II.

OLIVIA TO THE RESCUE.


With the first glance into Olivia's dark gray eyes Pauline ceased
to resent her as an intruder. And soon she was feeling that some
sort of dawn was assailing her night.

Olivia was the older by three years. She seemed--and for her
years, was--serious and wise because, as the eldest of a large
family, she was lieutenant-general to her mother. Further, she
had always had her own way--when it was the right way and did not
conflict with justice to her brothers and sisters. And often her
parents let her have her own way when it was the wrong way, nor
did they spoil the lesson by mitigating disagreeable
consequences.

"Do as you please," her mother used to say, when doing as she
pleased would involve less of mischief than of valuable
experience, "and perhaps you'll learn to please to do
sensibly." Again. her father would restrain her mother from
interference--"Oh, let the girl alone. She's got to teach
herself how to behave, and she can't begin a minute too young."
This training had produced a self-reliant and self-governing
Olivia.

She wondered at the change in Pauline--Pauline, the