"I don't suppose the mothers of the other girls knew it either; it was the secrecy which made it sporty and gave the smoking its only interest. I couldn't stand it, Momsie! I had to be doing something worth while! Finally you let me have my own way, very much against your will, and since then I've been a tomboy, as you say. Father gave in on the boat, and I've spent hours in her, all by myself, trying to find out what the things worth while are. I haven't been very successful yet, Momsie, but I do know that it is a waste of time to fool around with boys like Ted Erskine when one may find a chance to talk with a real man like Mr. Huntington." "Mr. Hamlen is a real man, too, Merry. If you knew something of life--" "It's because I know too much of life, and understand too little. Mr. Huntington has helped me to understand." "I had hoped that by being so much with him, you would be the more prepared to appreciate Mr. Hamlen," Mrs. Thatcher said. "I wish I might have been more with you, dearie." Marian looked up quickly. "What do you mean by that?" she demanded. "Haven't I given all my leisure to my family?" "You have had so very little leisure, Momsie." "I have had my own interests, of course--" "I'm not criticising you, dearie," Merry hastened to interpose; "I'm only trying to explain myself to you." "I have done my best to prepare my children for the life they would naturally enter--" "Isn't life what we live every day, Momsie? It isn't all made up of worldly things, is it?" "Upon my word!" Marian cried. "One would think that I had entirely neglected my family!" "No, Momsie; you have been most ambitious for us, and have made sure that we could have everything you thought we ought to have. Truly it isn't that I don't appreciate what you have done; I simply can't understand why any one should want the things you consider essential. Why, for instance, are you so anxious for me to be married?" "Because it is natural at this time in your life, Merry." Mrs. Thatcher was determined to have no quarrel, in spite of what she considered just provocation. "It is a mother's duty to advise her daughter when she sees her on the verge of a mistake." "Suppose I felt that I didn't care to marry, Momsie, that I should be happier to go through life expressing my own individuality?"