I'll not know what to do with my liberty--I'll not know how to use
it--how to understand or be understood.... Tell Mr. Tappan that! Tell
him that it is all silly and wrong! Tell him that a young girl never
forgets when other girls laugh at her because she never had any money,
and dresses like a frump, and wears her hair like a baby!... And if he
doesn't listen to us, some day Scott and I will show him and the others
how we feel about it! I can make as much trouble as Scott can; I'll do
it, too----"

"Geraldine!"

"Very well. I'm boiling inside when I think of--some things. The
injustice of a lot of hateful, snuffy old men deciding on what sort of
underclothes a young girl shall wear!... And I _will_ make my debut! I
will! I will!"

"Dearest----"

"Yes, I will! I'll write to them and complain of Mr. Tappan's stingy,
unjust treatment of us both----"

"Let me do the writing, dear," said Kathleen quietly. And she rose from
the table and left the dining-room, both arms around the necks of the
Seagrave twins, drawing them close to her sides--closer when her
sidelong glance caught the sullen bitterness on the darkening features
of the boy, and when on the girl's fair face she saw the flushed,
wide-eyed, questioning stare.

When the young, seeking reasons, gaze questioningly at nothing, it is
well to divine and find the truthful answer, lest their _other_ selves,
evoked, stir in darkness, counselling folly.

The answer to such questions Kathleen knew; who should know better than
she? But it was not for her to reply. All she could do was to summon out
of the vasty deep the powers that ruled her wards and herself; and
these, convoked in solemn assembly because of conflict with their Trust
Officer, might decide in becoming gravity such questions as what shall
be the proper quality and cost of a young girl's corsets; and whether or
not real lace and silk are necessary for attire more intimate still.

* * * * *

During the next two years the steadily increasing friction between
Remsen Tappan and his wards began seriously to disturb the directors of
the Half Moon Trust. That worthy old line company viewed with uneasiness
the revolutionary tendencies of the Seagrave twins as expressed in
periodical and passionate letters to Colonel Mallett. The increasing
frequency of these appeals for justice and for intervention
fore-shadowed the desirability of a conference. Besides, there was a
graver mat