scretion of reminding her of her age, Annabel had never spoken to
her quondam dressmaker, and even such a crisis as the present could not
bring her to the point of submitting to another interview, in which she
might hear other truths equally unwelcome. If was her husband who
faced the enemy.

Persis listened unperturbed while he stated his grievance. "Mr.
Sinclair, if it hadn't been for me that girl of yours would have been
married a year ago. It would have been a runaway match if I hadn't
coaxed her into giving up and waiting until she could marry with the
law to back her up in doing as she pleased. I made Diantha some
promises then, and I'm going to keep 'em."

"Your conscience is too tractable, I suppose, to trouble you over
setting a young girl like Diantha against her parents."

Persis regarded him with a slow smile, the significance of which
Sinclair plainly had no difficulty in understanding. He flushed to the
roots of his whitening hair.

"Mr. Sinclair, when a girl's happy at home, I do think it's a pity for
her to jump into being a woman at eighteen. More'n one I've coaxed
into waiting. But when a girl's disposition is wearing thin through
bickering and nagging day in and day out, the sooner she's in a home of
her own the better."

"I am glad you are ready to guarantee the success of this affair for
which you are so largely responsible," remarked Mr. Sinclair. This was
more of a home-thrust than he knew, but Persis did not wince.

"As for guaranteeing that anybody's going to be happy anywhere, Mr.
Sinclair, only the Almighty can do that. My idea is that Diantha has a
better chance with a young man who loves her than with a mother who is
jealous of her and a father who hasn't got the courage to take her
part."

"If you're going to fall back on vilification, Miss Dale," remarked the
other participant in the dialogue, plainly in a towering rage, "the
sooner this interview terminates, the better."

"Well, Mr. Sinclair, I guess you're right about that. Talking things
over won't convert either of us. And you understand," continued
Persis, following her caller to the door, "that you're not to feel
driven to give Diantha a church wedding. Only if you don't, I will."

It was due to Persis' effective championship that Diantha's wedding
bade fair to prove what the reporter of the _Clematis Weekly News_
called "A social event of almost metropolitan importance." There were
to be bridesmaids and usher