, as a parent, am gratified. 'Cat-and-dog life' is a mild way of
putting it;--a quarrelsome home is hell,--and hell is a poor place in
which to bring up a child! Mary, my darling, you can derail any train by
putting a big enough obstacle on the track; the fact that the obstacle
is pure gold, like your idealism, wouldn't prevent a domestic wreck--in
which Jacky would be the victim! But in regard to Maurice's marrying
anybody else"--he paused and looked at his daughter--"_that_ seems to me
undesirable."

Edith's face hardened. "I don't see why," she said; then added,
abruptly, "I must go and write some letters," and went quickly out of
the room.

They looked after her, and then at each other.

"You see?" Mary Houghton said; "she cares for him!"

"I couldn't face it!" her husband said; "I couldn't have Edith in such a
mess. Morally speaking, of course he has a right to marry; but he can't
have my girl! Let him marry some other man's girl--and I'll give them my
blessing. He's a dear fellow--but he can't have our Edith."

She shook her head. "If it were not for his duty to Jacky, I would be
glad to have Edith marry him. And as for saying that she 'can't,' these
are not the days, Henry, when fathers and mothers decide whom their
girls may marry."

While his old friends were thus talking him over, Maurice was traveling
up to the mountains. He had seen Mr. and Mrs. Houghton in Mercer several
times since Eleanor's death, but he had not been able to face the
associations and recollections of Green Hill. This was largely because,
though his friends had, with such ease, reached decisions for him, he
was himself so absorbed in indecision that he could not go back to the
careless pleasantness of old intimacies, (As for that question of the
wheels,--"if--if--if anything happens to Eleanor?"--Eleanor herself had
answered it in one word: _Lily_.) So, since her death Maurice's whole
mind was intent on Jacky. What must he do fear him? His occasional
efforts to train the child had been met, more than once, by sharp
rebuffs. Whenever he went to see Jacky, Lily was perfectly good
humored--_unless_ she felt she was being criticized; then the claws
showed through the fur!

"You can give me money, if you want to, to send him to a swell school."
She said, once; "but I tell you, Mr. Curtis, right out, _I ain't going
to have you come in between me and Jacky by talking up things to him
that I don't care about._ All these religious frills ab