wearing out a welcome? And I have no letter of introduction."

"You can't even dent the welcome at Miss Jenkins's house. It has been
forged with kindness and polished with love, and we wouldn't have time
to read a letter of introduction if you had one. Please come right
away."

Our visitor stood voicing his thanks and bidding us adieu when the
tuneful gong at the front door was struck by no uncertain hand.

The setting sun wrapped "The House of the Misty Star" in a veil of
purple, shot with pink. The subdued radiance crept into the room and
covered its shabbiness with a soft glory, the paper door slid open and,
framed in the tender twilight, stood Zura Wingate.

"I've come--" she began, then stopped.

The unfinished speech still parting her lips, with hair wind-blown and
face aglow, she gazed in surprise at Page Hanaford, and he, bending
slightly forward, gazed back at the girl, who radiated youth and all its
glorious freedom in every movement.

The silence was brief, but intense. Then Jane Gray gave vent to a long
ecstatic "Oh-h-h-h!" I made haste to welcome and introduce Zura.

"I can't stop," she said when I offered her a chair and refreshment;
and she added rather breathlessly: "I started for this house at noon;
side-tracked and went sailing. Just come to say thank you very much, but
I don't care for any lessons in English or manners, and I won't have any
kind old grandpa interfering with my affairs. Now I must hustle. If I