"The circumstances seem to make it wise to keep her here until he
is sure that this new position is the right one!" he said.

"If I know anything about Martin," Alix said, "no position is ever
going to be the right one for him. I mean," she added as her
father gave her an alarmed look, "I simply mean that he is that
sort of man. And it seems to me--odd, the way he and Cherry take
their marriage! Now when she got here, five months--six months
ago," Alix went on as her father watched her in close and
distressed attention, "Cherry was always talking about going back
to Mart--every time he sent her money she would say that she ought
to keep it for a sudden summons. But she doesn't do that now.
You've been giving her her own allowance right along, and she has
settled down just as she was. A day or two ago Martin sent her
twenty dollars and she has gone into town to spend it to-day--"

She hesitated, shrugged her shoulders.

"You think she ought to go back?" her father asked.

"No, I don't think so!" Alix answered, eagerly. "I don't think
anything about it. But--but IS that marriage? Is that really for
better or for worse? I mean," she interrupted herself hastily, "as
time goes on it will get harder and harder for her; there will
seem to be less and less reason for going! Mrs. Brown was talking
to me about it yesterday, and she asked in that catty, smiling way
she has--"

"Trust the women to gossip!" the doctor said, impatiently.