y few girls who'd pass
muster, and the balance would have to settle down to be old maids."

"It isn't that I don't think anybody's good enough for Thad," said Mrs.
West in hasty disclaimer. "I can see his faults fast enough."

"Yes, you can see his faults, and you can excuse 'em, too. That's what
being a mother means. And you can see Diantha's faults, and you can't
excuse 'em without a struggle. Yet she's as pretty as a pink, and a
sweet-dispositioned girl, too. She's a long ways yet from being a
woman, but as far as I can see, she's started in the right direction."

"I'd hate to think of my Thad leading the life Stanley Sinclair's had
to for the last fifteen years," said Mrs. West with feeling.

"Well the cases ain't the same. When youth mates with youth, there's
hopes of them learning their lessons together and not making such hard
work of it, either. But what can you expect when a man along in the
forties decides it's time for him to settle down, and ties himself up
to some giddy young thing, so brimful of life that it's all she can do
to keep her toes on the ground. It's like hitching up a colt with some
slow-going old plug from a livery stable. YOU drive 'em that way, and
either the colt's spirit is going to get broken, or else the plug will
travel at a good deal faster clip than he likes."

Mrs. West's attention had plainly wandered during Persis' homily.

"Beats all how that girl grew up all in a minute, so to speak," she
said irrelevantly.

Persis gave her entire attention to her work.

"It don't seem any time since I was here and she came in to ask about
some sewing of her mother's. Her dress was up to her knees, and her
hair hanging in curls. Except for being tall she looked about ten
years old. And the next thing anybody knows, she's a young lady with
all the airs and graces."

Persis preserved a guilty silence.

"I didn't know but you might have some idea," Mrs. West suggested
hopefully, "You know you agreed to see what you could do about Annabel,
and then Thad got tired of her all at once, so there wasn't any call
for you to interfere."

With a determined shake of her head, Persis declined the new commission.

"No, Mis' West. I'm not going to have a finger in this pie, and I
advise you to let the young folks alone. If you don't want him to
marry her, your one chance is to leave 'em be. And if they do make a
match of it, either one might have done worse."

While Persis gave no h