"Eleanor," she said, seriously, "let us admit, if you want to, that I am giving the money to you. Of course it will be practically your own until you have had Tim twenty-one years. I have such faith in what you will do with him that I give the whole amount to Tim, outright, after then. I have such faith in the son he will be to you, that I am willing to let him have the joy of taking care of his mother after that time. Do you suppose I would give him money, if he were going to a stranger? Cecilia calls me Quixotic, but I assure you I am not as far gone as all that." Eleanor was weakening. "It is a great deal of money, Rosamund," she said.
"Oh, if that's all that's troubling you! It does not seem much to me. Besides, I owe the world something!"
"Ah!" Eleanor put her hand to the girl's cheek, turning her face until she could look into her eyes. "Rose, what else has the summer taught you?"
Rosamund's eyes widened a little. "We have no time to talk of that now while Timmy is waiting for his mother!"
"His mother! Oh, how you tempt me, Rose!"
"Listen, Eleanor! I have bought that little house at the Summit that the Marvens lived in. Mr. Marven is cured, and they have gone back to the city. I am going to live in it this winter, with you and Tim and Yetta; I have already sent down to Augusta for my old Mammy Susan and her husband, Matt, to meet me there two weeks from now. The Charities will not let you or me or anyone else adopt Timmy without a year's probation first. Come with me for this winter, and see how we all feel about it when the year is out. Come as my housekeeper. Put away your selfish pride, White Lady—and let your salary be what Timmy's interest would be if you had already adopted him. A year will help us all to wisdom perhaps."
Eleanor, with head bent, and hands clasped in her lap, thought for a long moment.
"I am asking you to take too much responsibility upon yourself, I suppose!" Rosamund said at last, slyly watching her friend. Eleanor turned at once, swift to deny.
"How can you insinuate such a thing! Are they open, at the Charities building, in the afternoon?"
Rosamund threw her arms about the White Lady's neck in a half-strangling embrace. "You darling! Yes, we will go there at once! I told them we'd be there this afternoon!"