Isn't it enough that we have lost our home, our carriages, all our
comforts and luxuries, through this man's bad judgment--"

"You will cling to that!" despairingly.

"And have had to come out to this Sleepy Hollow of a place, where life
means mere existence, and be so poor that the carfare into New York is
actually a consideration! I'm quite satisfied with our martyrdom as
it is, without pinching and grinding as we should have to do to live
elsewhere."

"Then you don't mean to attempt to escape?" returned Eloise in alarm.

"Hush, hush, Goosie. We will escape all in good time if we don't succeed
in taming the bear. As it is, I have to work single handed," dropping
into a tone of reproach. "You are no help at all. You might as well be
a simpering wax dummy out of a shop window. I would have been ashamed at
your age if I could not have subjugated any man alive. We might have had
him at our feet weeks ago if you had made an effort."

"No, no, mother," sadly. "I saw when we first came how effusiveness
impressed him, and I tried to behave so as to strike a balance--that
is, after I found that we were here on sufferance and not as welcome
guests."

"Pshaw! You can't tell what such a hermit is thinking," returned Mrs.
Evringham. "It is the best thing that could happen to him to have us
here. Dr. Ballard said so only to-day. What is troubling me now is this
child of Harry's. I was sure by father's tone when he first spoke of her
that he would not even consider such an imposition."