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"Are you happy?" retorted Zora, looking her over carefully, froarden hat Mrs Vanderpool laid aside her little mockery and met the situation bravely

"No," she replied sirew old and tired

Involuntarily Zora's hand crept out protectingly and lay a ers Then quickly recovering herself, she started hastily to withdraw it, but the woers closed around the darker ones, and Mrs Vanderpool's eyes beca the half-formed question, "Yes, and you need me; we need each other In the world lies opportunity, and I will help you"

Zora rose abruptly, and Mrs Vanderpool feared, with a tightening of heart, that she had lost this strangely alluring girl

"I will come to-morrow," said Zora

As Mrs Vanderpool went in to lunch, reaction and lingering doubts ca back To replace the daintiest of trained experts with thesemi-barbarian, well!

"Have you hired a hed Mrs Vanderpool, lightly; "and now I' whether I have a jewel or--a white elephant"

"Probably neither," remarked Harry Cresswell, drily; but he avoided the lady's inquiring eyes

NextZora came easily into Mrs Vanderpool's life There was little she knew of her duties, but little, too, that she could not learn with a deftness and divination alth, were like a soothing balm to the tired woman of fashion, and within a week she had sunk back contentedly into Zora's strong arms

"It's a jewel," she decided

With this verdict, the house agreed The servants waited on "Miss Zora" gladly; the men scarcely saw her, and the ladies ran to her for help in all sorts Harry Cresswell looked upon this transformation with an aerous obstinacy in a black girl who hitherto had refused to work

Zora had been in the house but a hen a large express package was received froht a cry of pleasure from the ladies There lay a bolt of silken-like cambric of wondrous fineness and lustre, -dress" The explanation accoe, that Mary Taylor had a si of the cablegra the ca invitations appeared

"A Cresswell own be delayed, and sure enough a cablegra that there was little likelihood of the gown being ready by Easter It would be shipped at the earliest convenience, but it could hardly catch the necessary boat Helen had a good cry, and then caet John Taylor's cloth ready Still, Helen was querulous She decided that silk embroidery must embellish the skirt The dressmaker was in despair