Mildred Carruthers had come at once, in the first hour of the girl's grief, to carry her off to the big house, which was now amply justified by the size of the doctor's practice.
Only, where would Mary go to but home?
In all those years in the great house on the Mall she had never come to find Wistaria Terrace too little and lowly for her.

Indeed, there was a wonderful wholesomeness and sweetness to her mind about the little house.

The transfiguring mists of her love lay rosily over even the drudgery of her childish days.

To be sure, there had been hard work and short commons.

She had been insufficiently clad in winter, too heavily clad in summer.