, and as she spoke she stooped and flicked a
speck of dust from her habit. "It was this way: The existence which I
lead in the minds of other people is absolutely of no importance
whatever. Now wait: I care a great deal whether school keeps or not, but
in caring I try chiefly to be true to myself. I may stumble; I may not.
In any event I seek the best. As for the scandal of which you speak,
that is nonsense. There is no criterion. That which is permissible here
is inhibited yonder, and what is permissible yonder is inhibited here.
Scandal, indeed!"

There was something about her that stirred the pulse. She was fair; the
sort of girl whose photograph is an abomination, and yet in whose face
and being a charm resides, a charm intangible and coercive, inciting to
better things. A Joan of Arc in a tailor-made gown.

"You remember how it was when we were younger--You--well, there is no
use in going into that. You had a mother to think for you; I had no one.
I had to solve problems unassisted. The weightiest of all was marriage,
and that, in my quality of heiress, I found perplexing to a degree. But
how is it possible, I asked myself, how can a girl pledge her life to a
man of whom she knows absolutely nothing? For, practically speaking,
what does the average girl know of the man whose name she takes? It may
be different in the country, but in town! Listen to me; a girl 'comes
out,' as the saying is; she meets a number of men, the majority of whom
are more or less agreeable and well-bred--when she is present. But what
are they when she is not? At dinners and routs, or when she receives
them in her own house, they are at their best; if they are not they stay
away. It is not so difficult to be agreeable once in awhile, but to be
so always is a question not of mask but of nature. It seems to me that
when an intelligent woman admires her brother it is because that brother
is really an admirable man. Has she not every opportunity of judging?
But what opportunity is given to the girl whom a man happens to take in
and out at dinner, or whom she sees for an hour or two now and then? You
must admit that her facilities are slight. That was the way it was with
me, and that was the way I fancied it would continue to be, and I
determined that it was better to remain spinster forever than to take a
man on trust and find that trust misplaced. Suspicious? No, I am not
suspicious. When your husband bought this property did you think him
susp