behind her. Cyrus and Deborah
could not have been more shocked if they had discovered the girl
robbing her grandfather's desk. They talked the matter over bitterly
at the kitchen hearth that night.

"We haven't been strict enough with the girl, Mother," said Cyrus
angrily. "We'll have to be stricter if we don't want to have her
disgracing us. Did you hear how she defied me? 'So I mean to be,' she
says. Mother, we'll have trouble with that girl yet."

"Don't be too harsh with her, Pa ... it'll maybe only drive her to
worse," sobbed Deborah.

"I ain't going to be harsh. What I do is for her own good, you know
that, Mother. Josie is as dear to me as she is to you, but we've got
to be stricter with her."

They were. From that day Josie was watched and distrusted. She was
never permitted to be alone. There were no more solitary walks. She
felt herself under the surveillance of cold, unsympathetic eyes every
moment and her very soul writhed. Joscelyn Morgan, the high-spirited
daughter of high-spirited parents, could not long submit to such
treatment. It might have passed with a child; to a woman, thrilling
with life and conscious power to her very fingertips, it was galling
beyond measure. Joscelyn rebelled, but she did nothing secretly ...
that was not her nature. She wrote to her Aunt Annice, and when she
received her reply she went straight and fearlessly to her
grandparents with it.

"Grandfather, this letter is from my aunt. She wishes me to go and
live with her and prepare for the stage. I told her I wished to do so.
I am going."

Cyrus and Deborah looked at her in mute dismay.

"I know you despise the profession of an actress," the girl went on
with heightened colour. "I am sorry you think so about it because it
is the only one open to me. I must go ... I must."

"Yes, you must," said Cyrus cruelly. "It's in your blood ... your bad
blood, girl."

"My blood isn't bad," cried Joscelyn proudly. "My mother was a sweet,
true, good woman. You are unjust, Grandfather. But I don't want you to
be angry with me. I love you both and I am very grateful indeed for
all your kindness to me. I wish that you could understand what...."

"We understand enough," interrupted Cyrus harshly. "This is all I have
to say. Go to your play-acting aunt if you want to. Your grandmother
and me won't hinder you. But you'll come back here no more. We'll have
nothing further to do with you. You can choose your own way and walk
in it."