t's action as she began to
repace the room. All her blood quickened to the thought suggested by
her husband's soft voice. In the mirror she saw a crimsoned face and
shamed eyes from which she turned away.

All the pain and repression, the fight and bitter resignation and
trained indifference of the past months were as if they had never
been. This was her hour of real agony; now was the time to pay the
price. Pride, honor, love never smothered, reserve rooted in the very
core of a sensitive woman's heart, availed nothing. Once again
catching sight of her reflection in the mirror she stopped before it,
and crossing her hands on her heaving breast, she regarded herself
with scorn. She was false to her love, she was false to herself, false
to the man to whom she had sold herself. "Oh! Why did I yield!" she
cried. She was a coward; she belonged to the luxurious class that
would suffer anything rather than lose position. Fallen had she as low
as any of them; gold had been the price of her soul. To keep her
position she must marry one man when she loved another. She cried out
in her wretchedness; she felt in her whole being a bitter humiliation;
she felt stir in her a terrible tumult.

Margaret wondered how many thousands of girls had been similarly
placed, and pitied them. She thought of the atmosphere in which she
lived, where it seemed to her every mother was possessed singularly
and entirely of one aim, to marry her daughter as soon as possible to
a man as rich as possible. Marrying well simply meant marrying money.
Only a few days before her mother had come to her and said: "Mrs.
Fisher called and she was telling me about her daughter Alice. It
seems Alice is growing very pretty and very popular. She said she was
afraid Alice had taken, a liking to that Brandeth fellow, who's only a
clerk. So Mrs. Fisher intends taking Alice to the seashore this
summer, to an exclusive resort, of course, but one where there will be
excitement and plenty of young gentlemen."

At the remembrance Margaret gave a little contemptuous laugh. A year
ago she would not have divined the real purport of her mother's words.
How easy that was now! Mrs. Fisher had decided that as Alice was
eighteen it was time a suitable husband was found for her. Poor Alice!
Balls, parties, receptions there would be, and trips to the seashore
and all the other society manoeuvers, made ostensibly to introduce
Alice to the world; but if the truth were told in cold bl