“You can’t afford to have me. Or, anyhow, I can’t afford to come. Oh, for mercy sakes, Foster! do you suppose you are the only soul on earth who has any pride? About everybody who has anything to do with you gets down on their knees and sings Psalms when you take notice of ’em. I don’t; I’m not much of a singer.... Well, well! we’ve talked enough about what was settled in the beginnin’. Esther is comin’ here to-morrow. We must talk about her in these few minutes I’ve got to spare.” He nodded. “All right,” he agreed. “Talk about her.” “I’m goin’ to. Her position isn’t a bit like mine; it’s just the opposite. I shouldn’t think of takin’ up with your offer. She shouldn’t think--or be let think--of anything else. She is young, and pretty, and she’s got a lot of sense for a girl of her age. With your money and your influence and the chance they will give her she can have a happy life--yes, a pretty wonderful life, and I’d be the last to say she shouldn’t have it. I’ve done my best to make her understand that and she has finally agreed to give you a trial.” She had surprised him again and this time he showed his feeling. “Humph!” he grunted, frowning. “So she’s going to give me a trial, is she? That’s kind of her. I had an idea it might be the other way around.” “Yes, you would. Well, it isn’t all that way, not by a good deal. If you think that girl is goin’ to come here and wait for you to say ‘Boo’ and then say it back, like an echo off a stone wall, you don’t know her, that’s all. She’s sensitive and high strung and proud and she’s got a will of her own; she’s a Townsend, too, you mustn’t forget that. You’ve got to handle her the way you handle one of those trottin’ horses of yours, with judgment, not with a whip. You’ve got to be awfully careful, Foster Townsend.” Not since his early days at sea had any one lectured him in this manner. Even his wife, in her few and rare moments of self-assertion, had never spoken her mind as bluntly or with so little regard for his importance. He resented it. “Here, here!” he commanded, sharply. “We’ve had about enough of this, seems to me. I’m not begging for the girl. She doesn’t have to say yes, unless she wants to. Yes,” rising to his feet, “and you better tell her I said so. If she’s fool enough not to appreciate what I planned to do for her I don’t want her here. Call the whole thing off. I’m satisfied.” Miss Clark did not rise. Instead she remained in her chair. “Oh, dear!” she said, with a sigh of resignation. “It must be a dreadful thing to be bowed down to and worshiped so long that you come to believe you are the Lord of Creation. Foster, stop actin’ like a child. Esther is comin’ here to live; I’ve told you so a dozen times. It is settled that she is. What I’m tryin’ to do is to make you understand how and why she is doin’ it. She’s comin’ because I practically forced her into it; that’s the plain truth. She didn’t want to come.”