said, stepping into the room suddenly, "what are you
doing with your suit-case? Didn't Mademoiselle unpack it for you?" He
was close enough now to see the signs of tears she had shed.

"Yes, Uncle David."

"Why are you packing it again?"

Her eyes fell and she tried desperately to control a quivering lip.

"Because I am--I want to go back."

"Back where?"

"To Cape Cod."

"Why, Eleanor?"

"I ain't wanted," she said, her head low. "I made up my mind to go
back to my own folks. I'm not going to be adopted any more."

David led her to the deep window-seat and made her sit facing him. He
was too wise to attempt a caress with this issue between them.

"Do you think that's altogether fair to me?" he asked presently.

"I guess it won't make much difference to you. Something else will
come along."

"Do you think it will be fair to your other aunts and uncles who have
given so much care and thought to your welfare?"

"They'll get tired of their bargain."

"If they do get tired of their bargain it will be because they've
turned out to be very poor sports. I've known every one of them a long
time, and I've never known them to show any signs of poor
sportsmanship yet. If you run away without giving them their chance to
make good, it will be you who are the poor sport."

"She said you would marry and get tired of me, and I would have to go
back to the country. If you marry and Uncle Jimmie marries--then Uncle
Peter will marry, and--"

"You'd still have your Aunts Beulah and Margaret and Gertrude," David
could not resist making the suggestion.

"They could do it, too. If one person broke up the vow, I guess they
all would. Misfortunes never come singly."

"But even if we did, Eleanor, even if we all married, we'd still
regard you as our own, our child, our charge."

"_She_ said you wouldn't." The tears came now, and David gathered the
little shaking figure to his breast. "I don't want to be the wife of
the farmer for whom fate intended me," she sobbed. "I want to marry
somebody refined with extravagant living and associations."

"That's one of the things we are bringing you up for, my dear." This
aspect of the case occurred to David for the first time, but he
realized its potency. "You mustn't take mother too seriously. Just
jolly her along a little and you'll soon get to be famous friends.
She's never had any little girls of her own, only my brother and me,
and she doesn't know quite how to talk to them."