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Rh daughter!” he exclaimed. “Fancy her having three such beautiful daughters as she has, and not one in the least like her charming self! I can’t believe you are really her child!”

Mary looked around and saw that her mother had gone on up to her room.

“Well,” thought Mary loyally, “if she won’t encourage him, at least there’s no use in letting him think she’s old and undesirable! She doesn’t seem one bit like my mother to me either,” she said aloud. “She was such a young girl when I was born that she is like another sister, but one that we all feel we must take more care of than we ever did of our other two sisters. She is young, of course, but she’s young in other ways than years.”

“Quite right, Miss Garden!” Lord Wilfrid agreed heartily. He came close to Mary, speaking low and earnestly.

“Don’t you see that I long to take care of her myself? Don’t you think she needs a man’s protection? You would not oppose me if I tried to win her, would you? Can’t you see why I took this work to be near her?”

Mary moved away, nervously longing to laugh yet wishing to be kind to this strange being. “I can’t help feeling that we can take care of