igram, to her annoyance.

"But nobody minded it but you, dear Mrs. Dickett," the red-haired girl
soothed her, "and it's all in how you take those things, don't you
think? Of course, if you find it wrong, why then it is wrong--for you.
But really, I assure you, I simply paid no attention to it..."

"Then you must allow me to say that I think you should have!" Mrs.
Dickett snapped out.

"Oh, come, mother, a woman of twenty-five is to all intents and
purposes as capable of hearing--anything--as a married woman," said
Molly lazily. "I'm not a school girl, you know."

"I know that," her mother replied shortly, and might have added that
Molly looked Kathryn's age--which she did, and Kathryn was twenty-eight.

She was, however, if anything, handsomer than when her cheek had its
fuller curve, for her eyes looked larger and her mouth had more
mobility: there was a stimulation in her tenseness. Mrs. Dickett felt
a little troubled.

"Although, of course, Molly admitted that the creature had no character
and sang that sort of song purposely," she confided to her husband.

Imagine, then, her feelings when Molly's interview with the singer was
printed! She began a severe letter to her--and ceased midway of the
first paragraph. What possible hold had she over her daughter? What
did she know of her friends and associates, and what, had she known and
disapproved, would it have mattered to Molly? Since the day she won
her college scholarship at eighteen she had been independent,
financially speaking, and, though financial independence is not, of
course, everything ... but it would almost seem that it is! There must
be some mistake here. Mrs. Dickett chewed the end of her pen and
thought as hard as she had ever thought in her life. Nonsense! What
finally settles the thing is public opinion--Society. If one's world
turns the cold shoulder, one retracts, capitulates, acknowledges that
the conventions are in the right of it. Well; but Molly's world was
not the suburban circle of the Dicketts and her world applauded her;
she stood high in it; her interview with the unspeakable one was "a
great hit," in their jargon. Molly, in short, applied different
standards, was in another class--was it, could it be, a Lower Class?
And yet, the baronet!

Mrs. Dickett tore her letter through.

It is quite true that they didn't see her for a year, after
that--eighteen months, if you except Kathryn's flying luncheon with her
at the ti