"They've made me into something I was not. I've never yet had a chance
to be myself. Why couldn't they let me be it? I know--I _know_ that when
at last they set me free because they have to--I--I'll act like a fool;
I'll not know what to do with my liberty--I'll not know how to use
it--how to understand or be understood.... Tell Mr. Tappan that! Tell
him that it is all silly and wrong! Tell him that a young girl never
forgets when other girls laugh at her because she never had any money,
and dresses like a frump, and wears her hair like a baby!... And if he
doesn't listen to us, some day Scott and I will show him and the others
how we feel about it! I can make as much trouble as Scott can; I'll do
it, too----"

"Geraldine!"

"Very well. I'm boiling inside when I think of--some things. The
injustice of a lot of hateful, snuffy old men deciding on what sort of
underclothes a young girl shall wear!... And I _will_ make my début! I
will! I will!"

"Dearest----"

"Yes, I will! I'll write to them and complain of Mr. Tappan's stingy,
unjust treatment of us both----"

"Let me do the writing, dear," said Kathleen quietly. And she rose from
the table and left the dining-room, both arms around the necks of the
Seagrave twins, drawing them close to her sides--closer when her
sidelong glance caught the sullen bitterness on the darkening features
of the boy, and when on the girl's fair face she saw the flushed,