_July_ 25. "Oh, Frank! How I wish you were here this minute. If you do not come soon, I shall leave by myself. Something has just happened which has made me very angry. I was sitting in my room with the door ajar on account of the heat, when I heard a familiar voice at the front entrance inquiring for me. I flew to the mirror to brush my hair, and then stood impatiently waiting for the servant to summon me, when I heard the outer door shut, and, running to the window I saw, who do you guess? Your old friend, Frederic Knowles, walking slowly up the street. I rushed down stairs with so much haste, that I almost fell into the arms of Mr. Tracy, who was taking a card from the hands of the servant girl. "'Why was I not called to receive my visitor?' I asked, angrily enough. "'Mr. Tracy told me you were not in,' the girl answered, innocently. "I repeated my question, turning to him. "He dismissed the servant, and walked into the parlor without answering. Then he said coolly: "'I am your guardian, and wish to know the character of gentlemen who call, before I allow you to receive their visits.' "I confess I was too angry to articulate one word. Oh, how I longed to tell him all I thought of his conduct. I am thankful now that I was restrained from doing so, though I cannot keep back the tears when I recollect my disappointment. Why am I not twenty-one instead of seventeen? Or, why was not Mr. Knowles appointed my guardian instead of Monson P. Tracy? I have no doubt he has learned of my interview with Mr. McKinstry, and is intending to punish me. But is not a guardian's authority limited? How sadly our dear papa mistook the character of the man he selected for us." [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. THE PROFESSOR'S DEFEAT. THE crisis which Helen had predicted was reached on the very evening before Frank's arrival from college for the summer vacation. Roswell Tracy made proposals of marriage to his father's ward. His proposals were indignantly rejected. Hereupon Mr. Tracy interposed, and represented the immense benefits which would accrue to Helen and her brother, were the two families to be united by wedlock. The young lady bit her lips till the blood came, trying to keep silent. But when her guardian went on to urge her compliance, by describing the deep affection of his son, she found it impossible longer to restrain herself. "Mr. Tracy," she began, "no arguments you can use will change my determination. I despise the character of your son. He cares nothing for me, as you are well aware. His aim is to become possessed of the fortune my dear papa left me. Impossible, do you say? Then I am forced to remind you of a conversation which took place between you and him in this very room nearly a year ago, when you, Monson P. Tracy, recommended me as a favorable match to your son; and when he, after bestowing on me various epithets of contempt, was only persuaded into the plot by your representations of the size of my fortune."