or presently he said: "Eileen tells me that you're
parting with some of the books."

"Only technical ones for which I could have no possible use," said
Linda. "I need clothes, and have found that had I a proper place to work
in and proper tools to work with, I could earn quite a bit with my brush
and pencil, and so I am trying to get enough money together to fit up
the billiard room for a workroom, since nobody uses it for anything
else."

"I see," said John Gilman. "I suppose running a house is extremely
expensive these days, but even so the income from your estate should be
sufficient to dress a schoolgirl and provide for anything you would want
in the way of furnishing a workroom."

"That's what I have always thought myself," said Linda; "but Eileen
doesn't agree with me, and she handles the money. When the first of
the month comes, we are planning to go over things together, and she is
going to make me a proper allowance."

"That is exactly as it should be," said Gilman. "I never realized till
the other night at dinner that you have grown such a great girl, Linda.
That's fine! Fix your workroom the way you would like to have it, and
if there's anything I can do to help you in any way, you have only to
command me. I haven't seen you often lately."

"No," said Linda, "but I don't feel that it is exactly my fault. Marian
and I were always pals. When I saw that you preferred Eileen, I kept
with Marian to comfort her all I could. I don't suppose she cared,
particularly. She couldn't have, or she would at least have made some
effort to prevent Eileen from monopolizing you. She probably was mighty
glad to be rid of you; but since you had been together so much, I
thought she might miss you, so I tried to cover your defection."

John Gilman's face flushed. He stood very still, while he seemed deeply
thoughtful.

"Of course you were free to follow your inclinations, or Eileen's
machinations, whichever you did follow," Linda said lightly, "but 'them
as knows' could tell you, John, as Katy so well puts it, that you have
made the mistake of your young life."

Then she turned and went to the garage, leaving John to his visit with
Eileen.

The Eileen who took possession of John was an Eileen with whom he was
not acquainted. He had known, the night of the dinner party, that Eileen
was pouting, but there had been no chance to learn from her what
her grievance was, and by the next time they met she was a bundle of
flashin