Have it your way, mamma."

Trifles! Gloria wondered if any other act of her life had had the
tremendous import of that sudden yielding to her mother's wishes. If the
mirror had been placed anywhere else in the universe, even by a few
inches removed from its present abiding-place, would there be a _Gloria
Gaynor_ in all the world right now? Or would her chair hold quite
another sort of person--Mrs. Gratton? If she had not lifted her
desperate eyes and seen Mark King reflected at the window, how would she
have answered that one final question the "judge" propounded? Would she
have said "Yes"? Or would it have been "No"? She did not know; she would
never know. She had been on the verge, dizzy with profitless
speculation. And now, only the extent of one little word stood between
her and an unthinkable condition. That a whole life should be steered
down one channel or another--oh, what immeasurably separated
channels!--by one's breath in a single-syllabled word----

* * * * *

"You don't answer!" a voice was saying irritably.

She started. They were talking to her, they had been talking to her, and
now she realized that she had heard voices across a great distance, and
by no means as clear to her consciousness as the remembered voice of her
mother two years ago arguing for a mirror over the fireplace. She turned
her eyes on Gratton, since obviously it was he who insisted on an
answer. But King spoke for her.

"Look here, Gratton," he said bluntly, "as far as I can see there is no
reason why Miss Gaynor should pay the least attention to your
effervescings if she doesn't care to. She is a free agent and under no
obligations to you."

"I'll ask your opinion when I want it," snapped Gratton. "Miss
Gloria----"

"You asked me something?" said Gloria. "Pardon me. I didn't hear."

Her aloof reply disconcerted him. Her attitude was spontaneous,
unaffected, and hence unconsciously one of polite indifference. Suddenly
Gratton, fume as he would, had become of not the least importance.

"You said that you would marry me. Not a dozen minutes ago."

"Did I?" she demanded coolly. "Are you quite sure I said that?"

"Look here, Miss Gloria." It was Jim Spalding, who had been ill at ease
all along and now had the brains and perhaps the delicacy to understand
that this was no place for him. "If you don't need me after all, I'll
go."

"And the rest of us with you," said King. "If Miss Gaynor cares to