Mrs. Forbes turned off the light and went out, closing the door behind her.

“If she’d always speak when she’s spoken to, and be quiet and modest as she is with me, she’d be a very well-behaved child,” she soliloquized.  “I could train her.  I shouldn’t wonder at all if her mother should see a great difference in her when she comes back.”

The housekeeper went heavily downstairs.  Jewel, pushing off the bedclothes, listened attentively to the retiring steps, and when they could no longer be heard, she jumped out of bed nimbly, and feeling for the electric switch, turned on the light.  Her breath was coming rather unevenly, and she ran over the soft carpet to where her doll lay.  Catching her up, she pressed her to her breast, then sitting down in the big chair, she began to undress her, crossing one little bare foot over the other knee to make a lap.

“Darling Anna Belle, did you think I’d forgotten you?” she asked breathlessly.  “Did you think you weren’t going to have any one to kiss you good-night?  It’s hard not to have any one you love kiss you good-night.”  Jewel dashed her hand across her eyes quickly, then went swiftly on with her work.  “You might have known that I was only waiting until that—­that giantess went away.  She wouldn’t let me bring you down to dinner, dearie, but you didn’t miss anything.  Poor grandpa, I don’t wonder any longer that he doesn’t look happy.  He has the sorriest people all around him that you ever saw.  He lives in a big, beautiful castle, but it’s Castle Discord.  I named it that at dinner.  Nobody loves one another.  Of course grandpa loves me, because I’m his own little grandchild, but he’s too sorry to show it.  The beautiful enchanted maiden, and the Error fairy, and the giantess, are all making discord around him.  A little flat is better than a big castle, isn’t it?  We know a flat—­let’s call it Harmony Flat, Anna Belle.  Perhaps if we’re very, very, good, we’ll get back there some time.”  Jewel suddenly pressed the doll’s nightdress against her wet eyes.  “Don’t, don’t, dearie!  I know it does seem a year since—­since the boat this morning.  If all the days were as long as this, we’d be very, very old when father and mother come home.”  The soft voice broke in a sob.  “I don’t know what I should do if you weren’t a Christian Scientist, Anna Belle.  We’ll help each other all we can.  Now come—­come into bed and say your prayers.”

“Say your—­your prayer first, dearie,” she whispered, sobbing:—­

     “’Father, Mother, God,
     Loving me,—­
     Guard me when I sleep;
     Guide my little feet
     Up to Thee.’

“Now you’ll feel—­better, dearie.  In a minute you won’t be so—­homesick for—­for—­father and mother.  Hush, while I say mine.”

Jewel repeated the Lord’s Prayer.  When she had finished, her breath still caught convulsively, so she continued:—­