you are altered very much from what you used to be; and I am sure that

there is something on your mind. Why not tell me all about it? I would

promise to let it go no further, and I would not pretend to advise,

unless you wished. I am your only sister, and we have always been

together. It would make you so much more comfortable, I am certain of

that, in your own mind, darling. And you know when we were little girls,

dear mother on her death-bed put her hands upon our heads and said, 'Be

loving sisters always, and never let anything come between you.' And

for father's sake, too, you should try to do it. Put aside all nonsense

about spies and domineering, and trust me as your sister, that's my own

darling Dolly."

"How can I resist you? I will make a clean breast of it;" Dolly sighed

deeply, but a wicked smile lay ambushed in her bright eyes and upon her

rosy lips. "The sad truth is that my heart has been quite sore since I

heard the shocking tidings about poor old Daddy Stokes. He went to bed

the other night with his best hat on, both his arms in an old muff he

found in the ditch, and his leathern breeches turned inside out."

"Then the poor old man had a cleaner breast than yours," cried Faith,

who had prepared her heart and eyes for tears of sympathy; "he goes upon

his knees every night, stiff as they are, and his granddaughter has

to help him up. But as for you, you are the most unfeeling, mocking,

godless, unnatural creature that ever never cared what became of

anybody. Here we are at the corner where the path divides. You go home

that way, and I'll go home by this."

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