d me. You urged me in my folly to marry then, the same as you're
urging me now. You saw everything you hoped for in that marriage, and
you let me plunge myself into a living hell without a single qualm.
The result. Oh, I've tried to forget. But I can't I haven't
forgotten. I never shall forget. But I've learned. I certainly have.
I've learned to think wholly for myself--of myself. I don't need
advice now. I don't need a thing. You'll never see things my way, and
I don't fancy to see them yours. I shall marry. And when I marry
again I promise you I'll marry right, and," she laughed bitterly, "I
guess I'll hand you the rake off which you're looking for. But," she
went on, with a swift, ruthless candor which stung even the worldly
heart of the older woman, "I'll make no experimental practice. I'll
marry the man I want to, first because I like him, and second, because
he's a right man, and can hand me the life I need. Maybe that's pretty
hard sounding, but I tell you, Momma, it's nothing to the hardness that
makes you talk the way you do. Anyway, I want you to get it fixed in
your mind right now I'm no priceless gem in a jewelry store that you're
going to sell at the price you figure. I'll dispose of myself when,
and to whom, I choose, and my motives will be my own. Now we'll quit
it, once for all. Jeffrey Masters is coming right along down the
sidewalk."

The mother's black eyes snapped angrily.

"Very well," she exclaimed sharply. "See to it you make good. Your
father's pension isn't even sufficient for two, and your own money is
limited. Meanwhile, don't forget the Tristram girl's just as pretty as
a picture."

But Elvine's exasperation had passed. There was a slight softening in
her eyes as they surveyed the handsome, elaborately dressed gray head
and the careful toilet of her unlovely mother. She understood the
bitter carping of this disappointed woman. Her spirit soared far
beyond the lot of the wife of a pensioned school-teacher. She knew,
too, that somewhere, lost in some dim recess of a coldly calculating
nature, there was a tiny, glowing spot which burned wholly for her.

There was an unusual softness in her tone when she replied.

"But she needs framing, Momma," she said lightly. "And anyway, a girl
who lives more or less on the premises with a man for five years or so,
and hasn't married him--well, I guess she never will."

* * * * * *

The whole