“I think I have never lacked love for Bertie, though I may not always have given expression to my feelings.  If at times I have deplored his reckless waywardness, and expostulated with him, genuine affection prompted me; but I promise you now, that I will do all a sister possibly can for a brother.  Trust me, mother; and rest in the assurance that his welfare shall be more to me than my own; that should the necessity arise, I will stand between him and trouble.  Banish all depressing forebodings.  When you are strong and well, and when I paint my great picture, we will buy a pretty cottage among the lilacs and roses, where birds sing all day long, where cattle pasture in clover nooks; and then Bertie, your darling, shall never leave you again.”

“I do trust you, for your promise means more than oath and vows from other people, and if occasion demand, I know you will guard my Bertie, my high-strung, passionate, beautiful boy!  Your pretty cottage?  Ah, child! when shall we dwell in Spain?”

“Some day, some day; only be hopeful, and let me find you better when I return.  Sleep, and dream of our pretty cottage.  I must hurry away with my pictures, for this is pay day.”

Tying the strings of her hat under one ear, and covering her face with a blue veil, Beryl took a pasteboard box from a table, on which lay brushes and paints, and leaving the door a-jar, went down the narrow stairs.

At the window of a small hall on the next floor, a woman sat before her sewing-machine, bending so close to her work that she did not see the tall form, which paused before her, until a hand was laid on the steel plate.

“Mrs. Emmet, will you please be so good as to go up after a while, and see if mother needs anything?”

“Certainly, Miss, if I am here, but I have some sewing to carry home this afternoon.”

“I shall not be absent more than two hours.  To-night I am going South, to attend to some business; and mother tells me you have promised to wait upon her, and allow your daughter Maggie to sleep on a pallet by her bed, while I am gone.  I cannot tell you how grateful I shall be for any kindness you may show her, and I wish you would send the baby often to her room, as he is so sweet and cunning, and his merry ways amuse her.”

“Yes, I will do all I can.  We poor folks who have none of this world’s goods, ought to be rich at least in sympathy and pity for each other’s suffering, for it is about all we have to share.  Don’t you worry and fret, for I will see your ma has what she needs.  I was mothered by the best woman God ever made, and since she died, every sick mother I see has a sort of claim on my heart.”

Pausing an instant to adjust the tucker of her machine, Mrs. Emmet looked up, and involuntarily the women shook hands, as if sealing a compact.

It was a long walk to the building whither Beryl directed her steps, and as she passed through the rear entrance of a large and fashionable photograph establishment, she was surprised to find that it was half-past two o’clock.