"I don't think she did," he declared; "changing her mind wasn't her style; she wasn't one of your weak womanish creatures. _She_ wouldn't have said she was coming to live in Mercer, and then tried to back out of it! No, she simply wrote Blair's name by mistake. Her mind wandered constantly in those last days. And seeing what she had done, she didn't indorse it." Mrs. Richie looked doubtful. "I think she meant it for him." Robert Ferguson laughed grimly. "_I_ think she didn't; but you'll be a great comfort to Nannie. Poor Nannie! She is unhappy, but not in the least repentant. She insists that she did right! Would you have supposed that a girl of her age could be so undeveloped, morally?" "She's only undeveloped legally," she amended; "and what can you expect? What chance has she had to develop in any way?" "She had the chance of living with one of the finest women I ever knew," he said, stiffly, and paused for their usual wrangle about Mrs. Maitland. As they rose to go indoors, he looked at his guest, and shook his head. "Oh, Helena, how conceited you are!" "I? Conceited?" she said, blankly. "You think you are a better judge than I am," he complained. "Nonsense!" she said, blushing charmingly; but she insisted on walking down to Nannie's, instead of letting him take her in the carriage; a carriage is not a good place to ward off a proposal. At the Maitland house she found poor Nannie wandering vaguely about in the garret. "I am putting away Mamma's clothes," she said, helplessly. But a minute later she yielded, with tears of relief, to Mrs. Richie's placid assumption of authority; "I am going to stay a week with you, and to-morrow I'll tell you what to do with things. Just now you must sit down and talk to me." And Nannie sat down, with a sigh of comfort. There were so many things she wanted to say to some one who would understand! "And you do understand," she said, sobbing a little. "Oh, I am so lonely without Mamma! She and I always understood each other. You know she meant the money for Blair, don't you, Mrs. Richie? Mr. Ferguson won't believe me!" "Yes; I am sure she did," Mrs. Richie said, heartily; "but dear, you ought not to have--"