“What is it, Princess Win?” he cried.  “What is in your mind, little one?”

He came to the conclusion that she was not very well.  He got no information from her on the subject of her health or anything else; but thinking naturally that the change in the weather might have given her cold, he took pains to wrap her in his own mackintosh and take her home under his own large umbrella.

When there, he went in.  He was greatly cheered by the idea that, although he might not tell his mind that day, he was now and henceforth courting Sophia openly, whatever befell; but the open courting, since it had only begun with his resolution of yesterday, and existed only in his own intention, was naturally not recognised.  He was received with the ordinary everyday friendliness.  But a change had occurred in the family circumstances, nothing less than that they sat now in the long neglected and still unfurnished room which went by the name of the drawing-room.  The windows had been thrown open, and the covering taken from the family carriage.  There it stood, still wheelless, but occupied now by Sophia and Mrs. Rexford, the girls and the darning basket, while some of the children climbed upon the box.  Blue and Red, who were highly delighted with the arrangement, explained it to Trenholme.

“You see, we had a carriage we couldn’t use, and a room we couldn’t use for want of furniture; so this rainy day, when we all were so tired of the other room, mamma suddenly thought that we’d make the carriage do for furniture.  It’s the greatest fun possible.”  They gave little jumps on the soft cushions, and were actually darning with some energy on account of the change.

Trenholme shook hands with the carriage folk in the gay manner necessary to the occasion, but his heart ached for the little mother who had thus so bravely buried her last vestige of pride in the carriage by giving it to her children as a plaything.

“It’s more comfortable than armchairs, and keeps the feet from the bare floor,” she said to him, in defiance of any criticisms he might have in mind.  But all his thought was with and for her, and in this he was pleased to see that he had divined Sophia’s mind, for, after adding her warm but brief praise to the new arrangement, she changed the subject.

Winifred went upstairs quietly.  Trenholme suggested that he hardly thought her looking quite well.

“She’s an odd child,” said Sophia.  “I did not tell you, mamma, what I found her doing the other day.  She was trying on the white frock she had this spring when she was confirmed.  It’s unlike her to do a thing like that for no reason; and when I teased her she began to cry, and then began speaking to me about religion.  She has been puzzled by the views your housekeeper holds, Mr. Trenholme, and excited by old Cameron’s teaching about the end of the world.”

“I don’t think it’s the end of the world he’s prophesying exactly,” said Trenholme, musingly.  “The Adventists believe that the earth will not be ruined, but glorified by the Second Advent.”