You must have noticed it, Esther ?" The girl sighed and gave in.

Usually Aunt Amy's vagaries troubled her little.

Disconcerting at first, they had quickly become a commonplace, for the coming of Aunt Amy to the doctor's household had been too great a blessing to invite criticism.

Esther had soon learned to express no surprise when told that the sprigged china had a heart of extreme sensitiveness, and that the third step on the front stair disliked to be trodden upon, and that it was dangerous to sit with one's back to a window facing the east.

All these and numberless other strange facts were part of Aunt Amy's twilight world.