imself saddled with the responsibility of an
impecunious young family, and it was difficult to subdue a feeling of
resentment as he remembered the careless _regime_ of the past. "When it
comes to the final decision you and I must give the casting votes, but
it would be an ease to my mind, at least, if a man of the world like
Uncle Loftus approved of what we were going to do. Come now, Phil! it
would to you too. If the worst came to the worst, and our venture
proved a failure, it would be a comfort to you to feel that you had not
acted alone."

"I don't think anything could comfort me then," said Philippa sadly.
She leant against the table and snapped unconsciously at the air with
the scissors. "If it will be any satisfaction to you, Steve, I am glad
that they are coming; but, honestly, they won't alter my decision. I
have thought and thought until my brain feels like a jelly, but there
seems no way out of the tangle but the one we propose. If Uncle Loftus
tries to dissuade me, I shall be obliged to tell him that in this matter
I consider my own judgment better than his. How can he decide what is
best for us? What does he know of our characters and possibilities? We
are not like other families. We may be less amiable and worthy in many
respects, but we _are_ cleverer. It isn't conceited to say so, for it's
true. We have inherited father's gifts, and ought to be able to do
something with our lives. Other girls might be content to stodge along
and never see anything of the world, and teach the doctor's children,
and marry the curates, and be as poor as Job all their lives, but--"

"`But that's not me nor you!'" quoted Madge vigorously, stopping the
machine with the usual jar and snap, and tossing her determined chin
with an air of defiance. "I won't stodge for any one. If fifty aunts
and a hundred uncles came and sat in rows round the room, and besought
me to be a good little girl and stay where I was, I'd snap my fingers in
their faces and tell them that I had to live my own life, and I'd take
jolly good care that I lived it in my own way."

"Madge!"

"Sorry! Didn't mean to interfere. Thought you might like to know my
sentiments--that's all. Keep me out of the room when the Loftuses are
here if you don't wish them to hear home-truths. I don't mince my words
when I'm roused, as some of you know to your cost I'll shake hands with
them when they come, and say good-bye when they go, and they will say to