“That is unfortunate,—­for the Judge’s purse.  How is Aunt Marthe?”

“She is well,” she answered with a sudden stillness in her voice.  She could not trust herself to talk about this friend of hers to careless questioners.  “How is Uncle Lawrence, and all the others?”

“The Judge is in his usual state of health, I fancy.  We rarely meet except at the table and then you know personal questions are not considered in good form.  The others are well, and Isabelle, having just returned from the metropolis of Fashion, is more than ever au fait in the usages of polite society.  But none of them have improved like you, little coz.  What has changed you so?”

And she answered softly, with a new light shining in her lovely eyes,—­“Jesus Christ.”

* * * * *

“You poor Evadne!” said Marion that evening, “what a dreary summer you must have had, shut away among those stupid mountains!  If you could only have been with me, now.  I never had such a lovely vacation in my life.  There seemed to be some excitement every day;—­picnics and boating parties and tennis matches and five o’clocks——­”

Evadne laughed.  “You would better not let Uncle Horace know you are ’a votary of the deadly five o’clock’ or he will empty his vials of denunciation upon your unlucky head.

“Oh, Aunt Kate, he sent you a large bundle of fraternal greetings.  He says that, ’viewed through the glamour of memory, you impress him like an Alpine landscape, when the sun is rising, and he hopes the soft brilliance of prosperity will ever envelop you in its radiance and serve to enhance the beauty of your stately calm.’”

Mrs. Hildreth smiled, well pleased.  “Horace is so poetical,” she said, “but all the Everidges are clever.  What a shame it seems that a man of his talent should be forced by ill health to exist in a place where there is not a single soul capable of appreciating his rare qualities.  Even his wife does not begin to understand him.  It seems like casting pearls before swine.”

Evadne’s eyes flashed and her lips pressed themselves tightly together, but Mrs. Hildreth’s gaze was fixed intently upon the lace shawl she was knitting and Louis just then gave a sudden turn to the conversation.

She went up to her room with a great homesickness surging at her heart.  Only last night all had been lightsome and happy, now the old darkness seemed to have settled down about her again.  She knelt before her window and looked at the strip of sky which was all a Marlborough residence allowed her.  “Happy stars!” she murmured, “for you are shining on Aunt Marthe!”

Far into the night she knelt there, until a great peace flooded her soul.  She raised her hands towards the sparkling sky.  “To make the world brighter, to make the world better, to lift the world nearer to God.  Blessed Christ, that was thy mission.  I will make it mine!”

The next morning Louis drew her aside.  “So, little coz, you did not coincide with the lady mother’s eulogium of our respected collateral last night?”