Before long Mrs. Sturgis came fluttering in great agitation to her oldest daughter. By various circumlocutions, she approached the subject which was causing her so much distress. It was quite evident that Alice was not well; she was run down and getting terribly nervous. Had Jeannette noticed anything wrong with her? Jeannette didn’t suppose it could be a _man_, did she? The little brown bird was still her mother’s baby after all, but you never could tell about girls. Alice was,--well, Alice was nineteen! And if it _was_ a man,--the dear child acted exactly as if there was one,--who could it possibly be? She didn’t see anybody but Roy; she didn’t go any place with anybody else. Now her mother didn’t want to say _one word_ to distress Jeannette, or to say anything that would--would upset her.... Perhaps she was all wrong about it anyway, but--but did Jeannette think it was possible that Alice and Roy,--that Alice,--that Alice.... Amused, Jeannette watched her anxious little mother floundering on helplessly. Then she suddenly took the plump and worried figure in her arms, hugged her, and told her all about it. Mrs. Sturgis could only stare in amazement and interject breathless exclamations of “But, _dearie_!” “Why, _dearie_!” “Well, I don’t know what to make of you!” But the question now remaining was how to jog Roy’s consciousness awake, make him see the little brown flower at his feet that looked up at him so adoringly, only waiting to be plucked. Jeannette said nothing to her mother, but she went to Roy direct. She felt sure of her touch with him. First she made him realize that she could never be satisfied with being his wife. She explained carefully and convincingly why it could never be, and then while he gazed tragically at the ground, twisting his lean white fingers, she spoke to him frankly of Alice. As she talked it came over her with fresh conviction that, had she married him, she could have done as she liked with Roy; he was putty in her hands. But her husband must be a man who would mold _her_, make her do what he wished, bend her to his will. Only such a man would awaken her love and keep it. She despised Roy for his amiability. He looked very boyish and silly to her now, as he rumpled his stuck-up hair, and dubiously shook his head. He was surprised to hear about Alice, and,--Jeannette could see,--at once interested. She left the thought with him and confidently waited for it to take hold. Mr. Corey, she felt, would have handled the situation in just some such fashion as she had,--direct, cutting the Gordian knot, plunging straight to the heart of the matter.