"Fight?" repeated Polly aghast.

"Yes; you can't dignify their skirmishes by any other name," said
Jasper, in disgust. "So you see our chances for keeping her as long as
she condescends to stay are really very good."

Polly clung to his arm in speechless dismay. Meanwhile conversation fast
and brisk was going on between the two shut up in the library.

"It is greatly to your discredit, Marian," said Mrs. Chatterton in a
high, cold voice, "that you didn't stop all this nonsense on your
father's part, before the thing got to such a pass as to install them in
this house."

"On the contrary," said Mrs. Whitney with a little laugh, "I did
everything I could to further the plan that father wisely made."

"Wisely!" cried Mrs. Chatterton in scorn. "Oh, you silly child! don't
you see what it will all tend to?"

"I see that it has made us all very happy for five years," said Mrs.
Whitney, preserving her composure, "so I presume the future doesn't hold
much to dread on that score."

"The future is all you have to dread," declared Mrs. Chatterton harshly.
"The present may be well enough; though I should think existence with
that low, underbred family here, would be a"?

"You may pause just where you are, Mrs. Chatterton," said Marian, still
with the gentlest of accents, but with a determination that made the