"I wish I were going to college," cried Adele one day, fluttering about a number of parcels that had just arrived. "I never saw such a lot of hats and gowns. You will be the best dressed girl there, Bee."
"Will I?" asked Bee indifferently. Pretty frocks were all very well in their place, but they did not relieve the ache in her heart.
"You don't care a thing about them," declared her cousin. "You are such a funny girl! Isn't she, mamma?"
"A little inclined so," answered Mrs. Raymond, who delighted in pretty clothes. "Bee, do take more interest. It is ungrateful not to appreciate what your father is doing for you. Now, Adele cares a great deal more about her appearance than you do about yours, yet I should not get her so many things. Of course William knows that you need more dressing is the reason he is so liberal."
"No, Aunty," returned Bee. "Father is not generous because of that, but because he wishes to make up to me for his absence."
And with the utterance of these words it became clear to her that this was in truth the reason. That he was not quite easy in his mind regarding her, and sought this means to relieve the feeling. A quick gush of tenderness flooded her being.
"I must be brave," she told herself over and over. "It distresses him because I am unhappy. I must be brave."
"Bee," spoke Adele sharply, "what in the world are you mooning about? Mamma has spoken to you twice."
"I beg your pardon, aunty," said Bee contritely. "I did not hear you. I was thinking."
"You should conquer that habit of inattentiveness," chided her aunt. "I notice that it is growing on you. What has come over you, Bee? I never saw such a change in a girl in all my life!"