tered Jessica in her
dressing-room, very leisurely arranging her hair. Hurstwood had already
left the house.

"I wish you wouldn't be so late coming down to breakfast," she said,
addressing Jessica, while making for her crochet basket. "Now here the
things are quite cold, and you haven't eaten."

Her natural composure was sadly ruffled, and Jessica was doomed to feel
the fag end of the storm.

"I'm not hungry," she answered.

"Then why don't you say so, and let the girl put away the things,
instead of keeping her waiting all morning?"

"She doesn't mind," answered Jessica, coolly.

"Well, I do, if she doesn't," returned the mother, "and, anyhow, I don't
like you to talk that way to me. You're too young to put on such an air
with your mother."

"Oh, mamma, don't row,"; answered Jessica. "What's the matter this
morning, anyway?"

"Nothing's the matter, and I'm not rowing. You mustn't think because I
indulge you in some things that you can keep everybody waiting. I won't
have it."

"I'm not keeping anybody waiting," returned Jessica, sharply, stirred
out of a cynical indifference to a sharp defence. "I said I wasn't
hungry. I don't want any breakfast."

"Mind how you address me, missy. I'll not have it. Hear me now; I'll not
have it!"

Jessica heard this last while walking out of the room, with a toss of
her head and a flick of her pretty skirts indicative of the independence
and indifference she felt. She did not propose to be quarrelled with.

Such little arguments were all too frequent, the result of a growth
of natures which were largely independent and selfish. George, Jr.,
manifested even greater touchiness and exaggeration in the matter of his
individual rights, and attempted to make all feel that he was a man
with a man's privileges--an assumption which, of all things, is most
groundless and pointless in a youth of nineteen.

Hurstwood was a man of authority and some fine feeling, and it irritated
him excessively to find himself surrounded more and more by a world upon
which he had no hold, and of which he had a lessening understanding.

Now, when such little things, such as the proposed earlier start to
Waukesha, came up, they made clear to him his position. He was being
made to follow, was not leading. When, in addition, a sharp temper was
manifested, and to the process of shouldering him out of his authority
was added a rousing intellectual kick, such as a sneer or a cynical
laugh, he was unab