al troubles to me; but I never knew another case
like my niece's and her husband's. I have known her since she was a
baby, Trent, and I know--you understand, I think, that I do not employ
that word lightly--I _know_ that she is as amiable and honorable a
woman, to say nothing of her other good gifts, as any man could wish.
But Manderson, for some time past, had made her miserable."

"What did he do?" asked Trent, as Mr. Cupples paused.

"When I put that question to Mabel, her words were that he seemed to
nurse a perpetual grievance. He maintained a distance between them, and
he would say nothing. I don't know how it began or what was behind it;
and all she would tell me on that point was that he had no cause in the
world for his attitude. I think she knew what was in his mind, whatever
it was; but she is full of pride. This seems to have gone on for months.
At last, a week ago, she wrote to me. I am the only near relative she
has. Her mother died when she was a child; and after John Peter died, I
was something like a father to her until she married--that was five
years ago. She asked me to come and help her, and I came at once. That
is why I am here now."

Mr. Cupples paused and drank some tea. Trent smoked and stared out at
the hot June landscape.

"I would not go to White Gables," Mr. Cupples resumed. "You know my
views, I think, upon the economic constitution of society, and the
proper relationship of the capitalist to the employee, and you know, no
doubt, what use that person made of his vast economic power upon several
very notorious occasions. I refer especially to the trouble in the
Pennsylvania coal fields, three years ago. I regarded him, apart from
all personal dislike, in the light of a criminal and a disgrace to
society. I came to this hotel, and I saw my niece here. She told me what
I have more briefly told you. She said that the worry and the
humiliation of it, and the strain of trying to keep up appearances
before the world, were telling upon her, and she asked for my advice. I
said I thought she should face him and demand an explanation of his way
of treating her. But she would not do that. She had always taken the
line of affecting not to notice the change in his demeanor, and nothing,
I knew, would persuade her to admit to him that she was injured, once
pride had led her into that course. Life is quite full, my dear Trent,"
said Mr. Cupples with a sigh, "of these obstinate silences and
cultivated m