ase with, and for whom she could
have respect, possibly even liking of a certain reserved kind.

"I suggested that you'd come," Arthur was replying. "But Madelene said
she'd prefer to come to you. She thinks it's her place, whether it's
etiquette or not. We're not going to go in for etiquette--Madelene
and I."

Mrs. Ranger looked amused. This from the young man who had for years
been "picking" at her because she was unconventional! "People will
misunderstand you, mother," had been his oft-repeated polite phrase. She
couldn't resist a mild revenge. "People'll misunderstand, if she comes.
They'll think she's running after me."

Like all renegades, the renegades from the religion of conventionality
are happiest when they are showing their contempt for that before which
they once knelt. "Let 'em think," retorted Arthur cheerfully. "I'll
telephone her it's all right," he said, as he rose from the table, "and
she'll be up here about eleven."

And exactly at eleven she came, not a bit self-conscious or confused.
Mrs. Ranger looked up at her--she was more than a head the taller--and
found a pair of eyes she thought finest of all for their honesty
looking down into hers. "I reckon we've got--to kiss," said she, with a
nervous laugh.

"I reckon so," said Madelene, kissing her, and then, after a glance and
an irresistible smile, kissing her again. "You were awfully put out when
Arthur told you, weren't you?"

"Well, you know, the saying is 'A bad beginning makes a good ending,'"
said Ellen. "Since there was only Arthur left to me, I hadn't been
calculating on a daughter-in-law to come and take him away."

Madelene felt what lay behind that timid, subtle statement of the
case. Her face shadowed. She had been picturing a life, a home, with
just Arthur and herself; here was a far different prospect opening up.
But Mrs. Ranger was waiting, expectant; she must be answered. "I
couldn't take him away from you," Madelene said. "I'd only lose him
myself if I tried."

Tears came into Ellen's eyes and her hands clasped in her lap to steady
their trembling. "I know how it is," she said. "I'm an old woman,
and"--with an appeal for contradiction that went straight to Madelene's
heart--"I'm afraid I'd be in the way?"

"In the way!" cried Madelene. "Why, you're the only one that can teach me
how to take care of him. He says you've always taken care of him, and I
suppose he's too old now to learn how to look after himself."

"You woul