Mrs. Lorraine sighed. Anna had been pale when she came in. Now her cheeks were crimson and her eyes too bright. She was always thin, but to-day her face looked pinched. Anna was second only to Alice herself in Mrs. Lorraine’s heart. “Anna, I wish you would find a home for that baby or let some of us,” she said anxiously. “The responsibility is too much for you. Many people would be glad to take him, I am sure.” “Glad! my goodness, they’d jump at the chance!” rejoined Anna. “And well they might. I did think that I would give him away, but I don’t believe now that I could part with him. And it’s different now. The boys are crazy over him and so is pa. And now that ma----” Mrs. Lorraine perceived that she had taken the wrong tack. She must try again. “But Anna, having him keeps you from so many things. They really need you in the choir, you know.” “Alice might sing in the choir. Her voice is better than mine and she knows heaps more about music.” “Alice wouldn’t go in without you, and her voice really isn’t so sweet. And your mother needs you, Anna. Like most mothers, she has been tied at home for years, and it seems a pity that just as she begins to go about she should lose your companionship. And your school-mates----” As Anna sat up, suddenly she looked so distressed that Mrs. Lorraine’s heart failed her. She had never been a very considerate woman--hadn’t taken any thought to avoid hurting the feelings of others. But she must have become more sensitive of late. Certainly it hurt her to hurt the girl before her. “You see, dear child, you are just the sort of person everyone wants a share of, but little Joe quite monopolises you,” she went on more gently. “You and Alice were reading _Retaliation_ the other day, you know. Well, you’re like the line on Burke. You give up to Joe, Junior, what was meant for mankind.” Anna laughed, though ruefully. She rose and made a movement to smooth her hair, then remembered that her braid was gone and shook her short locks. Seating herself in a straight chair, she folded her hands over her knee.