"Oh, I only meant the orphan asylum, so please don't be frightened," she
explained. "I have lived there, it is just at the edge of town, ever
since I was a little girl, because when my mother and father died, there
was nothing else to do with me. But you need not feel specially sorry,
because I have never been ill-treated in the fashion you read about in
books. Most of the people in charge have been very kind and I have been
going to school for years. Only when your mother came last week and
said she wanted me to come here to live, why it did seem kind of
wonderful to find out what a beautiful home was like, and then most of
all I wanted to know you. You will think it strange of me, but I have
been seeing you with your mother or nurse ever since you were a little
girl of three or four and I a little older, and I have always been
interested in you."

Betty smiled, showing a dimple which sometimes appeared after an
exhibition of temper of which she felt ashamed. "Oh, you will be sorry
enough to know what I am really like," she answered, "and will probably
think I am dreadfully spoiled. But do please stay for a while if you
wish, at least until we find how we get on together."

Since Betty's first speech at the door had startled her, Esther had
never for a moment taken her eyes from her face. Never in all her life,
even when she had seen and learned far more of the ways of the world,
could this girl learn not to speak the truth. So now she slowly shook
her head. "Your mother did say you were spoiled; it was one reason why
she wished me to come here to live," she replied. "You see, she said
that you had been too much alone and had too much done for you and that
your brother was so much older that he only helped to spoil you. But,"
Esther was hardly conscious of her listener and seemed only to be
thinking aloud, "I shall not mind if you are spoiled, for how can you