ldren's own father throwing them under the wheels to keep him
satisfied."

"I won't hear any more such stuff!" Lifting his paper, Adams affected to
read.

"You'd better listen to me," she admonished him. "You might be sorry
you didn't, in case he ever tried to set foot in my house again! I might
tell him to his face what I think of him."

At this, Adams slapped the newspaper down upon his knee. "Oh, the devil!
What's it matter what you think of him?"

"It had better matter to you!" she cried. "Do you suppose I'm going
to submit forever to him and his family and what they're doing to my
child?"

"What are he and his family doing to 'your child?'"

Mrs. Adams came out with it. "That snippy little Henrietta Lamb has
always snubbed Alice every time she's ever had the chance. She's
followed the lead of the other girls; they've always all of 'em been
jealous of Alice because she dared to try and be happy, and because
she's showier and better-looking than they are, even though you do give
her only about thirty-five cents a year to do it on! They've all done
everything on earth they could to drive the young men away from her
and belittle her to 'em; and this mean little Henrietta Lamb's been the
worst of the whole crowd to Alice, every time she could see a chance."

"What for?" Adams asked, incredulously. "Why should she or anybody else
pick on Alice?"

"'Why?' 'What for?'" his wife repeated with a greater vehemence. "Do YOU
ask me such a thing as that? Do you really want to know?"

"Yes; I'd want to know--I would if I believed it."

"Then I'll tell you," she said in a cold fury. "It's on account of you,
Virgil, and nothing else in the world."

He hooted at her. "Oh, yes! These girls don't like ME, so they pick on
Alice."

"Quit your palavering and evading," she said. "A crowd of girls like
that, when they get a pretty girl like Alice among them, they act just
like wild beasts. They'll tear her to pieces, or else they'll chase
her and run her out, because they know if she had half a chance she'd
outshine 'em. They can't do that to a girl like Mildred Palmer because
she's got money and family to back her. Now you listen to me, Virgil
Adams: the way the world is now, money IS family. Alice would have just
as much 'family' as any of 'em every single bit--if you hadn't fallen
behind in the race."

"How did I----"

"Yes, you did!" she cried. "Twenty-five years ago when we were starting
and this town was smaller, y