r ear tips and stamped her foot.
Self-control had gone at last.

"I won't listen to that!" she said, breathless; "I've listened to it for
ten years--as long as I can remember. Answer me honestly, Mr. Tappan!
Can I have what other women have--silk underwear and stockings--real
lace on my night dresses--and plenty of it? Can I have suitable gowns
and furs, and have my hair dressed properly? I want you to answer; can I
make my debut this winter and have the gowns I require--and the liberty
that girls of my age have?" She turned on Colonel Mallett: "The liberty
that Naida has had is all I want; the sort of things you let her have
all I ask for." And appealing to Magnelius Grandcourt, who stood pursing
his thick lips, puffed out like a surprised pouter pigeon: "Your
daughter Catherine has more than I ask; why do you let her have what you
consider bad for me? _Why_?"

Mr. Grandcourt swallowed several times, and spoke in an undertone to
Joshua Hogg. But he did not reply to Geraldine.

Remsen Tappan turned his iron visage toward Colonel Mallett--ignoring
Geraldine's questions.

"In the cultiwation of the indiwidool," he began again dauntlessly----

"Isn't there anybody to answer me?" asked Geraldine, turning from one to
another.

"Concerning the cultiwation----"

"Answer me!" she flashed back. There were tears in her voice, but her
eyes blazed.

"Miss Seagrave," interposed old Mr. Montross gravely, "I beg of you to
remember----"

"Let him answer me first! I asked him a perfectly plain question.
It--it is silly to ignore me as though I were a foolish child--as though
I didn't know my mind."

"I think, Mr. Tappan, perhaps if you could give Miss Seagrave a
qualified answer to her questions--make some preliminary statement--"
began Mr. Cray cautiously.

"Concerning what?" snapped Tappan with a grim stare.

"Concerning my stockings and my underwear," said Geraldine fiercely.
"I'm tired of dressing like a servant!"

Mr. Tappan's rugged jaw opened and shut with another snap.

"I'm opposed to any such innowation," he said.

"And--my coming out this winter? And my quarterly allowance? Answer me!"

"Time enough when you turn twenty-one, Miss Seagrave. Cultiwation of
mind concerns you now, not cultiwation of raiment."

"That--that--" stammered Geraldine, "is s-su-premely s-silly." The tears
reached her eyes; she brushed them away angrily.

Mallett coughed and glanced at Myndert Beekman, then past the secretary,
Mr.