this, Hilda? for I feel it a SOLEMN DUTY to warn you!’ My dear, she actually LAUGHED! and only said, ’Dear Madge, I have only just begun to have any life!’ And that was all I could get out of her, for just then some one came in.  But even this is not the worst!  Oh, Helen! she has some of the creatures whom she saw this summer, actually staying in the house,—­in THAT house, which we used to call Castle Graham, and were almost afraid to enter ourselves, so stately and beautiful it was!  There are two of these creatures,—­a girl about our age, some sort of dreadful cripple, who goes about in a bath-chair, and a freckled imp of a boy.  The girl is at ——­ Hospital for treatment, but spends every Sunday at the Grahams’, and Hilda devotes most of her spare time to her.  The boy is at school,—­one of the best schools in the city.  ’But who are these people?’ I hear you cry.  My dear! they are simply ignorant paupers, who were Hilda’s constant companions through that disastrous summer.  Now their mother is dead, and the people with whom Hilda stayed have adopted them.  The boy is to be a doctor, and the girl is going to get well, Dr. George says. (He calls her a beautiful and interesting creature; but you know what that means. Any diseased creature is beautiful to him!) Well, and THESE, my dear Helen, are Hilda Graham’s FRIENDS, for whom she has deserted her OLD ones! for though she is unchanged towards me when I see her, I hardly ever do see her.  She cares nothing for my pursuits, and I certainly have NO intention of joining in hers.  I met her the other day on Fifth Avenue, walking beside that odious bath-chair, which the freckled boy was pushing.  She looked so lovely (for she is prettier than ever, with a fine color and eyes like stars), and was talking so earnestly, and walking somehow as if she were treading on air, it sent a PANG through my heart.  I just paused an instant (for though I trust I am not SNOBBISH, Helen, still, I draw the line at bath-chairs, and will not be seen standing by one), and said in a low tone, meant only for her ear, ’Ah! has Queen Hildegarde come to this?’ My dear, she only LAUGHED!  But that girl, that cripple, looked up with a smile and a sort of flash over her face, and said, just as if she knew me, ‘Yes, Miss Everton! the Queen has come to her kingdom!’”

THE END

Selections from The Page Company’s Books for Young People

* * * * *

THE BLUE BONNET SERIES

Each large 12mo, cloth decorative, illustrated, per volume $1.75

A TEXAS BLUE BONNET