eel mighty tired," Mrs. Talcott repeated, looking away and out
at the sea. "It's discouraging. I thought you were fixed up all safe and
happy for life."

"Dear Mrs. Talcott," said Karen, earnestly.

"I don't like to see things that ought to turn out right turning out
wrong," Mrs. Talcott continued, "and I've seen a sight too many of them
in my life. Things turning out wrong that were meant to go right. Things
spoiled. People, nice, good people, like you and Mr. Jardine, all upset
and miserable. I've seen worse things, too," Mrs. Talcott slowly rose as
she spoke. "Yes, I've seen about as bad things happen as can happen, and
it's always been when Mercedes is about."

She stood still beside Karen, her bleak, intense old gaze fixed on the
sea.

Karen thought that she had misheard her last words. "When Tante is
about?" she repeated. "You mean that dreadful things happen to her? That
is one of the worst parts of it now, Mrs. Talcott--only that I am so
selfish that I do not think of it enough--to know that I have added to
Tante's troubles."

"No." Mrs. Talcott now said, and with a curious mildness and firmness.
"No, that ain't what I mean. Mercedes has had a sight of trouble. I
don't deny it, but that ain't what I mean. She makes trouble. She makes
it for herself and she makes it for other people. There's always trouble
going, of some sort or other, when Mercedes is about."

"I don't understand you, Mrs. Talcott," said Karen. An uncanny feeling
had crept over her while the old woman spoke. It was as if, helplessly,
she were listening to a sleep-walker who, in tranced unconsciousness,
spoke forth mildly the hidden thought of his waking life.

"No, you don't understand, yet," said Mrs. Talcott. "Perhaps it's fair
that you don't. Perhaps she can't help it. She was born so, I guess."
Mrs. Talcott turned and walked towards the house.

The panic of the cliff was rising in Karen again. Mrs. Talcott was worse
than the cliff and the unanswering immensities. She walked beside her,
trying to control her terror.

"You mean, I think," she said, "that Tante is a tragic person and people
who love her must suffer because of all that she has had to suffer."

"Yes, she's tragic all right," said Mrs. Talcott. "She's had about as
bad a time as they make 'em--off and on. But she spoils things. And it
makes me tired to see it going on. I've had too much of it," said Mrs.
Talcott, "and if this can't come right--this between you and your n