ave
done me a service you were never more mistaken in your life. You have
simply destroyed my usefulness for the time being; but you have given
me an opportunity to show you what I think of your intermeddling."

"Jane! you know that he has meddled with you only for your own good,"
said the older woman. "You ought to thank him on your knees."

"On my knees!" she exclaimed angrily. "On my knees! I dare say he would
like to see me on my knees before him, but he'll see me dead first." I
was surprised at the heat she showed over the matter.

"Your mother," I said, "has simply used an unfortunate expression. You
owe me nothing--and if you owed me everything a kind word would more
than repay me."

She bit her lip, but made no reply. "It's her way," explained the
mother, "and I'm free to say it's a very poor way. It has always been
her way. Love her and she'll hurt you; do her a favor and she'll
pretend to despise you. Her kind words are as scarce as pearls among
the poor. Scarce, but when they are spoken they make up for all the
rest. Don't be angry with her; a big man like you shouldn't care what a
child like her says."

"Child! I am older than he is," said Jane Ryder.

"But age is not age unless it has experience and judgment," remarked
the older woman, serenely. "Without them, age is another form of
childishness."

"What are you going to do with me?" asked Jane Ryder, turning to me.
She was evidently weary of a discussion of which she was the subject.

She had placed her finger squarely on my perplexity, for this was
indeed the great problem that I had to solve--what should I do with
her? Not to-morrow, nor the day after, but now--to-night. The question
had occurred to me a dozen times, but I had put it aside, trusting its
solution to the moment when it could be no longer postponed. I
hesitated so long that both of the women sat staring at me. "You have
not answered my question," said Jane Ryder, "and it is important that I
should know."

"I might give you your parole for the night," I answered.

"You persist in regarding me as your prisoner?"

"I have my orders," I replied. "You know that as well as I do."

"Thank you for your information. Good-night!" and she was gone before I
could say a word, even if I had known what to say. All I could do was
to stare blankly at the door through which she had disappeared. I had
known all along that if she once took the matter in her own hands I
should be powerless, for s