“I am doing wrong, but I can't help it.” The girl took her supporting hand from the doll and pressed it to her eyes a second before dropping it. “What were you doing when I came in?”
“I was just going to get the lesson.”
“Oh, do you go on with your studies? Perhaps I can help you better than Anna Belle.”
“Would you cousin Eloise?” Jewel flushed with pleasure. “Some of the words are so long. I thought I'd ask grandpa to-night.”
“Why didn't you wish to come to me?” questioned Eloise, well knowing why.
The little girl looked a trifle embarrassed. “I didn't want to trouble you. Of course you aren't my real relations,” she said modestly.
“Do you remember that, too!” exclaimed Eloise.
Jewel started at the hurt voice. “Would you like to be?” she asked earnestly. “I wish you were, because”—she hesitated and smiled with her head a little on the side, “because I might look more like you.”
The gravity of Eloise's lips remained unbroken. “I want you to promise me something, Jewel. I want you to promise not to tell your grandfather that I have been with you to-day.”
“Why? He'd be glad I was happy.”