only a brief half-hour before made this
home-coming almost intolerable.

"What's that thing you're wearing?" demanded Mrs. Bathurst abruptly.

Dinah lifted the kettle and turned. "It is a fur-lined coat that--that he
bought for me in Paris."

"Then take it off!" commanded Mrs. Bathurst. "And don't you wear it again
until I give you leave! How dare you accept presents from the man before
I've even seen him?"

"I couldn't help it," murmured Dinah, as she slipped off the luxurious
garment that Isabel had chosen for her.

"Couldn't help it!" Bitterly Mrs. Bathurst echoed the words. "You'll say
you couldn't help him falling in love with you next! As if you didn't set
out to catch him, you little artful brown-faced monkey! Oh, I always knew
you were crafty, for all your simple ways. Mind, I don't say you haven't
done well for yourself, you have--a deal better than you deserve. But
don't ever say you couldn't help it to me again! For if you do, I'll
trounce you for it, do you hear? None of your coy airs for me! I won't
put up with 'em. You'll behave yourself as long as you're in this house,
or I'll know the reason why."

To all of which Dinah listened in set silence, telling herself with
desperate insistence that it would not be for long. Sir Eustace did not
mean to be kept waiting, and he would deliver her finally and for all
time.

She did not know exactly why her mother was angry. She supposed she
resented the idea of losing her slave. There seemed no other possible
reason, for love for her she had none. Dinah knew but too cruelly well
that she had been naught but an unwelcome burden from the very earliest
days of her existence. Till she met Isabel, she had never known what real
mother-love could be.

She wondered if her _fiance_ would notice the red mark on her cheek when
she carried in the teapot; but he was holding a careless conversation
with her father, and only gave her a glance and a smile.

During the meal that followed he scarcely addressed her or so much as
looked her way. He treated her mother with a freezing aloofness that made
her tremble inwardly. She wondered how he dared.

When at length he rose to go, however, his attention returned to Dinah.
He laid a dominating hand upon her shoulder. "Are you coming to see me
off?"

She glanced at her mother in involuntary appeal, but failed to catch her
eye. Silently she turned to the door.

He took leave of her parents with the indifference of one accust