t. It's the breath of life to her. She has played
fast and loose with your father's happiness for it. And now she's playing
with his life as well. And feeling, all the while, that it is a very
noble repentance!"

"Repentance for what?" Mary asked. "Rush said something like that. I
thought, before I went away, that father was getting reconciled to the
Ravinia idea. Do you think it was worrying about ..."

"No, I don't," Lucile interrupted shortly. "Your father was exposed,
soaking wet, to a cold north wind, while he was driving forty miles in an
open car. That's the reason he took pneumonia. And it's the only reason.
I don't know what Rush may have been saying to you, but I've known your
father ever since he was born, and I can tell you that Paula might have
gone on making a fool of herself to the end of time without his dying of
it. He was--fond of her, I will admit. But he had a life of his own that
she knows nothing about. He was too proud to tell her about it, and she
hadn't wit enough to see it for herself. That's the truth, and this
emotional sprawl she's indulging in now doesn't change it.--Meanwhile,
she is adding to her collection five new men!"

"I don't believe," said Mary quietly, "that there is one of them she
knows exists. Or wouldn't poison," she added with a smile, "to improve
father's chance of getting well."

This won a nod of grim assent. "There are plenty of them. She could
replace them easily enough. But her hunger for their worship is
insatiable. For a while your father's--infatuation satisfied her. She may
have tried to pull herself up to his level. I dare say she did. But even
at that time she could not abide Wallace Hood, though he was kindness
itself to her, simply because he kept his head. Unfortunately, this poor
young musician was not able to keep his."

It seemed to Mary, even when allowance was made for the bitterness of the
desperate old woman, who then went on for the better part of an hour with
her bill of particulars, that this must be true. Paula must have lost her
head, at any rate. What Mary herself had seen the beginning of, must
have gone on at an accelerated speed until it was beyond all bounds.
There had been few hours when March might not come to the house and none
to which he did not stay. There were whole days when Paula was hardly out
of his company. She took him about with her to people's houses. She
talked about him when she went alone. Those who had at first not known