"I don't think anything could comfort me then," said Philippa sadly. She leant against the table and snapped unconsciously at the air with the scissors. "If it will be any satisfaction to you, Steve, I am glad that they are coming; but, honestly, they won't alter my decision. I have thought and thought until my brain feels like a jelly, but there seems no way out of the tangle but the one we propose. If Uncle Loftus tries to dissuade me, I shall be obliged to tell him that in this matter I consider my own judgment better than his. How can he decide what is best for us? What does he know of our characters and possibilities? We are not like other families. We may be less amiable and worthy in many respects, but we _are_ cleverer. It isn't conceited to say so, for it's true. We have inherited father's gifts, and ought to be able to do something with our lives. Other girls might be content to stodge along and never see anything of the world, and teach the doctor's children, and marry the curates, and be as poor as Job all their lives, but--" "`But that's not me nor you!'" quoted Madge vigorously, stopping the machine with the usual jar and snap, and tossing her determined chin with an air of defiance. "I won't stodge for any one. If fifty aunts and a hundred uncles came and sat in rows round the room, and besought me to be a good little girl and stay where I was, I'd snap my fingers in their faces and tell them that I had to live my own life, and I'd take jolly good care that I lived it in my own way." "Madge!" "Sorry! Didn't mean to interfere. Thought you might like to know my sentiments--that's all. Keep me out of the room when the Loftuses are here if you don't wish them to hear home-truths. I don't mince my words when I'm roused, as some of you know to your cost I'll shake hands with them when they come, and say good-bye when they go, and they will say to each other as they drive away, `Plain, heavy-looking girl that youngest! They will never be able to do anything with her.' Ha, ha!" and Madge laughed in a mocking, derisive fashion, which brought an answering flicker of amusement to the anxious faces of her companions. It was evident that she fully expected an hour to come when her relatives would be stupefied to discover the genius of the age in the "plain, heavy-looking girl" whom they had despised, and it said volumes for her attainments that the prospect seemed within range of possibility to more than one of her audience.