that; you tell him
I thank him for nothing!--_I_ can educate my child to beat the band. I
don't want any help from _him_. But--" she was on her knees again,
stroking Eleanor's shoulder--"but if he's mean to you because you
haven't had any children, I--I--I'll see to him! Well--I've always
thought, what with him fussing about 'grammar,' and 'truth,' he'd be a
hard man to live with. But if he's been mean to you he'd ought to be
ashamed of himself!"

"Oh, he doesn't even know that I have come!" Eleanor said; "he mustn't
know it. Oh, please!" She was terrified. "Don't tell him, Mrs. Dale.
Promise me you won't! He would be angry."

Her frightened despair was pitiful; Lily was at her wits' end. "My soul
and body!" she thought, "what am I going to do with her?" But what was
all this business? Mrs. Curtis asking for Jacky--and Mr. Curtis not
knowing it? What was all this funny business? "Now I tell you," she
said; "you and me are just two ladies who understand each other, and I'm
going to be straight with you: if Mr. Curtis is trying to get my child
away from me, he'll have a sweet time doing it! There's other places
than Medfield to live in. I have a friend in New York, a society lady;
she's always after me to come and live there. Mind! I'm not mad at
_you_, you poor woman that couldn't have a baby--it's him I'm mad at! He
knows Jacky is mine, and I'll go to New York before I'll--"

"Oh, don't say that!" Eleanor pleaded; "my husband hasn't tried to get
Jacky; it's just I!"

She saw, with panic, that what Maurice had said was true--Lily might
"run"! If she did, there would be no hope of getting Jacky ... and Edith
would be in Mercer....

"Mrs. Dale, _promise_ me you'll stay in Medfield? It was only I who was
trying to get Jacky; Mr. Curtis never thought of such a thing! I wanted
him. I'd do everything for him; I'd--I'd give him music lessons."

"Honest," said Lily, soberly, "I believe you're crazy."

She looked crazy--this poor, gray-haired woman of pitiful dignity and
breeding. ("I bet she's sixty!" Lily thought)--this old, childless
woman, with a "Mrs." to her name, pleading with a mother to give up her
boy, so he could have "music lessons"! "And Mr. Curtis's up against
_that_," Lily thought, and instantly her anger at Maurice ebbed. "There,
dear," she said, touching Eleanor's wet cheeks gently with that perfumed
handkerchief; "I don't believe you've had any supper. I'm going to get
you something to eat--"

"No, pl