ways had a kind of
present--"

"Oh, he's rich, all right," interrupted the girl. "But he saw to it
that I got no benefit from that."

"But you wrote me how he was buying you everything!"

"So I thought. In fact he was buying ME nothing." And she went on to
explain the general's system.

Her mother listened impatiently. She would have interrupted the long
and angry recital many times had not Mildred insisted on a full hearing
of her grievances, of the outrages that had been heaped upon her.
"And," she ended, "I suppose he's got it so arranged that he could have
me arrested as a thief for taking the gold bag."

"Yes, it's terrible and all that," said her mother. "But I should have
thought living with me here when Presbury was carrying on so dreadfully
would have taught you something. Your case isn't an exception, any
more than mine is. That's the sort of thing we women have to put up
with from men, when we're in their power."

"Not I," said Mildred loftily.

"Yes, you," retorted her mother. "ANY woman. EVERY woman. Unless we
have money of our own, we all have trouble with the men about money,
sooner or later, in one way or another. And rich men!--why, it's
notorious that they're always more or less mean about money. A wife has
got to use tact. Why, I even had to use some tact with your father,
and he was as generous a man as ever lived. Tact--that's a woman's
whole life. You ought to have used tact. You'll go back to him and use
tact."

"You don't know him, mamma!" cried Mildred. "He's a monster. He isn't
human."

Mrs. Presbury drew a long face and said in a sad, soothing voice: "Yes,
I know, dear. Men are very, very awful, in some ways, to a nice
woman--with refined, ladylike instincts. It's a great shock to a
pure--"

"Oh, gammon!" interrupted Mildred. "Don't be silly, mother. It isn't
worth while for one woman to talk that kind of thing to another. I
didn't fully know what I was doing when I married a man I didn't
love--a man who was almost repulsive to me. But I knew enough. And I
was getting along well enough, as any woman does, no matter what she
may say--yes, you needn't look shocked, for that's hypocrisy, and I
know it now-- But, as I was saying, I didn't begin to HATE him until
he tried to make a slave of me. A slave!" she shuddered. "He's a
monster!"

"A little tact, and you can get everything you want," insisted her
mother.

"I tell you, you don't know the man," cried Mild