Then their books were put away, and after she had kissed them good-night, and tucked the covers about them, she came back to the living-room, and sat down to her sewing with Miss Polly.

The ease and cheerfulness dropped from her at the approach of midnight, and while the two women bent over their needles they talked of their anxieties, and planned innumerable and intricate ways of economy.
"Fanny's school costs so much, and, of course, she must have clothes.
All the other girls dress so expensively." "You spend three times as much on her as you do on Archibald." "I know," her voice melted to the mother note, "but Archibald is different.

He is a man, and he will make his way in the world.

Then, too, his expenses will be trebled next year when he goes off to school, and after that, of course, will come college.

I don't believe anything or anybody can keep Archibald back," she went on proudly.