"May I come in, Aunt Helen?"
"Certainly, dear." Aunt Helen looked up from the open Bible on her knee, and welcomed Jean with a cheery smile. "Where were you all yesterday? I did not have a glimpse of you."
The girl crossed the room, and dropping down into an easy-chair near the open window, gazed listlessly out across the sunlit lawn.
"Oh, I was just here as usual."
Aunt Helen closed her Bible and laid it carefully down on the table.
"Are you tired already of so much pleasuring, Jeanie?"
"I don't see that we have had a great deal of pleasuring lately," her niece replied perversely. "I think Hetherford is the stupidest place in the world, and I am tired of everything."
Aunt Helen was far too wise to remonstrate just then. After a moment's silence, she opened a subject which had never failed to awaken an interest in Jean.
"I had a nice letter from Mrs. Appleton to-day. They seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves now, and she says Guy is working splendidly and expects to accomplish great things on his return."
"Yes," was Jean's inattentive response, as her eyes marked the circling of a buzzing fly outside the window.