CHAPTER II

MOYA AND SHEILA

Elisabeth of Belgium was walking sturdily now on the legs that had been
too weak to uphold her when she first came to Rosemont in November.
Her increasing strength was an increasing delight to all the people who
loved her--and there was no one who knew her who did not love her--but
her activity obliged her caretakers to be incessantly on the alert.
Miss Merriam, the skilled young woman from the School of Mothercraft,
who had pulled her through her period of greatest feebleness, now found
herself sometimes quite outdone by the energy of her little charge.

The Ethels were always glad to relieve her of her responsibilities for
an hour or two, and it was the afternoon of the day after Roger had
reported his plan to the Club that found the cousins strolling down
Church Street, "Ayleesabet" between them, clinging to a finger of each,
not to help her stand upright but to serve as a pair of supports from
which she might swing herself off the ground.

"See! She lifted her whole weight then!" exclaimed Ethel Blue. "We
shall have to give up calling her 'baby' soon. She's becoming an
acrobat!"

"It's all due to Miss Merriam. I wish she didn't look so tired the
last few days."

Ethel Blue made no reply. She guessed something of the reason that had
made Miss Gertrude appear distressed and silent. A certain note that
she herself had placed in a May basket and hung on Miss Merriam's door