"There was a young man--You remember, Jacqueline called him 'the most beautiful man in the room'? He was very handsome, and--nice to me. That's why I went to visit Mrs. Lawton, chiefly. I wanted to see more of him.--Whenever he touched my hand, or even my dress, little shivers ran up my back. I--I liked it. That's being in love, isn't it? Sometimes we went driving, in a buggy. Once it was moonlight, and I knew when we started that something was going to happen.--I meant it to. I flirted with him." "Did you, dear!" murmured the mother, between tears and laughter. "I didn't suppose you knew how!" "Oh, those things come, somehow. I've watched Jacky.--After a while, he kissed me. But do you know, Mother, that was the end of everything! I stopped having thrills the minute he did it. His mouth was so--so mushy, and his nose seemed to get in the way.--Still, I went on flirting. I wanted to give him every chance.--He didn't kiss me again, though. When we got home I asked him why that was. He said it was because he respected me too much." She made a scornful gesture, "You see, it's just as I thought! Kisses and all that sort of thing have nothing to do with respect, with real liking. And if my own thrills couldn't outlast one moonlight buggy-ride, they would not do to marry on. It will be better for me to marry on respect." "But poor Jim!" said Kate, unsteadily. "Must he, too, marry on respect?" Jemima met her gaze candidly. "Why, no. Men are different, I think, even intellectual ones. He has thrills. I can feel him having them, when I dance with him. That's how I knew he wanted me. And I'm rather glad of it," she finished, her voice oddly kind. Kate at the moment could think of nothing further to say. The thing was incomprehensible to her, appalling, yet strangely touching. This twenty-year-old girl, groping her way toward safety, that refuge of the middle-aged, as eagerly as other young things grasp at happiness, at romance!--She recalled phrases spoken by another startled mother to another girl quite as headstrong: "You are only a child! He is twice your age! You don't _know_!" She did not give them utterance. What was the use? In this, if in nothing else, Jemima was her mother's daughter. She would always make her own decisions. The girl went on presently to mention various advantages of the proposed marriage. "Of course Professor Jim is quite rich--Oh, yes, didn't you know that? I asked him his income, and he told me. With that, and the money you have promised me, we can travel and see the world, and keep a good house to come back to. I could do a good deal for Jacqueline, of course. You will visit us, too, whenever you like. It may be my only chance of getting away from Storm, you see. I do not meet many young men, and I'm not the sort they are apt to marry, anyway." "Are you so anxious to get away from Storm?" interrupted poor Kate. "You said you were homesick for us."