frames more than a foot wide. She remembered knights in armor, and big
fireplaces, and huge urns and vases. It seemed to her like the most
wonderful bazaar she ever had been in. She remembered, too, that she had
been glad when her mother had taken her out into the sunshine again and
from the presence of two ponderous people who had objected strongly to
everything her mother had discussed with them. She paused one instant,
contemplating this picture. The look of triumph on her face toned down
considerably. Then she comforted herself aloud.

"I've heard Mother say," she said softly, "that everybody overdid things
and did not know how to be graceful with immense fortunes got from
silver and gold mines, and lumber. It will be different now. Probably
they don't live in the same house, even. There is a small army of
servants, and there is nothing I can think of that Uncle Jim won't
gladly get me. I've been too big a fool for words to live this way as
long as I have. Crush me, will they? I'll show them! I won't even touch
these things I have strained so to get."

Eileen jerked from her throat the strand of pearls that she had worn
continuously for four years and threw it contemptuously on her dressing
table.

"I'll make Uncle Jim get me a rope with two or three strands in it that
will reach to my waist. 'A suitcase!' I don't know what I would fill a
suitcase with from here. The trunk may stay in the garret, and while I
am leaving all this rubbish, I'll just leave John Gilman with it. Uncle
Jim will give me an income that will buy all the cigarettes I want
without having to deceive anyone; and I can have money if I want to
stake something at bridge without being scared into paralysis for fear
somebody may find it out or the accounts won't balance. I'll put on the
most suitable thing I have to travel in, and just walk out and leave
everything else."

That was what Eileen did. At noon the next day her eyes were bright with
nervousness. Her cheeks alternately paled with fear and flooded red with
anxiety. She had dressed herself carefully, laid out her hat and gloves
and a heavy coat in case the night should be chilly. Once she stood
looking at the dainty, brightly colored dresses hanging in her wardrobe
A flash of regret passed over her face.

"Tawdry little cheap things and makeshifts," she said. "If Linda feels
that she has been so terribly defrauded, she can help herself now!"

By twelve o'clock she found herself standi