"Well, 'once upon a time,' there were two sisters. They were really only
half sisters, and the one was almost twenty years older than the other.
The mother of the elder sister had died when she was about fifteen years
of age, and two years later the father had married a beautiful young
Irish girl of very good family, who loved him dearly in spite of the
difference in their ages.

"After they had been married a little over two years, a little girl came
to them, and the older sister loved the tiny baby as dearly as she loved
her beautiful, young step-mother."

"Why, that sounds very much like Grimm's fairy tales!" exclaimed Nora.
"Only the book people are all kings and queens, but this is even better
because the heroine is actually Irish."

There was a general laugh over Nora's remark in which Mrs. Gray joined.

"It's a case of Ireland forever, isn't it Nora?" said Grace teasingly.

"'Fine and dandy are the Irish,'" said Nora with a grin, quoting from a
popular song she had heard in a recent musical comedy. "But stop teasing
me, and let Mrs. Gray go on with her story."

"When the baby sister, whose name was Edith, was about three years old,
the beautiful young mother died and left the husband inconsolable. A
year later he was killed in a railroad accident, and the elder sister,
named Margaret, was left with only little Edith to comfort her. The
father had been a rich man, so they had no anxiety about money, and
lived on year after year in their beautiful old home, with everything