“I cannot go, Max,” Aline answered, sadly. “Please do not tease me, there’s a good boy.” The light-hearted boy went up to her and pulled away the white hands that half shielded the pale, pretty face. He was too young and thoughtless to know much of the sorrow that had come to Aline. “Aline, what has come over you?” he said. “It used to be that I would rather you came out with me for a lark than any fellow I know. But ever since you were lost and came back, you have been changed. Why is it?” “It is nothing, Max, only that mamma thinks I am getting too old to be your childish playmate any longer,” Aline answered with a forced smile. “Bosh! Is that all? Why, there’s lots and lots of grown people on the river this morning. You need not be a childish playmate this time. There are lots of older people to keep you company. Say, will you come?” “I cannot. I would not go among those people for anything,” she answered. “I don’t see why. You can skate better than any of them--you are just like a bird,” he said. “I say, sister, I shall ask mamma. Will you go if she says yes?” “Not even then!” she answered, half hesitatingly, for the proposal was not without its charms. Her old passion for out-of-door sports returned to her. She longed to be skimming the glittering ice with her light swift feet, and feeling the rush of the cold sweet breeze against the cheeks that had grown pale and thin in the months while she had been hiding herself sensitively within doors from the sneers and frowns of those who had traduced her so bitterly. “You will come if mamma will come too, won’t you?” persisted Max, unwilling to yield the point. “Mamma will not go,” replied Aline. The door opened, and Mrs. Rodney came suddenly into the room. She had a lugubrious look on her face and her eyelids were pink from weeping. She had been having a private crying spell over the loss of her elder daughter. She had caught Aline’s words, and now looked inquiringly into her pale face. But eager Max forestalled the question that trembled on her lips. “Mamma, I want you and Aline to come down to the river with me for the skating. Will you come?” Mrs. Rodney looked at Aline’s pale cheeks and heavy eyes, and her first resolve to negative the proposal died on her lips. She saw the girl was fading and drooping in her enforced seclusion. “Should you like to go, my dear?” she asked. “With you, mamma,” Aline answered, wistfully. “Very well. We will go for a little while. Wrap yourself up warmly, dear, and Max shall get your skates ready.”