the bottom of it all?
She was very sly, and she might be very false, and it was certainly she
who had first proposed their going abroad together. It looked as if it
might be as his mother said, and at any rate it was no time to dispute
her, and he did not say a word in behalf of Mrs. Pasmer, whom she
continued to rend in a thousand pieces and scatter to the winds till she
had to stop breathless.

"Yes! it's quite as I expected! She did everything she could to trap you
into it. She fairly flung that poor girl at you. She laid her plans
so that you couldn't say no--she understood your character from the
start!--and then, when it came out by accident, and she saw that she
had older heads to deal with, and you were not going to be quite at her
mercy, she dropped the mask in an instant, and made Alice break with
you. Oh, I could see through her from the beginning! And the next time,
Dan, I advise you, as you never suspect anybody yourself, to consult
with somebody who doesn't take people for what they seem, and not to let
yourself be flattered out of your sensor, even if you see your father
is."

Mrs. Mavering dropped back on her pillow, and her husband smiled
patiently at their daughter.

Dan saw his patient smile and understood it; and the injustice which his
father bore made him finally unwilling to let another remain under it.
Hard as it was to oppose his mother in anything when she was praising
him so sweetly and comforting him in the moment of his need, he pulled
himself together to protest: "No, no, mother! I don't think Mrs. Pasmer
was to blame; I don't believe she had anything to do with it. She's
always stood my friend--"

"Oh, I've no doubt she's made you think so, Dan," said his mother, with
unabated fondness for him; "and you think so because you're so simple
and good, and never suspect evil of any one. It's this hideous optimism
that's killing everything--"

A certain note in the invalid's falling voice seemed to warn her hearers
of an impending change that could do no one good. Eunice rose hastily
and interrupted: "Mother, Mr. Boardman's here. He came up with Dan. May
Minnie come in with him?"

Mrs. Mavering shot a glance of inquiry at Dan, and then let a swift
inspection range over all the details of the room, and finally
concentrate itself on the silk and lace of her bed, over which she
passed a smoothing hand. "Mr. Boardman?" she cried, with instantly
recovered amiability. "Of course she may!"