right, all right,' as Martha
says," she cried scornfully. "But it has been too hard--to-day. I can't
endure any more."

"You won't have to. Radcliffe is conquered, so far as you are concerned.
'Twill be plain sailing, after this."

"I'd rather do something else. I'd like something different."

"I did not think you were a quitter."

"I'm not."

"O, yes, you are, if you give up before the game is done. No good sport
does that."

"I've no ambition to be a good sport."

"Perhaps not. But you _are_ a good sport. A thorough good sport. _And
you won't give up till you've seen this thing through_."

"Is that a prediction, or a--command? It sounds like a command."

"It is whatever will hold you to the business you've undertaken. I want
you to conquer the rest, as you've conquered Radcliffe."

"The rest?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean by the rest?"

"I mean circumstances. I mean obstacles. I mean, my mother--my sister."

"I don't--understand."

"Perhaps not."

"And suppose (forgive me if I seem rude), suppose I don't consider _the
rest_ worth conquering? Why should I? What one has to strive so for--"

"Is worth the most. One has to strive for everything in this world,
everything that is really worth while. One has to strive to get it, one
has to strive to keep it."

"Well, I don't think I care very much to-night, if I never get anything
ever again in all my life to come."

"Poor little tired girl!"

Claire's chin went up with a jerk. "I don't need your pity, I won't have
it. I am a stranger to you and to your friends. I am--" The defiant chin
began to quiver.

"If you were not so tired," Francis Ronald said gravely, "I'd have this
thing out with you, here and now. I'd _make_ you tell me why you so
wilfully misunderstand. Why you seem to take pleasure in saying things
that are meant to hurt me, and must hurt you. As it is--"

Claire turned on him impetuously. "I don't ask you to make allowances
for me. If I do what displeases you, I give you perfect liberty to find
fault. I'm not too tired to listen. But as to your _making_ me do or say
anything I don't choose, why--"

He shook his head. "I'm afraid you are a hopeless proposition, at least
for the present. Perhaps, some time I may be able to make you
understand--Forgive me! I should say, perhaps, some time you may be
willing to understand."

Their chauffeur drew up beside the curbstone in front of Martha's door,
then sprang down from his seat to prov