n her when she became
conscious of its abnormal character, and perceived that she was always
under surveillance. It might have made her exceedingly morbid,
aside from its effect of paralyzing her self-confidence and power of
initiation, had it not been for the exceptionally strong and cheerful
nature of her companion. A position more hateful, even to a person not
specially socially inclined, cannot be imagined than that of always
being watched, and never having any assured privacy. And under such a
tutelage and dependence, how in any event could she be able to take care
of herself? What weapons had this heiress of a great fortune with
which to defend herself? What sort of a girl had this treatment during
seventeen years produced?

VIII

To the private apartment of Mr. Mavick, in the evening of the second
eventful day, where, over his after-dinner cigar, he was amusing himself
with a French novel, enters, after a little warning tap, the mistress of
the house, for, what was a rare occurrence, a little family chat.

"So you didn't horsewhip and you didn't prosecute. You preferred to
wriggle out!"

"Yes," said Mavick, too much pleased with the result to be belligerent,
"I let the newspaper do the wriggling."

"Oh, my dear, I can trust you for that. Have you any idea how it got
hold of the details?"

"No; you don't think McDonald--"

"McDonald! I'd as soon suspect myself. So would you."

"Well, everybody knew it already, for that matter. I only wonder that
some newspaper didn't get on to it before. What did Evelyn say?"

"Nothing more than what you heard at dinner. She thought it amusing
that there should be such a crowd to gaze at the house, simply because
a picture of it had appeared in a newspaper. She thought her father must
be a very important personage. I didn't undeceive her. At times, you
know, dear, I think so myself."

"Yes, I've noticed that," said Mavick, with a good-natured laugh, in
which Carmen joined, "and those times usually coincide with the times
that you want something specially."

"You ought to be ashamed to take me up that way. I just wanted to talk
about the coming-out reception. You know I had come over to your opinion
that seventeen was perhaps better than eighteen, considering Evelyn's
maturity. When I was seventeen I was just as good as I am now."

"I don't doubt it," said Mavick, with another laugh.

"But don't you see this affair upsets all our arrangements? It's very
vex