er aims, even if she
achieved them--in which he had no confidence. He had no power to change
his course, and tried not to be unpleasant about it, but he had to
express his feelings now and then.

"Are you coming back to me?" he wrote. "How con you bear to give so much
pain to everyone who loves you? Is your wonderful salary worth more to
you than being here with your mother--with me? How can you say you
love me--and ruin both our lives like this? I cannot come to see you--I
_would_ not come to see you--calling at the back door! Finding the girl
I love in a cap and apron! Can you not see it is wrong, utterly wrong,
all this mad escapade of yours? Suppose you do make a thousand dollars a
year--I shall never touch your money--you know that. I cannot even offer
you a home, except with my family, and I know how you feel about that; I
do not blame you.

"But I am as stubborn as you are, dear girl; I will not live on my
wife's money--you will not live in my mother's house--and we are
drifting apart. It is not that I care less for you dear, or at all for
anyone else, but this is slow death--that's all."

Mrs. Warden wrote now and then and expatiated on the sufferings of her
son, and his failing strength under the unnatural strain, till Diantha
grew to dread her letters more than any pain she knew. Fortunately they
came seldom.

Her own family was much impressed by the thousand dollars, and found
the occupation of housekeeper a long way more tolerable than that of
house-maid, a distinction which made Diantha smile rather bitterly. Even
her father wrote to her once, suggesting that if she chose to invest
her salary according to his advice he could double it for her in a year,
maybe treble it, in Belgian hares.

_"They'd_ double and treble fast enough!" she admitted to herself; but
she wrote as pleasant a letter as she could, declining his proposition.

Her mother seemed stronger, and became more sympathetic as the months
passed. Large affairs always appealed to her more than small ones, and
she offered valuable suggestions as to the account keeping of the big
house. They all assumed that she was permanently settled in this well
paid position, and she made no confidences. But all summer long
she planned and read and studied out her progressive schemes, and
strengthened her hold among the working women.

Laundress after laundress she studied personally and tested
professionally, finding a general level of mediocrity, till f