"Yes, come in, dear." Charlotte entered, a different young woman from the last occasion upon which we saw her. She was neatly dressed, and her eyes were sparkling and her face radiant. "A happy birthday to you, dear," said Mrs. Grantham. "Let me fasten this on." Charlotte had never possessed a gold ornament of any kind, and her eyes fairly danced as she looked at herself in the glass. "For me, Mrs. Grantham? Really for me?" "Yes, dear. It was one I used to wear when I was a girl, and I thought you would like it." "Like it! I shall love it all my life. Do you know, Mrs. Grantham, it is the first brooch I have ever had!" "You don't mean that? And you twenty-nine to-day!" "Yes, I am not a girl, as you were when you wore it. I am not at all sorry to be twenty-nine, for I think no one is happier than I am." The fact is Charlotte had received this morning the tenderest letter from John Dixon, wishing her happiness and every good on earth, He had bought a birthday gift for her (said John Dixon), but it had required a little alteration, and to his annoyance the man who was making the alteration had disappointed him; but he was after him like a tiger (said John Dixon), and she should have the token that very morning, or he would know the reason why. John Dixon always wrote to Charlotte in good spirits, and in this birthday letter he was at his blithest. "It takes very little to make you happy," observed Mrs. Grantham, looking rather thoughtfully at Charlotte, who was exhibiting, not the pleasure of a woman at her gift, but the delight of a child. "Do you call this very little?" asked Charlotte, gayly. "I call it a great deal." "Charlotte," said Mrs. Grantham, "did not your mother or your brother ever give you a brooch, or a bracelet, or any little thing of the kind?" Charlotte was on her guard instantly. She had felt during the past few weeks that much depended upon her mother and brother, and that they expected her to speak of them at their best. Therefore she was uncertain what to say in answer to Mrs. Grantham's straight question. "But tell me, dear," urged Mrs. Grantham, "did you never have such a gift?" "Do not ask me," replied Charlotte. "I must not say anything unkind." "It is an answer, dear," said Mrs. Grantham, with a pitying smile. "I have noticed that you never wear the smallest ornament." "Nor do you; only your wedding ring. And now I declare you have another ring on! Is it a pearl?" "Yes, Charlotte. It is a ring my husband gave me. I have not worn any jewels since his death, but I have a number in my desk." "And you have put it on to-day in remembrance." "Yes, dear, in remembrance."