attitude, as is frequently the case with overeducated and
supercultured young ladies who cannot recall a time when their
slightest wish has not been gratified and cannot forget that the good
fairy who gratified it once worked hard with his hands, spoke the
language and acquired the habits of his comrades in the battle for
existence.

Of course, Elizabeth and Jane would have resented this analysis of
their mental attitude toward their father. Be that as it may, however,
the fact remained that both girls were perfunctory in their
expressions of affection for their father, but wildly extravagant in
them where their mother was concerned. Hector McKaye liked it so. He
was a man who never thought about himself, and he had discovered that
if he gave his wife and daughters everything they desired, he was not
apt to be nagged.

Only on one occasion had Hector McKaye declared himself master in his
own house, and, at the risk of appearing paradoxical, this was before
the house had been built. One day, while they still occupied their
first home (in Port Agnew), a house with a mansard roof, two towers,
jig-saw and scroll-work galore, and the usual cast-iron mastiffs and
deer on the front lawn, The Laird had come gleefully home from a trip
to Seattle and proudly exhibited the plans for a new house.

Ensued examination and discussion by his wife and the young ladies.
Alas! The Laird's dream of a home did not correspond with that of his
wife, although, as a matter of fact, the lady had no ideas on the
subject beyond an insistence that the house should be "worthy of their
station," and erected in a fashionable suburb of Seattle. Elizabeth
and Jane aided and abetted her in clamoring for a Seattle home,