looked up with a heightened colour to say— “I’m afraid I don’t always love my duties. Sometimes they seem very tiresome. And I’m sure you’re not an idle person, Miss Adene; but I am very often. Sometimes I think I’m no real good to anybody.”