hat they were when I was young."

This was true, but it was incomplete, and Millicent let her finish.

"I have been a little anxious, perhaps foolishly so, about him now and
then. I cannot approve of all his friends--sometimes they jar on me--and
I do not like the views he seems to have acquired from them. They are not
the ones his father held. Of course, this is only the result of wrong
associations and of having a good-humored, careless nature; it would be
so different if he could be brought under some wholesome influence." She
smiled at Millicent. "One could trust implicitly to yours."

It was an old plea, fallacious often, but none the less effective.
Millicent was devoid of officious self-righteousness, but she was endowed
with a compassionate tenderness which prompted her to extend help to all
who needed it. She thought that Clarence did so, but in spite of that she
did not feel so responsive as she could have wished.

"There is one difficulty," she answered while the blood crept into her
face. "I'll own that I recognized what your ideas and George's were about
Clarence and myself. I may go so far. But of late there has been nothing
to show that Clarence desired to carry out those ideas."

Mrs. Gladwyne gathered her courage.

"My dear, it is rather hard to say, but the truth is that a declaration
from a man is not usually quite spontaneous. He looks for some tacit
encouragement, a sign that one is not altogether indifferent to him. Now
it has struck me that during the past year you have rather stood aloof
from my son."

Millicent started slightly; there was some truth in this statement. Mrs.
Gladwyne, however, was not wise enough to stop.

"I think that is why there is some risk of his falling into bad
hands--that Crestwick girl isn't diffident," she went on. "I know the
strong regard he has for you; but the girl sees a good deal of him, and a
man is sometimes easily led where he does not mean to go."

Millicent's cheeks burned.

"Do you wish me to compete openly for Clarence's favor with Bella
Crestwick?"

Mrs. Gladwyne spread out her hands in protest.

"Oh, my dear!" she exclaimed. "I have said the wrong thing. I warned you
that you might have to forgive me."

"But the thought must have been in your mind!"

"I only meant that you needn't repel or avoid him, as you have done of
late."

Millicent felt compassionate. After all, Mrs. Gladwyne was pleading for
what she believed would benefit her onl