Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/157

 player. But they're both so busy with the real sums of life that they haven't time to bother with the little ones, and don't take them seriously. And there I believed I was coming home famous!" she thought, and added: "Why, I don't believe they've even heard about it."

But Aunt Grace had heard about it. "How well you're looking!" she said. "No wonder I hardly knew your picture in the paper when Margaret showed it to me."

So then, of course, they began to talk about Charlotte's pretty cousin.

"Poor Margaret!" sighed Aunt Grace. "She's not very happy, I'm afraid. Willis was such a good husband at first. But the last year Margaret's been left alone in that big house for weeks at a time. She talks about coming home this winter, but I declare I don't know what to do."

"How's Doctor Kennedy getting along?" asked Charlotte (oh, ever so