at French
actress who was in London in the spring, you remember? And if ever a
mother went with an unprejudiced mind, I was that mother. I was prepared
to think she was better than Maud, and if she had been, I should have
been the first to say it. But she was not, at least not to my mind! Maud
is always a lady, even on the stage, and that woman was not."

I ventured to suggest that she was perhaps not supposed to be a lady in
the part. Aunt Anna said, "Perhaps not, but that does not matter;
Maud would be a lady under any circumstances, whatever character she
impersonated, laundress or lady. Claud says she will never act till
she learns to forget herself I trust one of my daughters will never do
that!"

I strove to pacify Aunt Anna, but her tender heart was wounded and she
was hard to comfort.

"Claud must admire Edith's violin playing," I ventured.

Aunt Anna shook her head. "He begged me to eliminate from my mind all
preconceived notions and to judge her from the unprejudiced point of
view. I told Edith to put away her violin. Claud says I must call it a
fiddle. I could not bear to see it. I never thought there could be such
dissension in our united family."

By way of distraction, I asked if the young man at tea with the
disheveled hair and startlingly unorthodox tie was a friend of Claud's,
and she said, "His greatest!"

At that moment Claud came into the room, wearing a less earnest
expression than usual and Aunt Anna held out a hand of forgiveness. He
warmly clasped it. "Mother," he said, "Windlehurst has just told me, in
strict confidence, that he considers Maud's the most beautiful face he
has ever seen, except, of course, in the best period of ancient Greek
art. I knew you wanted to hear the unprejudiced opinion of an unbiased
outsider."

I wondered how Windlehurst would like the description! Claud went on: "I
think Edith every bit as good looking, more so in some ways. Now that
I have heard an unprejudiced opinion I can express mine, which you have
known all along. You see, mother, people say we are a self-centered and
egotistical family. I have proved that we are not."

"Dear, dearest Claud, your tie is disarranged," murmured his mother,
struggling to reduce it to the dimensions of the orthodox sailor knot.
"Do wait and listen to all dear Betty is telling me of dearest Pauline's
wedding. So interesting. Go on, dear Betty; where had we got to?"

Chapter XIII

My correspondence regarding my