seem like mental Mormonism. _She_ calls
it developing--but a man like Thomas Northrup married a woman
because she was the kind he wanted and he couldn't be expected to
keep trace of all the kinds of women Helen Northrup ran into
and--out of!"

"I don't know what you mean, Aunt Anna. Do talk sense."

Kathryn was almost excited. It was like reading what wasn't intended
for innocent young girls to know.

"Well, first, Helen Northrup was just like all loving young girls, I
guess--but when she didn't find _all_ she wanted, she took to
developing, as she called it. For _my_ part I believe when a woman
finds her husband isn't _all_ she expected, she ought to accept her
lot and make the best of it."

"And Brace's mother started out to make her own lot? I see."

Kathryn nodded her head.

"Well, something like that. She took to writing. Thomas Northrup
didn't know what ailed her and I don't wonder. She should have spent
herself on _his_ career, not making one for herself. But I must say
when Brace was born she stopped that nonsense but she evolved then
into a mother!" Anna sniffed. "A man can share with his children, but
when it comes to giving up everything, well!"

"What did he do, Aunt Anna?"

"He went away."

"With a woman?"

"Yes."

"One he just met when Mrs. Northrup became a mother?"

"He knew her before, but if Helen Northrup had been all she should
have been to him----"

"I begin to see. And then?"

"Well, then he died and proved how noble he was at heart. When he went
off, Helen Northrup wouldn't take a cent. She had a little of her own
and she went to work and Brace helped when he grew older--and then
when Thomas Northrup died he left almost all his fortune to his wife.
He never considered her anything else. I call his a really great
nature." Poor Anna was in a trembling and ecstatic state.

"I call him a--just what he was!" Kathryn was weary of the subject. "I
think Brace's mother was a fool to let him off so easy. I would have
bled him well rather than to let the other woman put it all over me."

"My dear, that's not a proper way for you to talk!" Aunt Anna became
the chaperon. "Come, get dressed now, dearie. There's the luncheon,
you know."

"What luncheon?"

"Why, with Mr. Arnold, my dear, and he included me, too! Such a sweet
fellow he is, and so wise and thoughtful."

"Oh!"

There had been a time when she and Sandy Arnold met clandestinely--it
was such fun! He included Aunt Anna now.