She had none of those self-complacent delusions which lure vain women on in slothfulness until Love vacates his neglected temple.

And in large part, no doubt, Arthur's appearance--none of the stains and patches of the usual workingman, and this though he worked hard at manual labor and in a shop--was due to her influence of example; he, living with such a woman, would have been ashamed not to keep "up to the mark." Also her influence over old Mrs.Ranger became absolute; and swiftly yet imperceptibly the house, which had so distressed Adelaide, was transformed, not into the exhibit of fashionable ostentation which had once been Adelaide's and Arthur's ideal, but into a house of comfort and beauty, with colors harmonizing, the look of newness gone from the "best rooms," and finally the "best rooms" themselves abolished.

And Ellen thought herself chiefly responsible for the change.

"I'm gradually getting things just about as I want 'em," said she.

"It does take a long time to do anything in this world!" Also she believed, and a boundless delight it was to her, that she was the cause of Madelene's professional success.