She was still wan and weak; she said very little, though she smiled very pleasantly, and she sat--as Aunt Julia had said, 'slouched,' yet so gracefully--in a corner of the sofa.

The charm worked.

The girls felt it, Aunt Julia felt it, though Aunt Julia held aloof from it.

Althea saw that Aunt Julia, most certainly, did not interest Helen, but the girls amused her; she liked them.

They sat near her and made her laugh by their accounts of their journey, the funny people on the steamer, their plans for the summer, and life in America, as they lived it.