She really had no words of protest ready at hand, and it was long after
queer old John Merrick had gone away that she remembered a dozen
effective speeches that she might have delivered.

"After all," she sighed, taking up her cup again, "it may be the best
thing in the world for Louise. We don't know whether that young Weldon,
who is paying her attentions just now, is going to inherit his father's
money or not. He's been a bit wild, I've heard, and it is just as well
to postpone any engagement until we find out the facts. I can do that
nicely while my sweet child is in Europe with Uncle John, and away from
all danger of entanglements. Really, it's an ill wind that blows no
good! I'll go talk with Louise."

CHAPTER III

"ALL ASHORE"

Beth De Graf was a puzzle to all who knew her. She was a puzzle even to
herself, and was wont to say, indifferently, that the problem was not
worth a solution. For this beautiful girl of fifteen was somewhat bitter
and misanthropic, a condition perhaps due to the uncongenial atmosphere
in which she had been reared. She was of dark complexion and her big
brown eyes held a sombre and unfathomable expression. Once she had
secretly studied their reflection in a mirror, and the eyes awed and
frightened her, and made her uneasy. She had analyzed them much as if
they belonged to someone else, and wondered what lay behind their mask,
and what their capabilities might be.

But this morbid condition mostly affected her when she was at home,
listening to the unpleasant bickerings of her father and mother, who
quarrelled constantly over trifles that Beth completely ignored. Her
parents seemed like two ill tempered animals confined in the same cage,
she thought, and their snarls had long since ceased to interest her.

This condition had, of course, been infinitely worse in all those
dreadful years when they were poverty stricken. Since Uncle John had
settled a comfortable income on his niece the grocer was paid promptly
and Mrs. De Graf wore a silk dress on Sundays and held her chin a little
higher than any other of the Cloverton ladies dared do. The Professor,
no longer harrassed by debts, devoted less time to the drudgery of
teaching and began the composition of an oratorio that he firmly
believed would render his name famous. So, there being less to quarrel
about, Beth's parents indulged more moderately in that pastime; but
their natures were discordant, and harmony in the De Graf h