waist, when from the rosewood bedstead there came the sharp, quick
word, "Benjamin!" and, unmindful of Rosamond's presence, Ben leaped
into the middle of the room, ejaculating, "Thunder! mother, what do
you want?"

"I want _her_ to leave the room," said Mrs. Van Vechten, pointing
toward Rosamond, who, wholly ignorant of the nature of her offence,
retreated hastily, wondering how she had displeased the capricious
lady.

Although Ben Van Vechten would not have dared to do a thing in direct
opposition to his mother's commands, he was not ordinarily afraid of
her, and he now listened impatiently, while she told him that Rosamond
Leyton was not a fit associate for a young man like himself, "She was
a sort of nobody, whom her brother had undertaken to educate," she
said, "and though she might be rather pretty, she was low-born and
vulgar, as any one could see."

Ben confessed to a deficiency of eye-sight on that point, and then, as
his mother showed no signs of changing the conversation, he left her
abruptly, and sauntered off into the garden, where he came suddenly
upon Rosamond, who was finishing the Ancient Mariner in the summer-
house, her favorite resort.

"So we've met again," said he, "and a pretty lecture I've had on your
account."

"Why on my account?" asked Rosamond; and Ben, who never kept a thing
to himself, told her in substance all his mother had said.