She felt that she could not trust herself to speak, and it was in silence, and without returning her mother's caress, that she rose and sought her own room.
Mrs.Graham looked after her wistfully, tenderly, but made no effort to call her back.

The tears trembled in her soft blue eyes, and her lip quivered as she turned to her work-table; but she said quietly to herself: "Solitude is a good medicine.

The child will do well, and I know that I have chosen wisely for her." Bitter tears did Hildegarde shed as she flung herself face downward on her own blue sofa.

Angry thoughts surged through her brain.

Now she burned with resentment at the parents who could desert her,--their only child; now she melted into pity for herself, and wept more and more as she pictured the misery that lay before her.