ficulties; Alec who cheerfully gave up his
diploma to offer a helping hand at home. When Alec married Edith
Campbell it appeared that at last he had come into his own. She was
immensely wealthy. Father's business took a new lease of life. At last
Alec was prosperous, but he had to go on adapting and resigning just the
same. With the arrival of the Summer Colony Edith's ambitions burst into
life, and of course he couldn't be a drag on her future--and mine--any
more than on Tom's or the twins'. He acquiesced; he fitted in without
reproach. Today in regard to my engagement he complained but gently.

"We're simple New England people after all," he said. "A girl is usually
happier married to a man of her own sort. You weren't born into the kind
of life the Sewalls lead. You weren't born into even the kind of life
you're leading now. Edith--Edith's fine, of course, and I've always been
glad you two were so congenial--but she does exaggerate the importance
of the social game. She plays it too hard. I don't want you to marry
Sewall. I'm afraid you won't be happy."

When Edith came home that night I asked her if she knew how Alec felt.

"Of course I do. The dear old fogey! But this is the way I look at it,
Ruth. Some people _not_ born into a high place get there just the same
through sheer nerve and determination, and others spend their whole
worthless lives at home on the farm. It isn't what a person is born
into, but what he is equal to, that decides his success. Mercy, child,
don't let a dear, silly, older brother bother you. Sweet old Al doesn't
know what he's talking about. I'd like to know what he _would_ advise
doing with his little sister, if, after all the talk there is about her
and Breck, he could succeed in breaking off her engagement. She'd be
just an old glove kicking around. That's what she'd be. Al is simply
crazy. I'll have to talk to him!"

"Don't bother," I said, "I'm safe. I have no intention of becoming an
old glove."

Possibly in the privacy of my own bed at night, where so often now I lay
wide-awake waiting for the dawn, I did experience a few misgivings. But
by the time I was ready to go down to breakfast I had usually persuaded
myself into sanity again. I used to reiterate all the desirable points
about Breck I could think of and calm my fears by dwelling upon the many
demands of my nature that he could supply--influence, power, delight in
environment, travel, excitement.

When I was a child I was