er,
and his mother's attempts at consolation irritated him. Lisle was too
popular; first Bella and now Millicent had taken him in hand.

"Millicent," Mrs. Gladwyne went on, "is an exceptional woman in every
desirable respect. I think you have long been as convinced of that as I
am."

"I'm afraid she can't have an equally favorable opinion of me," he said
with a short laugh.

"One does not look for perfection in a man," his mother informed him
seriously. "He is criticized much less severely than a woman. It seems to
be the universal rule, though I have sometimes thought it wasn't
absolutely just and that it had its drawbacks. It's one of the things the
women who go out and speak are declaiming against and something one of
them lately said sticks in my mind." She sighed as she added: "The times
are changing; there was no need to consider such questions in your
father's case. He was the soul of honor--you were very young when death
parted us."

She did not always express herself clearly, but Gladwyne saw that she did
not place him in the same category as his father and he recognized her
half-formulated thought that it would have been better had he grown up
under the latter's firmer guidance.

"Wonders never cease, mother," he responded with an attempt at lightness.
"It's difficult to imagine your being influenced by the latest
propaganda. I thought you shuddered at it."

"Well," she said, "I was forgetting what I meant to talk about, drifting
away from the subject; I'm afraid it's a habit of mine. What I have long
felt is that it would be so desirable if you married suitably."

"The trouble is to define the suitability. It's a point upon which
everybody has a different opinion."

"I would choose a girl of good family and education for you, one with a
well-balanced will, who could see what was right and cling to it. Still,
she must be wise and gentle; a tactful, considerate guide; and though
means are not of first importance, they are not to be despised."

Gladwyne leaned back in his chair with a laugh that had in it a tinge of
irritation.

"Are such girls numerous? But why do you insist on a will and the power
of guiding? It looks as if you thought I needed it. Sometimes you're the
reverse of flattering."

His mother looked troubled; she would have wounded no living creature
unnecessarily.

"My dear, it's not always easy to express what one feels, and I dare say
I'm injudicious in choosing my words. But you