ng gas light in the hall (they were
still suspicious of the effect of electricity on Mr. Culpeper's eyes)
her face looked grimly determined, as if an indomitable purpose had
moulded every feature and traced every line in some thin plastic
substance.

"I have set my heart on this, Stephen."

At this he laughed aloud with an indecorous mirth. In spite of her
instincts and traditions how lacking in feminine finesse, how utterly
without subtlety of method she was! She had stood always for the
unconquerable will in the fragile body, and she had used to the utmost
her two strong weapons of obstinacy and weakness. He did not know
whether the dread of being nagged or the fear of hurting her had
influenced him most; and when he looked back he could recall only a
series of ineffectual efforts at evasion or denial. It is true that he
had once adored her--that he still loved her--but it was a love, like
his father's, which was forbearing but never free, which was always
furtive and a little ashamed of its own weakness. Ever since he could
remember she had triumphed over their inclinations, their convictions,
and even their appetites, for they had eaten only what she thought good
for them. She had invariably gained her point; and she had gained it
with few words, without temper or agitation, by sheer force of
character. If she had been a moral principle she could not have moved
more relentlessly.

"Mrs. Blair and I used to talk it over when you and Margaret were
children," she continued, in the inflexible tone with which she was
accustomed to carry her point. "Even then you were fond of her."

He looked at her with a gleam of the tolerant amusement he had caught
from his father's expression. "Can you imagine anything more certain to
turn a man against a marriage than the thought that it was arranged for
him in his infancy?" he objected.

"Not if he knew that his mother had set her heart on it?" She looked
hurt but resolute.

"Don't set your heart on it, Mother. Let me dree my own weird."

"My dear boy, it is for your own good. I am sure that you know I am not
thinking of myself. I may say with truth that I never think of myself."

It was true. She never thought of herself; but he had sometimes wondered
what worse things could have happened if she had occasionally done so.

"I know that, Mother," he answered simply.

"I have but one wish in life and that is to see my children happy," she
said, with an air of injured digni