he said her mother would be angry if she stayed."

"I saw that Mrs. Clibborn was put out. I suppose because someone besides
herself attracted attention. I do think she is the wickedest woman I've
ever known."

"Frances, Frances!" expostulated the Colonel.

"She is, Richmond. She's a thoroughly bad woman. The way she treats Mary
is simply scandalous."

"Poor girl!" said the Colonel.

"Oh, Jamie, it makes my blood boil when I think of it. Sometimes the
poor thing used to come here quite upset, and simply cry as if her heart
was breaking."

"But what does Mrs. Clibborn do?" asked James, surprised.

"Oh, I can't tell you! She's dreadfully unkind. She hates Mary because
she's grown up, and because she sometimes attracts attention. She's
always making little cruel remarks. You only see her when she's on her
good behaviour; but when she's alone with Mary, Mrs. Clibborn is simply
horrible. She abuses her; she tells her she's ugly, and that she
dresses badly. How can she dress any better when Mrs. Clibborn spends
all the money on herself? I've heard her myself say to Mary: 'How stupid
and clumsy you are! I'm ashamed to take you anywhere.' And Mary's the
very soul of goodness. She teaches in the Sunday School, and she trains
the choir-boys, and she visits the poor; and yet Mrs. Clibborn complains
that she's useless. I wanted Richmond to talk to Colonel Clibborn about
it."

"Mary particularly asked me not to," said Colonel Parsons. "She
preferred to bear anything rather than create unhappiness between her
father and mother."

"She's a perfect angel of goodness!" cried Mrs. Parsons,
enthusiastically. "She's simply a martyr, and all the time she's as kind
and affectionate to her mother as if she were the best woman in the
world. She never lets anyone say a word against her."

"Sometimes," murmured Colonel Parsons, "she used to say that her only
happiness was in the thought of you, Jamie."

"The thought of me?" said James; and then hesitatingly: "Do you think
she is very fond of me, mother?"

"Fond of you?" Mrs Parsons laughed. "She worships the very ground you
tread on. You can't imagine all you are to her."

"You'll make the boy vain," said Colonel Parsons, laughing.

"Often the only way we could comfort her was by saying that you would
come back some day and take her away from here."

"We shall have to be thinking of weddings soon, I suppose?" said Colonel
Parsons, looking at James, with a bantering smile.

Ja