"

"Too much."

"By herself?"

"No; always with Dr. Harpe. Dr. Harpe drinks like a man--that size." She
held up significant fingers.

Symes frowned.

"I know that Dr. Harpe's sentiments are not--er--strictly temperance,
but Augusta--this is news to me, and I don't like it." He thrust his
hands deep in his trousers pockets and leaned his shoulder against the
door jamb.

"When did this commence?"

"With the comin' of that woman to this house."

"It's curious--I've never noticed it."

"They've taken care of that. She's a--nuisance."

"You don't like Dr. Harpe?" Watching her face, Symes saw the change
which flashed over it with his question.

"Like her! Like Dr. Harpe?" She took a step toward him, and the
intensity in her voice startled him. Her little gray eyes seemed to dart
sparks as she answered--"I come nearer hatin' her than I ever have any
human bein'!"

"But why?" he persisted. Perhaps in her answer he would find an answer
to the question he had but recently asked himself.

There was confusion in the old woman's eyes as they fell before his.

"Because," she answered finally, with a tightening of her lips.

"There's no definite reason? Nothing except your prejudice and this
matter you've mentioned?"

A red spot burned on either withered cheek. She hesitated.

"No; I guess not," she said, and turned away.

"If I thought for a moment that her influence over Augusta was not good
I'd put an end to this intimacy at once; but I suppose it's natural that
she should desire some woman friend and it seems only reasonable to
believe that a professional woman would be a better companion than that
illiterate Parrott creature or the tittering Starrs." Symes shifted his
broad shoulders to the opposite side of the door and his tone was the
essence of complacency as he went on--

"Yes, if I had the shadow of a reason for forbidding this silly
schoolgirl friendship I'd stop it quick."

The old woman's lips twisted in a faintly cynical smile.

"And could you?"

Symes laughed. Nothing could have been more preposterous than the
suggestion that his control over Augusta was not absolute.

"Why, certainly. I mean to speak to Augusta at once in regard to this
matter of drinking. I've never approved of it for women. There are two
things that cannot be denied--Augusta is obedient and she's truthful."
His good-nature restored by the contemplation of these facts, he turned
away determined to demonstrate his control