generally, whipped the girl into some sort of shape and got her
the right sort of friends, I suppose she might get out and
welcome!"

"No, Billy honestly likes her," objected Vivian Sartoris.

"She doesn't care for her enough to see that there's fair play,"
Elinor Vanderwall said quickly.

"Why doesn't she take a leaf from Paula's book," somebody
suggested, "and marry again? She could go out West and get a
divorce on any grounds she might choose to name."

"Well, Rachael's a cold woman, and a hard woman--in a way," Miss
Vanderwall said musingly, after a pause, when the troubles of the
Breckenridges kept the group silent for a moment. "But she's a
good sport. She gets a home, and clothes, and the club, and a car
and all the rest out of it, and she knows Billy and Clarence do
need her, in a way, to run things, and to keep up the social end.
More than that, Clarence can't keep up this pace long--he's going
to pieces fast--and Billy may marry any day--"

"I understand Joe Pickering's a little bit touched in that
quarter," said Mrs. Torrence.

"Yes--well, Clarence will never stand for THAT," somebody said.

Little Miss Sartoris neglected the Torrence grandson long enough
to say decidedly: