w she
wants more freedom, she feels it worse than other girls do when you
begin to deny her. Talk to her in a different way; talk as if you
trusted her. Depend upon it, it's the only hold you have upon her.
Don't be so much afraid. Clara has her faults--see them as well as any
one--but I'll never believe she'd darken your life of her own free
will.'

There was an unevenness, a jerky vehemence, in his voice, which told
how difficult it was for him to take this side in argument. He often
hesitated, obviously seeking phrases which should do least injury to
the father's feelings. The expression of pain on his forehead and about
his lips testified to the sincerity with which he urged his views, at
the same time to a lurking fear lest impulse should be misleading him.
Hewett kept silence, in aspect as far as ever from yielding. Of a
sudden he raised his hand, and said, 'Husht!' There was a familiar step
on the stairs. Then the door opened and admitted Clara.

The girl could not but be aware that the conversation she interrupted
had reference to herself. Her father gazed fixedly at her; Sidney
glanced towards her with self-consciousness, and at once averted his
eyes; Mrs. Hewett examined her with apprehension. Having carelessly
closed the door with a push, she placed her umbrella in the corner and
began to unbutton her gloves. Her attitude was one of affected
unconcern; she held her head stiffly, and let her eyes wander to the
farther end of the room. The expression of her face was cold,
preoccupied; she bit her lower lip so that the under part of it
protruded.

'Where have you been, Clara?' her father asked.

She did not answer immediately, but finished drawing off her gloves and
rolled them up by turning one over the other. Then she said
indifferently:

'I've been to see Mrs. Tubbs.'

'And who gave you leave?' asked Hewett with irritation.

'I don't see that I needed any leave. I knew she was coming here to
speak to you or mother, so I went, after work, to ask what you'd said.'

She was not above the middle stature of women, but her slimness and
erectness, and the kind of costume she wore made her seem tall as she
stood in this low-ceiled room. Her features were of very uncommon type,
at once sensually attractive and bearing the stamp of intellectual
vigour. The profile was cold, subtle, original; in full face, her high
cheekbones and the heavy, almost horizontal line of her eyebrows were
the points that first dre