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ust because I feel that she isn't a real worker that I am afraid of her." "And that, even if it is true, may be only the result of sordid surroundings." Madeline's heart misgave her, for she had learned to respect Mrs. Percival's judgments. "She'll blossom out and add womanliness to beauty in such an atmosphere as you and Dick will give her." "Spontaneous generation will not do everything. You must have the germ of a heart before you can develop the whole thing. Do you think you can really change a girl who has lived for twenty years in the wrong attitude?" "You are judging cruelly," Madeline cried. "Of course every one has the germs of good." "And did it ever occur to you that the kind of love that Dick will give his wife may be too good--so far above a coarse-grained woman that it will not touch her comprehension? A lower grade of man might bring her out better." "It's impossible to think of so exquisite a creature being coarse-grained," Madeline exclaimed. "I, for one, am going to believe in her, and in a year, with you and Dick and mother and Mrs. Lenox and myself all backing her, you'll be proud of her loveliness and tact. I shall be only Cinderella's ugly sister. But you must not ever quite forget me, Mrs. Percival." And Madeline laughed most cheerfully. Mrs. Percival smiled in return. "Well, I have had my explosion. It's extraordinary what a relief it is, once in a while. I'm not often so guilty, am I, Madeline? After all, I've told you my fears rather than my convictions. The situation does not seem so bad, now that I have said even more than I think. Hereafter I shall find it easy to hold my tongue." "And you will try to like her?" Madeline asked anxiously. "Of course, my dear. I shall try harder than any one else. I am going in state to pay her a motherly call this very afternoon, feeling all the time like a plated volcano." Mrs. Percival leaned back with a small _moue_, then sat up again. "There's my boy's latch-key in the lock now," she said. Dick halted at the door when he saw the two and knew that they must have been talking of him. He had something of an air of defiance thickly overlaid with innocence; but Madeline went to meet him with hands outstretched. "Dick," she exclaimed, "I congratulate you with all my heart. She's the prettiest creature in the world." Dick, manlike, regarded this as the highest possible tribute to his beloved and glowed in return. His defiance dropped l
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