"And to think that I've allowed the wretched little creature to live in my house and mix with my boys--a contaminating influence." "It's horrible!" said the two girls. "Oh, how unjust you all are!" exclaimed Sally, rising from the table with burning cheeks. "How can a boy of that age be a contaminating influence? How can he affect the innocence of all those other little wretches whom you simper over just because their mothers have it in their power to lift you in the society of this wretched little place?" Mrs. Bishop had risen from her chair with white lips and distended nostrils. The two girls were staring at Sally with wide eyes and open mouths. For a moment there was a silence that thundered in all their ears. "Sally," said her mother, biting her words before she foamed them from her, "if you weren't a daughter of mine, I'd--I'd say you were a wanton woman. You know in your heart, as your father always taught you--as you could read in the Bible now--if you ever do read your Bible--that the sins of the fathers, yes, and the mothers too, will fall on the children until the third and fourth generation; and do you think that child of sin isn't contaminated by the vice of his mother's wickedness?" Elsie came to her mother's side with the proper affection of a daughter and laid her hand gently on her shoulder. "Don't worry yourself, mother," she said. "He can't stay, of course he can't stay. Sally doesn't know what she's talking about." "Certainly, he can't stay," reiterated Mrs. Bishop. "If I have to put him in the train myself to-day, and pack him off to London." "But who'll meet him?" asked Dora. "Oh, of course, I suppose I shall telegraph to her. I've got her address." "But that's a terrible waste of money," Elsie objected. "If you wrote now and sent him by a later train, wouldn't she get it in time?" "It can be charged to her bill," said Mrs. Bishop. "And are you going to send Maurie alone, all the way up to London?" Sally exclaimed, forced at last to break her silence. "Of course," said Mrs. Bishop, with surprise. "You don't think I'm going to afford him the luxury of a travelling companion, do you?" "You may not; but I shall." "What on earth do you mean?" "I shall go with him myself." "If you do--if you associate yourself with those disreputable people at all--you shall never enter this house again." Her voice thrilled with the terror of her threat. "I can look forward to the prospect of that with no great reluctance," said Sally quietly. "Oh!" Mrs. Bishop exclaimed. "Oh!" Then her daughters wisely led her from the room. "I've left my egg unfinished," she said brokenly as she departed. They fondly believed that Sally could not face the ominous threat of her mother until they beheld her trunks ready packed in the hall. Then Elsie came to her. "Sally," she said, with the voice of one who carries out implacable orders, "do you realize that mother meant what she said?"