d you to be her guest during her
summer abroad? Why such a chance does not come to one girl in a hundred
thousand and yet I have made you give it up!"

With a little protesting gesture Polly stretched out her hand. "Then let
us not discuss it any further, mother of mine," she demanded. "I
promised you not to speak of it again after our talk the other day and I
am going to exact the same promise of you."

The girl shut her lips together in a tight line of scarlet and all
unconsciously began rocking herself slowly backward and forward with her
expression turned inside instead of out, as her sister Mollie used
sometimes to say. But Mrs. Wharton leaned over, and putting her finger
under Polly's chin tilted it back until her eyes were upturned toward
hers.

"But was I fair to you, dear? Have I decided what was best for you, as
well as for Mollie and me? We have not spoken of it; we have both felt
that silence was the wisest course; but tonight I should like to know
whether, when the three years of your promise to me have passed, do you
still intend going upon the stage?" Mrs. Wharton asked.

"Would you mind so very, very much?" Polly inquired quietly. And then
with a sudden rush of confidence, which she had never before shown in
any of their talks together on this subject, Polly faced their old
difference of opinion squarely. "It has always been hard for me to
understand, mother, why you are so opposed to my trying to become an
actress. You are broad-minded enough on other subjects. You have worked
for your own living and ours; and you were willing enough to have
Sylvia, who is younger than I am and who will be very rich some day, go
away and study to become a trained nurse, just because she believed it
her calling. Yet because I want to learn to act, why the whole stage and
everything connected with it is anathema. You do not even like Miss
Margaret Adams as much as you would if she were in some other kind of
work. Oh, of course I appreciate that people used to feel that no woman
could be good and be on the stage, but no sensible person thinks that
nowadays." Polly stopped abruptly. "I don't mean to be rude, mother,"
she concluded.

But Mrs. Wharton nodded. "Please go on. I came in tonight to find out
just what you were thinking. I don't believe you realize how little you
have explained your real feeling to me on this subject since that
unfortunate time in New York."

"I didn't want to trouble you," again Polly hesit