Thinking of Barbara in the light of what she had just learned she
recalled that she often looked sorry and disappointed, especially after
the postman had come and gone without leaving a letter. Only this morning
Tippy had said--could it be she thought something was wrong and was
trying to comfort her?

"Justin always was a poor hand for writing letters. Many a time I've
heard the Judge scolding and stewing around because he hadn't heard from
him when he was away at school. Letter writing came so easy to the Judge
he couldn't understand why Justin shirked it so."

Then Georgina thought of Belle in the light of what she had just learned.
Belle had carried her around in her arms when she was first brought to
live in this old gray house by the sea. She had made a companion of her
whenever she came to visit her Aunt Maria, and Georgina had admired her
because she was so pretty and blonde and gentle, and enjoyed her because
she was always so willing to do whatever Georgina wished. And now to
think that instead of being the like-everybody-else kind of a young lady
she seemed, she was like a heroine in a book who had lived through
trouble which would "blight her whole life."

Sitting there on the floor with her knees drawn up and her chin resting
on them, Georgina looked into the fire through the slits of the damper
and thought and thought. Then she looked out through the little square
window-panes across the wind-swept dunes. It did not seem like summer
with the sky all overcast with clouds. It was more like the end of a day
in the early autumn. Life seemed overcast, too.

Presently through a rift in the sky an early star stole out, and she made