, nothin' more 'n 'as happened many a time; only 'e grows crosser,
seems to me, as 'e grows older. He was particular bad last night, and I
didn't sleep none. It's awful hot weather t' lay awake."

When Elizabeth did not reply, the mother said testily:

"Now I s'pose You'll be thinkin' that you don't have t' care for what a
man says."

Elizabeth laughed, but not in her usual merry way.

"Perhaps," she said slowly. "I was thinking farther than that--I was
wondering----" She paused to think and then broke out suddenly. "John's
written to ask if he can come back, and I was just wondering----"

Mrs. Farnshaw was all animation at once, her own troubles forgotten.

"You don't say?" she exclaimed. "Now look here, Lizzie, you're goin' t'
let him come?"

Elizabeth had told her mother on the impulse of the moment after
withholding the news from Nathan and even from Jack. The child had been
wriggling out of his grandmother's arms and had not heard what his mother
said. Elizabeth waited till he was out of hearing. She half regretted
having mentioned it. She was going to have to argue out her decision with
her mother, and she had made no decision.

The mother's accidental remark had produced the impulse to tell. Well, it
was all right. It might be that she could decide better after discussing
it with some one. Elizabeth looked at her mother doubtfully.

"I don't know, ma. I may. It's all owing to whether we can agree on the
terms of starting over."

"You ain't goin' t' lay down rules t' him?" the mother cried in
amazement.

"Now's my time to find out what rules he's going to lay down to me at
least," Elizabeth said dryly.

"But I never heard of such a thing! Say, don't you love 'im any more,
Lizzie?"

"I--I think I do, ma," Elizabeth said slowly. "But there's the very
trouble with women. They think they ought to love a man enough to take him
without a definite understanding, and then they find that a woman's love
means mostly obedience to a man. Yes, I think I love him. But I'm going to
know what he expects, and I'm going to tell him what I expect, and make no
mistakes this time. We'll know before we begin."

"But he may not take you," Mrs. Farnshaw said in a frightened whisper.

"I rather think I'm taking him," Elizabeth said, beginning to unload the
box of provisions she had brought. "You forget that I'm making my own
living."

"That _does_ make a difference," Mrs. Farnshaw admitted.

"That makes _all_ the diff