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Lena shut the door and ca her hat and

coat on the bed in the corner, where a forlorn counterpane showed by the

hollows and hills beneath that it had given up all atteirl sat down listlessly with her hands in her lap

"You've been gone a long time, Lena," said the mother in a delicately

querulous voice "You're fortunate to be able to get out instead of

being cooped up in this little roohed

with conscious pathos "I sometimes wonder if you ever think of your

poor ht to be

used to people's always forgetting me"

"Much I have to come home to!" Lena answered "You're about as cheerful

as barbed wire But you can coer, any way"

"Why, what's the matter now?"

"Do you expect me to wear a felt hat all summer?" Lena asked sharply

"I' and I should think you'd be

ashahed and lapsed into the creaking coy," she said at last "But if you had your way you'd spend

every last cent of the pension the very day it coot to look