“YOUR young friend,” Rose commented, “is as affectionate as she’s pretty: sending her love to people she has never seen! ”

“She only meant the little girl. I think it’s rather nice of her,” said Mrs. Beever. “ My interest in these anxieties is always confined to the mamma. I thought we were going so straight.”

“I dare say we are,” Miss Armiger replied. “But Nurse told me an hour ago that I’m not to see her at all this morning. It will be the first morning for several days.”

Mrs. Beever was silent a little. “ You’ve enjoyed a privilege altogether denied to me.”

“Ah, you must remember,” said Rose, “that I’m Julia’s oldest friend. That’s always the way she treats me.”

Mrs. Beever assented¹. “ Familiarly, of course. Well, you’re not mine; but that’s the way I treat you too,” she went on. “ You must wait with me here for more news, and be as still as a mouse.”

“Dear Mrs. Beever,” the girl protested, “ I never made a noise in all my life! ”

“You will some day you’re so clever,” Mrs. Beever said.

“I’m clever enough to be quiet.” Then Rose added, less gaily³: “ I’m the one thing of her own that dear Julia has ever had.”

Mrs. Beever raised her eyebrows⁴. “ Don’t you count her husband? ”

“I count Tony immensely; but in another way.”

Again Mrs. Beever considered: she might have been wondering in what way even so expert a young person as this could count Anthony Bream except as a treasure to his wife. But what she presently articulated was: “Do you call him f Tony ‘ to himself?”

Miss Armiger met her question this time promptly⁵. “He has asked me to and to do it even to Julia. Don’t be afraid! ” she exclaimed; “ I know my place and I shan’t go too far. Of course he’s everything to her now,” she continued, “ and the child is already almost as much; but what I mean is that if he counts for a great deal more, I, at least, go back a good deal further. Though I’m three years older we were brought together as girls by one of the strongest of all ties the tie of a common aversion.”

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