ake it good
and sure that she understands right here and now that if she goes
she doesn't come back. Of course, I'm not saying she can't come
back if she comes to her senses, and is real humble; but you
needn't let her know that. Just give her to understand it is her
last chance, that I can't be monkeyed with this way. I've offered
her a very generous thing, and she knows it, and she's a fool,
that's what she is, a _fool_ I say!" He brought his big fist down
heavily on the table, and jarred the dishes; and the children looked
up in premature comprehension, storing up the epithet for future
use. "She's no end of a fool, going off with those crazy kids. Some
one ought to warn their guardian about her. Why, she has no more
idea of how to take care of two high and mighty good-for-nothings
like that than an infant in arms!"

Meantime the subject of their discussion was seated serenely at a
table in one of the best hotels of the great city, having the time of
her life. In the years that were to come there might be many more
delightful suppers, even more elegantly served, perhaps; but none
would ever rival this first time in her existence when she had sat
among the wealthy and great of the land and been treated like one of
them.

Mr. Luddington was a typical business man, elderly and kind, with wise
eyes and a great smile. He turned his eyes keenly on Julia Cloud for
an instant at their first meeting, then let his full smile envelop
her, and she was somehow made aware of the fact that he had set his
seal of approval to the contract already made by his two enthusiastic
wards. All the forebodings she had entertained in the little intervals
when Leslie and Allison allowed her to think at all were swept aside
by his kind look and big, serious tone when he first took her hand and
scanned her true face. "I'm glad they've picked such a woman!" he
said. "You'll have your hands full, for they're a pair! But it's worth
it!"

And, when they all rode home through the moonlight, Julia Cloud
nestled under the soft, thick robes of the car, and listened to the
pleasant talk between the young people and their guardian with a sense
of peace. If this strong, wise business man thought the arrangement
was all right, why, then she need not fear any longer. It was real,
and not a dream, and she might rely upon the wisdom of her decision.
And with that sense of being upheld by something wiser than her own
wish she fell asleep that night, haunted