Her mother looked at her. “You are restless, dear. You are more upset, now, over Anna’s escapade even than Miss Penny at her age. You feel as if you wanted to get away from everything for a little and I don’t blame you. But--we can’t do that any more, dear, you and I. That is what we have always done, though it isn’t your fault. And anyhow we have to make up now. Let me tell you what to do. Miss Penny says Anna feels obliged to go over to the parsonage this afternoon. Suppose you go over to the Millers’ and stay until she comes back? You can help take care of the baby. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” “I’ll go right over,” said Alice, and would have started but her mother arrested her. “Hadn’t you better change your suit, Alice? To-morrow is Sunday, and if you get it creased there’d be no chance to press it to-night.” Already Alice had expended considerable nervous energy on the subject of her dress. At one moment, she had felt as if she should don her poorest gown out of consideration for the shabbiness of the stranger. Again, that had seemed a shabby thing to do and she had decided to wear her most attractive things to accord, not with the stranger’s garb but with his manner and bearing. Then she would think of the dusty shop and waver. She might never have any more new clothes and perhaps it was foolish to risk spoiling a really handsome suit for the sake of making a good appearance before a stranger whom she didn’t know whether she liked and whom she would probably never see after to-day. Then she said that she knew that she liked him. And besides, she had to have excitement after having had that beautiful, romantic image of Dick Cartwright so cruelly shattered before her eyes. She didn’t know how she should bear that if it wasn’t for looking forward to seeing John Converse. And she _would_ see him again after to-day. She would have to--for she meant to help him in his quest. And to-day she was to be as nice as she knew how to be and as interested in helping him plan, and she would also look as well as it was in her power to look, so that altogether it would seem pleasant to him or not boresome to see her again. She said now to her mother that she would be careful not to muss her skirt, and Mrs. Lorraine did not protest further. But she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her at the Miller’s gate. She felt that Alice would be all right after an hour with the baby. For though he wasn’t a very attractive baby, he appealed to Mrs. Lorraine. He was quiet, he didn’t cry nor fuss, and he was a baby-creature. But he wasn’t to have a chance that day. For not long after, the two girls left the house together. Alice had explained that her mother sent her over to help but that she had planned to go to the cottage to get the keys she had left there the day before. Anna declared that the baby was asleep and that there was nothing to do, and begged her to come along and tell her on the way of what had happened during her absence.