University of Virginia Library

THE Miller family was a devotedly united one, and family councils were common things with them, but never had they assembled with such anxious faces and earnest, apprehensive voices. As usual, Mrs. Miller dominated the group, striking the key customary firmness. "Something must be done to save the boy from an irreparable mistake. We may thank Heaven for the lucky chance by which we discovered what is going on. It is not too late to rescue him."

She looked about the little circle with a determined expression on her aquiline face. As usual, they all responded in the key which she had begun, running up and down the gamut of agreement, from Aunt Caroline's doubtful "Yes, but Fanny, what can be done? I think as you do, but —" to Mr. Miller's hearty "I depend on you, Fanny! You'll know how to manage it."

Only Cousin Richard was silent. One never knew whether he was joining in the common harmony or was executing a melody of his own, so consistently did he, as a rule, keep his grim mouth closed. On that account Mrs. Miller passed him over in the fervor of her explanations and plans.

"It's a common enough mistake," she went on. "He has no conception of the nature of social distinctions, and, besides that, I suppose scarcely any boy grows up without fancying he's in love with a woman old enough to be his mother. I dare say the woman has made him believe she's desperately in love, and Ralph's generosity has betrayed him into responding to a fancied claim on him."

Aunt Caroline threw in a fluttered protest. "Perhaps, Fanny, dearest, she is fond of him. I've always heard her so well spoken of by the other teachers."

Mrs. Miller snorted. "Do you suppose for a moment that if Ralph hadn't inherited his uncle's money she would have done anything but laugh at him?"

Cousin Dick flicked the ash from his cigar with an expressionless face, but Mrs. Miller instinctively turned toward him as if he were about to speak. However, he put the cigar back in his mouth, ran his finger through his wiry white hair, and regarded her in silence with steady eyes. Fanny went on with her monologue:

"I should be a recreant mother if I weren't willing to exert myself in every possible way — even the most painful one. I mean to go and see this absurd old maid, and — and — I mean to go and see her! I think I can put an end to the whole nonsense. The idea! She must be twelve years older than he! She used to correct his little compositions in the high school. It was a mistake not sending him East to college, just as I wished at the time. He must go away now. Richard shall take him to Europe when he sails next week."

Mr. Miller protested. "Oh, Fanny, do you think that is necessary? It will keep him from graduating from college this spring with his class."

His wife swept aside all obstacles. "What's that to saving our only son from a foolish infatuation? A boy with his brains and wealth and social position doesn't need to graduate."

Cousin Richard seemed to be preparing to say something. He took his cigar out of his mouth, ground the end in the ash-tray until the last red spark was gone, and then stood up, drawing his coat about his spare, upright figure.

"You'll make a mistake if you interfere in this, Frances," he said, in a dry, colorless way. "I'll take the lad abroad,

if you say, but you'll be making a mistake if you go to Miss Wilson or try and bully Ralph. I think, from what he said to me, he is in love with her. Ralph is a man, almost — he'll be twenty-one in a few months, and in his own way he's mature for his years. You can't run his destiny the way you run your chapter of the D. A. R."

Mrs. Miller broke out in a passion of protest. Dick was crazy — she hoped she knew her duty to protect dear, generous, impulsive, ignorant Ralph, her only son — her only child. She would have tact; she knew Miss Wilson was a perfectly respectable person; but how preposterous! The difference in their station, if there was nothing else — Ralph Miller, only son of the Millers of Millerstown, and Rachel Wilson, teacher of English in the public high school! Why, her father was a carpenter, and her mother used to go out as nurse before she was married!

"They're both dead," remarked Cousin Richard, his hand on the knob of the door.

"As if that made any difference!" cried Fanny to his retreating back.