she herself could not
be to blame for it. So, until now there had been no scapegoat.
Presbury therefore received the whole burden. He, alarmed lest a
creature apparently so irrational, should in wild rage drive him away,
ruin him socially, perhaps induce a sympathetic court to award her a
large part of his income as alimony, said not a word in reply. He bade
his wrath wait. Later on, when the peril was over, when he had a firm
grip upon the situation--then he would take his revenge.

They gave up the expensive suite at the Waldorf that very day and
returned to Hanging Rock. They alternated between silence and the
coarsest, crudest quarrelings, for neither had the intelligence to
quarrel wittily or the refinement to quarrel artistically. As soon as
they arrived at the Gower house, Mildred was dragged into the wrangle.

"I married this terrible man for your sake," was the burden of her
mother's wail. "And he is a beggar--wants to sell off everything and
dismiss the servants."

"You are a pair of paupers," cried the old man. "You are shameless
tricksters. Be careful how you goad me!"

Mildred had anticipated an unhappy ending to her mother's marriage, but
she had not knowledge enough of life or of human nature to anticipate
any such horrors as now began. Every day, all day long the vulgar
fight raged. Her mother and her stepfather withdrew from each other's
presence only to think up fresh insults to fling at each other. As
soon as they were armed they hastened to give battle again. She
avoided Presbury. Her mother she could not avoid; and when her mother
was not in combat with him, she was weeping or wailing or railing to
Mildred.

It was at Mildred's urging that her mother acquiesced in Presbury's
plans for reducing expenses within income. At first the girl, even
more ignorant than her mother of practical affairs, did not appreciate
the wisdom, not to say the necessity, of what he wished to do, but soon
she saw that he was right, that the servants must go, that the horses
and carriages and the motors must be sold. When she was convinced and
had convinced her mother, she still did not realize what the thing
really meant. Not until she no longer had a maid did she comprehend.
To a woman who has never had a maid, or who has taken on a maid as a
luxury, it will seem an exaggeration to say that Mildred felt as
helpless as a baby lying alone in a crib before it has learned to
crawl. Yet that is rather an