u darling, you know all this is perfectly ridiculous.
Apparently I can't tell father so,--I could see I was hurting
him,--but it simply is ridiculous!"

"I do not feel so, Marvel," Mrs. Charleroy answered steadily.

"What _right_ has she?" the girl stormed. "What right, I wish to know?
To summon me like this! Didn't she throw us away, father and me, once
{170} and for all? You can't recall a thing like that! Why should she
think she could take me back any more than father? Influence me,
indeed! She does n't know the A B C of influence! I am
made--done--finished. Such as I am, she has had no hand in me. If the
outcome is creditable, thanks are due to you and father and the Herr
Gott. Oh, I know the things that have gone to my making! I don't talk
about them much, perhaps, but I know!"

Mrs. Charleroy sat very still, regarding her stepdaughter anxiously.
She was a woman of the most benignant of all the elder types: slight,
but strong; her brown hair parted smoothly, and brought back from a
high full forehead; she had a firm chin, with a tense, sweet mouth,
and large, thoughtful, gray-blue eyes.

{171}

"Are you quite sure you are completely finished, dear? I would n't
dare affirm that of myself."

"If there were no other reasons--why, even if I wanted to go," Marvel
went on, "there is my work. I have accepted a position in the English
department. They are depending upon me. I am ready, and there is no
one to take my place."

"You are mistaken there. Miss Anderson would be glad to retain the
position for a year. Something has happened to her arrangements for
foreign study, and I heard it intimated the other day that she
regretted resigning when she did. She would be delighted to stay on.
You could, I think, come back to the position next year. I believe you
could arrange with Professor Axtell."

"O Evelyn! Why do you wish to {172} make my going easy? Don't you see
I can't bear it?"

"I don't know how to say what I wish," said the elder woman wistfully.
"If I remind you that after all she is your mother, I am afraid it
will not mean to you what it does to me."

"Certainly I think that, as between us two, the fact no longer carries
obligation from me to her!" said Marvel steadily.

"O Marvel! You are hard!"

"No! I am just."

"Justice is never so simple as that," returned Evelyn Charleroy. "But
even if it were, your father--I--would rather see you merciful. It
would be more like you, Marvel!"

Marvel set