"Come," said Cecilia. 

 "Father McGowan's down," said Norah with a point of her finger over her left shoulder. "An' the man's down with doughnuts, too." Cecilia laughed. Norah's mode of announcement always made people sound diseased. Cecilia had a mental picture of a man in the throes of doughnuts—with them breaking out all over his person. 

 "You can take a dozen and a half," said Cecilia, referring to the doughnut-man, "because Johnny likes them so." 

 Norah didn't move, but stood in the doorway surveying the tumbled room. A trunk stood in the centre, lid thrown back. From it exuded frills and tails. The bed was piled high with more frilly garb. Norah sniffed loudly. Suddenly, there were sobs and then she dissolved into many tears.  "I dunno how we can do without yuh!" she explained in gulps.  "Me, and Johnny and your paw. Aw, Celie!"  Cecilia put her arms around the troubled Norah. She looked very near tears herself. 

 "I would rather stay with you, but maw wanted me learned to be a lady," she said. Her chin set.  "I gotta do it," she added.  "Paw promised her."  Norah sniffed and took the apron from her face.  "I know yuh gotta, dearie," she answered. Celie put her arms around the damp Norah.  "Norah," she said, "you will be very good to Johnny and paw? When Johnny wants paw to wear collars all the time, you take him out and give him doughnuts to divert him, will yuh?"  Norah nodded. She was sniffing again. 

 "And, Norah," went on Celie, "don't let the new cook use the blue glass butter dish everyday." 

 "N-no, dearie," answered Norah. She still stood irresolute by the door.  "Celie," she said, "when they learn yuh to be a lady, don't let 'em learn yuh not to love us." 

 "I'll always love you all," answered Cecilia. Her eyes filled with tears, and she kissed Norah. 

 Downstairs Father McGowan sat looking at a gilt cabinet decorated with forget-me-nots, and a variety of chrysanthemums never seen on sea or land. On the top shelf of the cabinet was a brick, lying on a red velvet bed. Father McGowan smiled and then sobered. He remembered a night three years past when he had pointed out possibilities to Jeremiah Madden, possibilities in the manufacture of the humble brick. The possibilities had amounted to more than even he had anticipated. Sometimes he questioned what he had done.... His hope lay in Cecilia. The boy, he was afraid, would not be helped by 

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