st left. That man
Serviss has been an evil influence upon you from the very first. He
has no God in his heart. You must keep away from that home--it is
destructive."

"It is not!" she retorted, fiercely. "It is beautiful and honest
and--sane, and I'm going there as often as they will let me--and I'm
going to leave the Pratt house to-morrow! I will not stay there
another day."

"There are others to be consulted about this," he grimly answered.
"You have tried playing truant before."

She was now in full tide of revolt. "I am going to leave that house if
I fall dead in the streets. I am going if 'they' choke me black in the
face."

He sneered. "I know where you are going!"

At this moment she hated him and everything he stood for, and her
voice was hoarse with her passion. "I don't care what you say or what
you do, I will not be hounded and driven around like a slave by you or
Simeon Pratt any longer. I'm going to have a little life of my own if
'they' tear me in pieces for it."

This outburst, so much more intense than any which had preceded it,
alarmed Clarke and appalled Mrs. Lambert, who took her daughter in
her arm with soothing words and caresses. "There, there, dearie! Don't
worry--don't excite yourself. Father will not insist on your doing
anything that will be harmful. He will protect you."

The girl, sobbing in reaction, bowed to the maternal bosom, feeling
once more her own helplessness, receiving no help from her mother's
sympathy, which was merely superficial. Her only hope of release lay
in the strong, bright, self-reliant, humorous people she had just
left, those to whom her grandfather and his "band" were less than
shadows. They alone could save her from the despairing madness which
she felt creeping upon her like a beast in the night. Her nerves,
strung to dangerous tension, gave away utterly, and Clarke, realizing
this, ceased to chide, and the ride ended without another word.

Pratt, who had been waiting for hours with the angry impatience of
senility, met them at the door, truculent as a terrier. "What time o'
night do you call this?" he asked, with insulting inflection.

Mrs. Lambert answered: "I'm very sorry, but we had a sitting, and it
took longer--"

"A sitting!" He faced Viola. "What did you do that for? I told you I
didn't want any sittings given unless I was present, and you promised
not to give any."

"I did not!" she replied, lifting a tear-stained but imperious face to
him.