, in her fragile hands, in the lovely liquid
sound of her voice.

"Cousin Corinna has promised to bring me to see you," said Margaret in
her kind and gentle way.

"I hope you'll come," replied Patty politely; but in her thoughts she
added, "I hope you won't. I hope I'll never see you again." She couldn't
be natural; she couldn't be anything but stiff and awkward; and she was
aware all the time that Stephen was as embarrassed as she was. All the
things that she must fight against, that she must triumph over, were
embodied in that small black figure with the ivory face, so inelastic,
so unbending, so secure in its inherited authority. There was war
between her and Stephen's mother; and she stood alone, with only her
undaunted spirit to support her, while on the opposite side were
entrenched all the immovable dead ranks of the generations. "I shall
fight it out," thought the girl bitterly. "I don't care what she thinks
of me. I shall fight it out to the end."

With her hand on Stephen's arm, Mrs. Culpeper turned slowly away. "I
feel a little tired," she explained politely to Patty, "so I am sure
that you won't mind yielding to an infirm old woman, and will let my son
help me back to the car."

"Oh, I don't mind," replied Patty, with gay indifference.

"I'll see you very soon," said Stephen; and it seemed to the girl as she
watched him walking toward the Washington monument that he looked as old
and as tired as his mother.

Of course he was obliged to go. There wasn't anything else that he could
do, and yet--and yet--as Patty gazed after the three slowly moving
figures, she felt that a cold hand had reached out of the sunshine and
clutched her heart.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FEAR OF LIFE

Stephen had intended to go back as soon as he had put his mother into
the car; but she clung so tightly to his arm, and there was something so
appealing in her fragile dependence, that, almost without realizing it,
he found that he was sitting in front of her, and that she was taking
him down to his office.

"We will leave you and go back, Stephen," she said, while a look of
faintness spread over her features. "I feel as if one of my heart
attacks might be coming on."

"Wouldn't you rather I went home with you?" he inquired solicitously.

His mother shook her head and reached feebly for Margaret's hand.
"Margaret will take care of me," she replied in the weak voice before
which her husband and her children had learned to t