“I have now received ample funds for all your needs, Mary Louise, so I have sent to Miss Stearne to have your trunk and books forwarded.”

“Oh; then you have heard from Gran’pa Jim?” she asked eagerly.

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

“I do not know,” chopping the words apart with emphasis.  “The Colonel has been very liberal.  I am to put twenty dollars in cash in your pocketbook and you are to come to me for any further sums you may require, which I am ordered to supply without question.  I would have favored making you an allowance, had I been consulted, but the Colonel is—­eh—­eh—­the Colonel is the Colonel.”

“Didn’t Gran’pa Jim send me any letter, or—­any information at all?” she asked wistfully.

“Not a word.”

“In my last letter, which you promised me to forward, I begged him to write me,” she said, with disappointment.

Peter Conant made no reply.  He merely stared at her.  But afterward, when the two girls were alone, Irene said to her: 

“I do not think you should beg your grandfather to write you.  A letter might be traced by his enemies, you know, and that would mean his undoing.  He surely loves you and bears you in mind, for he has provided for your comfort in every possible way.  Even your letters to him may be dangerous, although they reach him in such roundabout ways.  If I were you, Mary Louise, I’d accept the situation as I found it and not demand more than your grandfather and your mother are able to give you.”

This frank advice Mary Louise accepted in good part and through the influence of the chair-girl she gradually developed a more contented frame of mind.

Irene was a persistent reader of books and one of Mary Louise’s self-imposed duties was to go to the public library and select such volumes as her friend was likely to be interested in.  These covered a wide range of subjects, although historical works and tales of the age of chivalry seemed to appeal to Irene more than any others.  Sometimes she would read aloud, in her sweet, sympathetic voice, to Mary Louise and Mrs. Conant, and under these conditions they frequently found themselves interested in books which, if read by themselves, they would be sure to find intolerably dry and uninteresting.  The crippled girl had a way of giving more than she received and, instead of demanding attention, would often entertain the sound-limbed ones of her immediate circle.

CHAPTER XIII

BUB SUCCUMBS TO FORCE

One day Peter Conant abruptly left his office, came home and packed his grip and then hurried down town and caught the five o’clock train for New York.  He was glum and uncommunicative, as usual, merely telling Aunt Hannah that business called him away and he did not know when he would be back.

A week later Peter appeared at the family breakfast table, having arrived on the early morning express, and he seemed in a more gracious mood than usual.  Indeed, he was really talkative.