THE family consisted of four persons: Margaret
Lester, widow, aged thirty six; Helen Lester, her
daughter, aged sixteen; Mrs. Lester's maiden aunts,
Hannah and Hester Gray, twins, aged sixty-seven.
Waking and sleeping, the three women spent their
days and nights in adoring the young girl; in watch-
ing the movements of her sweet spirit in the mirror
of her face; in refreshing their souls with the vision
of her bloom and beauty; in listening to the music of
her voice; in gratefully recognizing how rich and fair
for them was the world with this presence in it; in
shuddering to think how desolate it would be with
this light gone out of it.

By nature--and inside--the aged aunts were ut-
terly dear and lovable and good, but in the matter
of morals and conduct their training had been so
uncompromisingly strict that it had made them
exteriorly austere, not to say stern. Their influence
was effective in the house; so effective that the
mother and the daughter conformed to its moral and
religious requirements cheerfully, contentedly, hap-
pily, unquestionably. To do this was become second
nature to them. And so in this peaceful heaven
there were no clashings, no irritations, no fault-
findings, no heart-burnings.

-66-