en did Sally understand
how much the separation had meant to her mother. She herself had never
once thought of that lonely figure at home.

"Poor old thing!" Sally found herself saying. "Was she lonely then?" She
patted her mother's bony shoulders, and hugged her, affected by this
involuntary betrayal of love. Mrs. Minto had never been demonstrative.
"I wish I'd brought you something, now. A present. I never thought of
it."

"Is it all right? Are you happy, my dearie?" demanded Mrs. Minto, with a
searching glance.

"I knew what I was doing, ma," proclaimed Sally. "There's not much I
don't know."

It was an evasion; a confession of something quite other than the
happiness about which she had been asked.

"Ah, that's what I was afraid of...." breathed her mother. "That's what
young people always think. You don't know nothing at all, Sally."

"I know more'n you do!" It was a defiance.

"You think you do. Why, you're only a baby...." Mrs. Minto shook her
head several times, with lugubrious effect. But her last words had been
full of a smothered affection, more truly precious than a hundred of
Gaga's kisses or a dozen of Toby's animal hugs.

"In your days I should have been." Sally withdrew herself, and led her
mother back to her chair. "Not know! Why, the girls know a lot more now
than they used to when _you_ was a girl. No more timid little
creatures."

"They only _think_ they know more," declared Mrs. Minto, trembling. "And
it takes 'em longer to find out they don't know nothing at all. It takes
a lot of time to get to know. You're in too much of a hurry, my gel. You
don't know nothing. Nothing whatever, for all your talk of it. I been
thinking about it all these days--frantic, I've been."

"All these _years_!" jeered Sally. "Look here, ma.... Here's my marriage
license!" And as she spoke she waved the folded paper before her
mother's eyes in such a way that it fell open and showed the official
entries. Even as she did this so lightly, Sally was able to catch the
sharply hidden expression of relief which crossed Mrs. Minto's face at
the reassurance. She made no pretence of misunderstanding. "Say I don't
know anything?" she demanded. "Think I don't know enough for that? Silly
old fool? What did I tell you? There's about twenty million things I
know that you don't know. And never _will_ know, what's more. Wake up! I
tell you one thing, ma. The people who _don't_ know think a lot worse
than the people who do. Th