eading."

"They don't read much after they're admitted, do they? I thought when
you got admitted you knew it all."

"Not if you mean to be a real lawyer," said Dan, smiling.

"Well, I guess you had better go now. I don't want to leave Sylvia alone
up there, poor little girl. I'll let you know when to come back."

CHAPTER XV

A SURPRISE AT THE COUNTRY CLUB

"That's all right. I shall be glad to have you serve Mrs. Owen in any
way. It's a good deal of a compliment that she thought of you in that
connection. Go ahead, and call on me if I can help you. You'll have to
furnish local bondsmen. See what's required and let me know."

Such was Bassett's reply when Harwood asked his permission to serve as
administrator of Andrew Kelton's estate. Bassett was a busy man, and his
domestic affairs often gave him concern. He had talked to Harwood a good
deal about Marian, several times in fits of anger at her extravagance.
His wife retired fitfully to sanatoriums, and he had been obliged to
undertake the supervision of his children's schooling. Blackford was
safe for the time in a military school, and Marian had been tutored for
a year at home. The idea of a college course for Marian had been, since
Sylvia appeared, a mania with Mrs. Bassett. Marian had not the slightest
interest in the matter, and Bassett was weary of the struggle, and sick
of the idea, that only by a college career for her could Mrs. Owen's
money be assured to his children. Mrs. Bassett being now at a rest cure
in Connecticut, and Bassett, much away from home, and seeing nothing to
be gained by keeping his daughter at Fraserville, had persuaded Miss
Waring to take her as a special student, subject to the discipline of
the school, but permitted to elect her own studies. It was only because
Bassett was a man she liked to please that the principal accepted
Marian, now eighteen years old, on this anomalous basis. Marian was
relieved to find herself freed of the horror of college, but she wished
to be launched at once upon a social career; and the capital and not
Fraserville must be the scene of her introduction. Bassett was merely
tiding over the difficult situation until his wife should be able to
deal with it. Marian undoubtedly wheedled her father a good deal in the
manner of handsome and willful daughters. She had rarely experienced his
anger; but the remembrance of these occasions rose before her as the
shadowy background of any filial awe she may be