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She hadn't realized it fully, she had been so busy But noith the last service over, an empty house about her, an e with startled eyes into the future and facing facts

It was Ellen's attempt to saddle her with a new responsibility and fit her out to drudge on to the end of her days that had suddenly brought the whole thing out in its true light She was tired Too tired to begin all over again and raise those children for Ellen They were nice, healthy children and well behaved; but they were Ellen's children, and alould be If she went out to live with the Robinsons, she would be Ellen's hand that she must do whatever she was asked, whether she was able or not, because she was a dependent Never anything for love Oh, Ellen loved her in a way, of course, and she loved Ellen; but they had never understood each other, and Ellen's children had been brought up to laugh and joke at her expense as if she were so

"O Aunt Julia!" they would say in a tone of pity and scorn, as if she were too ignorant to understand even their sneers

Perhaps it was pride, but Julia Cloud felt she would rather die than face a future like that It was respectable, of course, and entirely reliable She would be fed and clothed, and nursed when she was ill She would be buried respectably when she died, and the neighbors would say the Robinsons had been kind and done the right thing by her; but Julia Cloud shuddered as she looked down the long, dull vista of that future which was offered her, and drew back for the first ti better in view, only that she shrank fro inevitable and irrevocable grayness to the end of her days She was not above cooking and nursing and toiling forever if there were independence to be had She would have given her life if love beckoned her She would have gone to France as a nurse in a moment if she had not been needed at her mother's bedside Little children drew her powerfully, but to be a drudge for children who did not love her, in a home where love was the only condition that would make dependence possible, looked intolerable

Julia Cloud had loved everybody that would let her, and had received very little love in return Back in the years when she elve and went to school a boy of fifteen or sixteen had been her coether whenever Julia had time to play, and had roamed the woods and waded the creeks in coood-by and told her that soet her It was a childish affection, but it was the only kiss of that kind she had to remember