for this frank talk, should you?"

The girl did not speak, but, bending over, she kissed her aunt
impulsively and left the room.

"The child is finding her soul at last," said Mrs. Hapgood to
herself. "Kate had smothered it and buried it under her false
ideas of womanhood; but it is there, and Katharine might so easily
make a woman to be proud of, with her warm, loving nature, if only
she could be kept out of the 'scrabble' for a few years longer.
Well, my son, what is it?" she added aloud, as Alan came in,
yawning and stretching, and dropped into the chair just vacated by
Katharine.

"Nothing, only I'm sick of reading, and came in for my share in
the talk. Has Kit gone?"

"She just went up-stairs," answered his mother, surveying her boy
with fond pride, for, in all truth, Alan was good to look at as he
sat there, a real bonnie boy who might gladden any mother's heart.
Mother-like, she passed a caressing hand over his yellow hair, and
straightened out his coat-collar, but she only said, "Alan, you
are positively growing tall, every single day."

"Am I?" asked the boy absently. Then he went on. "Speaking of Kit,
mother, has it struck you that she is leaving off a little of her
airs and graces? She isn't near as silly as she was when she first
came."

"I don't think Katharine is silly," his mother replied; "it is