She was a year older than Ellen Ranger; but so skillfully was she got together that, had she confessed to forty or even thirty-eight, one who didn't know would have accepted her statement as too cautious by hardly more than a year or so.

The indisputably artificial detail in her elegant appearance was her hair; its tinting, which had to be made stronger year by year as the gray grew more resolute, was reaching the stage of hard, rough-looking red.

"Another year or two," thought Adelaide, "and it'll make her face older than she really is.

Even now she's getting a tough look." Matilda kissed Mrs.Ranger and Adelaide affectedly on both cheeks.

"I'm so glad to find you in!" said she.