e, had made it impossible
for her to appear otherwise. Impassioned, undisciplined, and capable of
fierce imaginative loyalties and aversions, the strongest force in her
character was this bitter ineradicable pride. To accept no benefits that
she could not return; to fall under no obligation that would involve a
feeling of gratitude; to pay the piper to the utmost penny whenever she
called the tune--these were the only laws that she acknowledged. Though
she longed ardently for the admiration of Stephen Culpeper, she would
have died rather than relinquish the elfin mockery of her challenge.

"Well, did you enjoy it, Patty?" Her father turned to her with sudden
tenderness, though the frown produced by some engrossing train of
thought still gathered his heavy brows.

She caught his hand while her small face relaxed from its expression of
rigid disdain. "I had simply the time of my life," she responded with
convincing animation. "That Mrs. Page is the most beautiful woman I ever
saw--but she can't be very young. I wonder what she was like when she
was my age?"

Vetch laughed. "Not like a short-haired imp with green eyes anyway," he
replied. "Mrs. Stribling looked very handsome, too, I thought."

"Oh, she's handsome enough," admitted Patty. "But she hasn't any sense.
I listened to what she was saying, and she just asked questions all the
time. Mrs. Page is different. You can tell that she has been all over
the world. She knows things."

"Yes, I suppose she does," said Vetch. "What did you think of Benham?"

"He is good looking," answered the girl deliberately, "but I don't like
him. He is making fun of you."

"Is he?" returned Vetch curiously. "Now, I wonder if you're right about
that. At any rate he asked me a question to-night that I should like a
chance to answer on the platform."

"He was in the army," said Patty, "and every one says he was a hero. The
women were talking about him while you were smoking. They all admire him
so. It seems that he went into an officer's training camp as soon as war
was declared though he was over age; and then just recently he has done
something that every one thinks splendid. He refused a tremendous fee
from some corporation--what did they mean by a corporation?--because he
thought the money was made dishonestly. Mrs. Page says he has as many
public virtues as a civic forum. What is a forum, Father?"

Vetch laughed without replying directly to her question. "Did she say
that?" he