daughter?"

Mrs. Randall gave a sudden start, and looked keenly into the eyes of
the girl standing so defiantly before her. "Does she suspect
anything?" she asked herself. Then she gave a nervous laugh, and
resumed her seat.

"Leave me alone now," she ordered. "I see it is no use talking to you
any more to-night, you are so unreasonable and headstrong. Your father
will have to take you in hand. He will soon knock this nonsense out of
your head. He is determined that you shall marry Mr. Donaster, and you
might as well make up your mind to that first as last."

"Mother, I shall go now. But let me tell you, as I shall tell daddy,
that nothing on earth can make me marry the man I do not love."

"Tut, tut. Love has nothing to do with marriages these days," Mrs.
Randall impatiently replied. "There is no such a thing as love in
marriage, it is merely a matter of convenience."

"If I believed that, I should never marry, mother."

"And don't you?"

"Indeed I do not."

"What do you know about love?"

"I know, perhaps, more than you think." The girl's face was now deeply
flushed, and this her mother noted.