What a luxurious, happy, sleepy time Jewel had that night in the pretty rose-bower where her mother undressed her while her father and grandfather went back downstairs.

It was very sweet to be helped and cuddled as if she were again a baby, and as she lay in bed and watched her mother setting the flowers in the bathroom and arranging everything, she tried to talk to her on some of the subjects that were uppermost in her mind.  Mrs. Evringham came at last and lay down beside her.  Jewel nestled into the loving arms and kissed her cheek.

“I’m too happy to go to sleep,” she declared, then sighed, and instantly pretty room and pretty mother had disappeared.

Mrs. Evringham lay there on the luxurious bed, the sleeping child in her arms, and her thoughts were rich with gratitude.  Her life had never been free from care:  first as a young girl in her widowed mother’s home, then as wife of the easy-going and unprincipled youth, whose desertion of her and her baby had filled her cup of bitterness, though she bravely struggled on.  Her mother had died; and soon afterward the light of Christian Science had dawned upon her path.  Strengthened by its support, she had grown into new health and courage, and life was beginning to blossom for her when her repentant husband returned.

For a time his wayward habits were a care to her; but he was sincerely ashamed of himself, and the discovery of the development of character in the pretty girl whom he had left six years before roused his manhood.  To her joy he began to take an interest in the faith which had wrought such changes in her, and after that she had no doubts of the outcome.  From the moment when she obtained for him a business position, it became his ambition to take his rightful place in the world and to guard her from rough contact, and though as yet he still leaned upon her judgment, and she knew herself to be the earthly mainspring of all their business affairs, she knew, also, that his desire was right, and the knowledge sweetened her days.

Here in this home which was, to her unaccustomed eyes, palatial in its appointments, with her child again in her arms, she gave thanks for the joy of the present hour.  A day or two of pleasure in these surroundings, and then she and Harry would relieve Mr. Evringham of the care they had imposed upon him.

He had borne it nobly, there was no doubt about that.  He had even complicated existence by giving Jewel a pony.  How a pony would fit into the frugal, busy life of the Chicago apartment, Julia did not know; but her child’s dearest wish had been gratified, and there was nothing to do but appreciate and enjoy the fact.  After all, Harry’s father must have more paternal affection than her husband had ever given him credit for; for even on the most superficial acquaintance one could see that any adaptation of his life and tastes to those of a child would have to come with creaking difficulty to the stock broker, and the fact of Jewel’s ease with him told an eloquent story of how far Mr. Evringham must have constrained himself for Harry’s sake.