"Next to nothing. The girl's mother died when she was born and the little tot lived all her life aboard ship with her father." "Had neither the father nor mother any relatives?" "Apparently not. The mate of the ship said he had never heard the Captain mention any." "Poor little waif! And these people who took her in have been kind to her? She is fond of them?" "She adores them!" The old lady stirred her tea absently. "But, Bob dear, has the girl any education?" she inquired presently. "That is the miracle of it!" ejaculated he. "When she was small, one of the summer residents, a Mrs. Farwell, who had a tutor for her son, suggested the two children have their lessons together. As a consequence the girl is a fine French scholar; has read broadly both foreign and English literature; is familiar with ancient and modern history and mathematics; and recently a professor from Harvard, who has boarded summers with the family, has instructed her in the natural sciences. She is much better educated than most of the society girls I've met." "Than my granddaughter Cynthia, I dare say," was the quick comment. "Oh--eh--" "You need not try to be polite, Bob. I am not proud of Cynthia's education," asserted Madam Lee. "For all her wealth and all her opportunity to make herself accomplished she has never mastered one thing. If she could even sew well or keep house I should rejoice. But she can't. As for languages, music, art--bah! She is as ignorant as if she had been brought up in a home in the slums. A thin society veneer such as the typical fashionable boarding-school washes over the outside and a little helter-skelter reading and travel is all Cynthia has acquired. A real education entailed too much effort. So she is what we see her,--a thoughtless, extravagant, pleasure-seeking creature. She is a great disappointment to me, a great disappointment!" Robert Morton did not reply. "Come now, Bob. Why don't you agree with me?" "I am fond of Cynthia," said the young man in a low tone. "I know you are. Sometimes I have worried lest you were too fond of her." There was no response. "Cynthia is not the wife for you, my dear boy, and never was. I am older than you and I know life. Moreover, I love you very dearly. Were you of my own blood I believe I could not care more deeply for you than I do. It would break my heart to see you make a foolish marriage--to see you married to a girl like Cynthia. You never would be happy with her in the world. Why, it takes a small fortune even to keep her contented. It is money, money, money, all the time. She cares for little else, and unless a man kept her supplied with that there would be no peace in the house." "Aren't you a little hard on her?" "Not too hard," came firmly from Madam Lee. "You think precisely as I do, too, only you are too loyal and too chivalrous to own it." There was a pause broken only by the tinkle of the teacups.