But I do think it's terribly hard on
Mother and Dad!"

"But how _could_ she, that great big black creature?"

"Oh, she loves him fast enough! It was perfectly legal, of course. I
think Dad was at the wedding, and I think Richie was, but we girls never
knew anything until it was all over. Mother simply announced to us one
night that Ted was married, and that there was to be no open break, but
that she and Dad were just about _sick_! I never saw Mother give way so!
She said--and it's true--that if ever there was a mother who deserved
her children's confidence, and so on! All the newspapers blazed about
it--Ted's picture, Bob's picture--and, as I say, society welcomed her
with open arms. They've got a gorgeous suite at the St. Francis, and Ted
really looks stunning, and acts as if she'd done something very smart.
Con says that when she called, it reminded her of the second act of a
bad play. Ted came here with Bob, one Saturday afternoon, but Mother
hasn't been near her!"

"It seems too bad," Julia said thoughtfully, "when your father and
mother are always so sweet!"

"There must be some reason for it," Barbara observed, "I suppose we were
all spoiled as kids, with our dancing schools and our dresses from
Paris, and so now when we want things we oughtn't have, we just take
'em, from habit! I remember a governess once, a nice enough little
Danish woman, but Ned and I got together and decided we wouldn't stand
her, and Mother let her go. It seems funny now. Mother used to say that
never in her life did she allow her children to want anything she could
give them; but I'm not at all sure that's a very wise ideal!"

"Nor I," said Julia earnestly. Barbara had parted and brushed her dark
hair now, and as she gathered it back, the ruthless morning sunlight
showed lines on her pretty face and faint circles about her eyes.

"Because life gets in and gives you whacks," Barbara presently pursued,
"you're going to want a lot of things you can't have before you get
through, and it only makes it harder! Sally's paying for her jump in the
dark, poor old Ned is condemned to Yolo City and Eva for the rest of his
life, and somehow Ted's the saddest of all--so confident and noisy and
rich, boasting about Bob's affection, buying everything she sees--and so
_young_, somehow! As for me," said Barbara, "my only consolation is that
nearly every family has one of me, and some have more--a nice-looking,
well-liked, well-dressed young woman, wh