eful. You've been false with me. You've
brought me up useless and helpless. I'm too old now to develop whatever
talent I may have had. I can only drudge now. What is there I can do
_now_? Nothing--nothing--except scrub floors or something like that."

"Oh, yes, there is, too," said Edith. "You can marry Robert Jennings and
be sensible."

"Marry a man for support, whether I want to or not? I'll die first. You
_all_ want me to marry him," she burst out at us fiercely, "but I
shan't--I shan't. I'm strong and healthy, and I'm just beginning to
discover that I've got some brains, too. There's something I can do,
surely, some way I can earn money. I shan't go West with you, Tom.
Understand that. I can't quite see myself growing old in all your
various households--old and useless and dependent like lots of
unmarried women in large families. I can't see it without a fight
anyhow. I don't care if I haven't any income. I can be a clerk in a
store, I guess. Anyhow I shan't go West with you, Tom. I am of age. You
can't make me. I know I'm just a woman, but I intend to live my own life
just the same, and there's no one in this world who can bind and enslave
me either!"

"You go upstairs, Ruth," ordered Tom. "I won't stand for such talk as
that. You go upstairs and quiet down, and when you're reasonable, we'll
talk again. We're not children."

"No, we're not," replied Ruth, "neither of us, and I shan't be sent
upstairs as if I was a child either! You can pauperize me, and you can
take away every rag I have on my back, too, if you want to, but I'll
tell you one thing, you can't take away my independence. You think, Tom,
you can frighten me, and conquer me, perhaps, by bullying. But you
can't. Conditions are better for women than they used to be, anyhow,
thank heaven, and for the courageous woman there's a chance to escape
from just such masters of their fates as _you_--Tom Vars, even though
you are my brother. And I shall escape somehow, _sometime_. See if I
don't. Oh, I know what you all think of me," she broke off. "You all
think I'm hard and heartless. Well--perhaps you're right. I guess I am.
Such an experience as this would just about kill any softhearted person,
I should think. But _I'm_ not killed. Remember that, Tom. You've got
money, support, sentiment on your side. I've got nothing but my own
determination. But I'm not afraid to fight. And I will, if you force me.
You'd better be pretty careful how you handle such an utt