“Nita!” Sally and David exclaimed together. So she had kept her promise to avenge herself, Sally reflected. A queer revenge—restoring an orphaned girl to her mother who was a rich woman. Sally smiled. But—wasn’t she avenged after all? Wouldn’t Nita congratulate herself on having separated David and Sally, no matter what good luck she had inadvertently brought upon Sally by doing so? At the sudden realization of what this story meant to herself and David, Sally withdrew her arm from about her mother’s shoulders and flung herself upon David’s breast. ———— Very gently David unclasped Sally’s hands, that locked convulsively about his neck. His eyes were dark with pain as Sally, hurt and resentful, shrank from him. “You’re glad to get out of it!” she accused him. “You were only marrying me because you were sorry for me. You won’t fight for me now, because you’re glad to be free—” “Sally! You don’t know what you’re saying! You know I love you, that I’ve thought of nothing but you since we met on Carson’s farm. Of course I want to marry you, and will be proud and happy to do so, if your mother will consent.” Sally’s face bloomed again. She seized her mother’s hands and held them hard against her breast as she pleaded: “You see, Mother? Oh, please let us go on with our marriage! David and I will love you always, be so grateful to you—Listen, Mother! You’ll have a son as well as a daughter—” “Don’t be absurd, Sally!” Enid commanded brusquely. “When you were indeed a girl alone, with no family, no prospects, nothing, a marriage with David would undoubtedly have been the best thing for you. But now—it’s ridiculous! This boy has nothing. You would be a burden upon him, a yoke about his young neck that should not be bowed down by responsibility for several years. You’re both under a cloud. I understand that he cannot return to college or go back to his grandfather until this trouble is cleared up. What did you two children expect to do, once you were married?” “I expected to work at anything I could get to do,” David answered with hurt young dignity. “I have brains, two years of college education, a strong body, and I love Sally.” Enid Barr leaned across Sally and touched David’s clenched fist with the caressing tips of her fingers. “You’re a good boy, David and Sally, the orphan, the girl alone, would have been lucky to marry you. But you understand, don’t you? She’s my daughter, will be the legally adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Courtney Barr. Anyone in New York could tell you what that means. She will have every advantage that money can offer her—finishing school or college, if she wants to go to college; travel, exquisite clothes, a place in society, a mother and father who will adore her, a girlhood rich with all the pleasures that every normal girl craves. Help me to give her these things, David, things you would give her if you could!”