ole future is dependent on me
for the next few years. And there's Fanny here. No, I guess I'm too old.
And I'm sure of the business here, small as it is."

Emma McChesney glanced at the girl. "I'm thinking that Fanny has the
making of a pretty capable business woman herself."

Fanny drew in her breath sharply, and her face sparkled into sudden
life, as always when she was tremendously interested.

"Do you know what I'd do if I were in Mother's place? I'd take a great,
big running jump for it and land! I'd take a chance. What is there for
her in this town? Nothing! She's been giving things up all her life, and
what has it brought her?"

"It has brought me a comfortable living, and the love of my two
children, and the respect of my townspeople."

"Respect? Why shouldn't they respect you? You're the smartest woman in
Winnebago, and the hardest working."

Emma McChesney frowned a little, in thought. "What do you two girls do
for recreation?"

"I'm afraid we have too little of that, Emma. I know Fanny has. I'm so
dog-tired at the end of the day. All I want is to take my hairpins out
and go to bed."

"And Fanny?"

"Oh, I read. I'm free to pick my book friends, at least."

"Now, just what do you mean by that, child? It sounds a little bitter."

"I was thinking of what Chesterfield said in one of his Letters to His
Son. `Choose always to be in the society of those above you,' he wrote.
I guess he lived in Winnebago, Wisconsin. I'm a working woman, and a
Jew, and we haven't any money or social position. And unless she's a
Becky Sharp any small town girl with all those handicaps might as
well choose a certain constellation of stars in the sky to wear as a
breastpin, as try to choose the friends she really wants."

From Molly Brandeis to Emma McChesney there flashed a look that said,
"You see?" And from Emma McChesney to Molly Brandeis another that said,
"Yes; and it's your fault."

"Look here, Fanny, don't you see any boys--men?"

"No. There aren't any. Those who have any sense and initiative leave
to go to Milwaukee, or Chicago, or New York. Those that stay marry the
banker's lovely daughter."

Emma McChesney laughed at that, and Molly Brandeis too, and Fanny joined
them a bit ruefully. Then quite suddenly, there came into her face a
melting, softening look that made it almost lovely. She crossed swiftly
over to where her mother sat, and put a hand on either cheek (grown
thinner of late) and kissed the tip of