could go, too. She had never talked to any one
who was “queer.” Perhaps she would not be
obliged to say anything. Lucia had a second
thought, she said, and went to bring the new
doll. This looked not a little like Lucia herself,
with its waving black hair and black eyes,
though its round cheeks and complacent smile
were not a reproduction of Lucia, who was a
little thinner than when she had arrived from
Italy.

“It may amuse Grandmother to see it,” said
Lucia, carrying the box which contained the doll.

Up a winding stair they went to a third floor,
as imposing as either the first or second and
with ceilings as high as those of the second.
“There is a little attic over this floor,” Lucia
explained, “which makes the floor quite com-
fortable even in the summer. They go up to
keep a current of air passing in the attic and
have to watch that floor in storms, of course, for
Grandmother's rooms would be flooded, per-
haps. It's been rather hard for Uncle to get
good help to look after her properly; but now
he has a nurse that used to be her maid and
likes her.”

A door stood open where Lucia stopped.
Betty glanced into a beautifully furnished
sitting room where some one was sitting, ap-

[[81]]

(previous-page) (table-of-contents) (next-page)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 v?