Mrs. Cox made no response; she was nodding in the twilight over the little relaxed figure of the baby; a fat little white-clad leg rolled on her knee as she rocked. A moment later Geraldine, a heavy, highly coloured girl, much what her sister Marguerite had been ten years before, burst in, cold, wet, and tired, with a strapful of wet books which she flung on the table. "My Lord, what do you keep this place so dark for, Ma!" said Geraldine. "It's something awful! Hello, Julia!" She kissed her cousin, picked Julia's big muff from a chair, and pressed the soft sables for a moment to her face. "Well, the little old darling, she's asleep, isn't she?" she murmured over the baby. "Say, Mamma," she went on more briskly, "I've got company coming to-night--" "_You_!" said Julia, smiling, and laying an affectionate hand on her young cousin's shoulder, as she stood beside her. "Why, how old are you, child?" "I'm sixteen--nearly," Geraldine said stoutly. "Didn't you have beaus when you were sixteen?" "I suppose I did!" Julia admitted, smiling. "But you seem awfully young!" "I thought--maybe you'd go to the store for me," said Mrs. Torney. Geraldine glared at her. "Oh, my God! haven't the things come?" she demanded, in shrill disgust. "I can't, Mamma, I'm sopping wet, and I've got to clean the parlour. It's all over ashes, and mud, and the Lord knows what!" "Well, I couldn't get out to-day, that's all there is to that," Mrs. Torney defended herself sharply. "My back's been like it was on fire. I've jest been resting all day. And when you go upstairs you won't find a thing straightened, so don't get mad about that--I haven't been able to do one thing! Regina's been real sick, too; she may have made the beds--she was upstairs a while--" "She didn't!" supplied Regina herself, speaking over her shoulder as she lighted the gas. They all blinked in the harsh sudden light. "Oh, Lord!" Geraldine was beginning, when Julia interrupted soothingly: "See here, I have the car here; Chadwick was to come back at five. Let me send him for the things! What do we want?" "Well, we don't want to keep you, lovey," her mother began. But Julia was already writing a list. "Indeed I'm going to stay and have some with you, Mrs. Page," she said cheerfully. "Chops for the family--aren't those quickest? And a quart of oysters for Mama, and cake and cheese and jam and eggs--tell me anything you think of, Aunt May, because he might as well do it thoroughly! "Mama and Regina are going to have oyster soup and toast because they are the invalids!" she announced cheerfully, coming back from the door a little later, "You like oysters, don't you, Mama?" "Oh, Julia, I like 'em _so_ much!" Mrs. Page said, with grateful fervour.