ker, the
worrier; I, who am opprobriously called "the manager" in this family--I
have failed them at this critical point in their household history. I
did not foresee, I did not forecast, I did not worry, I did not manage.
It did not occur to me to manage after we had got Peggy safely graduated
and engaged, and now this dreadful thing has gaped beneath us like the
fissures at San Francisco or Kingston, and poor little Peggy has tumbled
into it. A teacupful of "management" might have prevented it; an ounce
of worry would have saved it all. I lacked that teacupful; I missed
that ounce. The veriest popular optimist could have done no worse. I am
smothered with my own stupidity. I have borne this humiliating condition
of things as long as I can. I propose to go over to that house and
take the helm in this emergency. I don't care whether I am popular or
unpopular for it. But something has got to be done for Peggy, and I am
going to do it.

I have been over and I have done it. I have taken the "management" of
the whole thing--not even discouraged by this unfortunate word. I own I
am rather raw to it. But the time has come when, though I bled beneath
it, I must act as if I didn't. At all events I must ACT.... I have
acted. I am going to New York by the early morning express--the 7.20. I
would go to-night-in fact, I really ought to go to-night. But Tom has a
supper "on" with some visitors to the Works. He won't be home till late,
and I can't go without seeing Tom. It would hurt his feelings, and that
is a thing no wife ought to do, and my kind of wife can't do.

I found the house in its usual gelatinous condition. There wasn't
a back-bone in it, scarcely an ankle-joint to stand upon: plenty of
crying, but no thinking; a mush of talk, but no decision. To cap the
situation, Charles Edward has gone on to New York with a preposterous
conviction that HE can clear it up.... CHARLES EDWARD! If there is a
living member of the household--But never mind that. This circumstance
was enough for me, that's all. It brought out all the determination in
me, all the manager, if you choose to put it so.

I shall go to New York myself and take the whole thing in hand. If I
needed anything to padlock my purpose those dozen words with Peggy would
have turned the key upon it. When I found that she wasn't crying; when
I got face to face with that soft, fine excitement in the eyes which a
girl wears when she has a love-affair, not stagnant, but in