the police and hush
it up. Mercedes gave me plenty of money to manage with. I don't know
what she thinks about that poor fellow; she's never named his name since
that day. And she went on like a mad thing for two years or more. You
remember about that, Karen. She said she'd never play the piano again or
see anybody and wanted to go and be a nun. But she had a friend who was
a prioress of a convent, and she advised her not to. I guess poor
Mercedes wouldn't have stayed long in a convent. And the reason she was
nice to you was because the Baron had been fond of you and she wanted to
make up all she could for that dreadful thing in her life. She had you
to come and live with her. You didn't interfere with anything any longer
and it sort of soothed her to think it was what he'd have liked. She's
fond of you, too. She wouldn't have put up with you for so long if she
hadn't been. She'd have found some excuse for being quit of you. But as
for loving you, Karen child, like you thought she did, or like you love
her, why it's pitiful. I used to wonder how long it would be before you
found her out."

Karen's face was hidden; she had rested it upon her hands, leaning
forward, her elbows on her knees, and she had not moved while Mrs.
Talcott told her story. Now, as Mrs. Talcott sat silent, she stirred
slightly.

"Tante! Tante!" she muttered. "My beautiful!"

Mrs. Talcott did not reply to this for some moments; then she laid her
hand on Karen's shoulder. "That's it," she said. "She's beautiful and it
most kills us to find out how cruel and bad she can be. But I guess we
can't judge people like Mercedes, Karen. When you go through life like a
mowing-machine and see everyone flatten out before you, you must get
kind of exalted ideas about yourself. If anything happens that makes a
hitch, or if anybody don't flatten out, why it must seem to you as if
they were wrong in some way, doing you an injury. That's the way it is
with Mercedes. She don't mean to be cruel, she don't mean to be bad; but
she's a mowing-machine and if you get in her way she'll cut you up fine
and leave you behind. And the thing for you to do, Karen, is to get out
of her way as quick as you can."

"Yes, I am going," said Karen.

Again Mrs. Talcott sat silent. "I'd like to talk to you about that,
Karen," she then said. "I want to ask you to give up going to Frau
Lippheim. There ain't any sense in that. It's a poor plan. What you
ought to do, Karen, is to go right