"He’s not that in this case," said Anne—she speaks English fine, like the teachers in the High—"I’m sure he means well by her, but they can’t get on at all, they’re always quarreling." "There’s many a gilded home hides a tragedy. What do they fight about?" "Things she does he disapproves of. She’s very spoiled and self-willed. No one’s ever controlled her and she resents it from him." "What’s he disapprove of?" Anne didn’t answer right off, looking thoughtful out of the window. Then she said slow as if she was considering her words: "I’m going to tell you, Molly, because I know you’re no gossip and can be trusted, and the truth is, I’m worried. I don’t like the situation up at Mapleshade." I swung my feet on to the floor and sat up on the edge of the bed, nibbling at a chocolate almond. "Here’s where I get dumb," I said, sort of casual to encourage her. "Sylvia Hesketh’s a girl that needs a strong hand over her and there’s no one has it. Her father’s dead, her mother—poor Mrs. Fowler’s only a grown-up baby ready to say black is white if her husband wants her to—and Dr. Fowler’s trying to do it and he’s going about it all wrong. You see," she said, turning to me very serious, "it’s not only that she’s head-strong and extravagant but she’s an incorrigible flirt." "Is there a place in the back of the book where you can find out what incorrigible means?" I said. Anne smiled, but not as if she felt like it. "Uncontrollable, irrepressible. Her mother—Mrs. Fowler’s ready to tell me anything and everything—says she’s always been like that. And, of course, with her looks and her fortune the men are around her like flies round honey." "Why does the Doctor mind that?" "I suppose he wouldn’t mind if they just came to Mapleshade or Longwood. But—that’s what the quarreling’s about—he’s found out that she meets them in town, goes to lunch and the matinée with them." "Excuse me, but I’ve left my etiquette book on the piano. What’s wrong about going to the matinée or to lunch?" "Nothing’s really wrong. Mind you, Molly, I know Sylvia through and through and there’s no harm in her—it’s just the bringing-up and the spoiling and the admiration. But, of course, in her position, a girl doesn’t go about that way without a chaperone. The Doctor’s perfectly right to object." I was looking down, pretending to hunt over the box. "Who does she go with?" I said. "Oh, there are several. A man named Carisbrook——" I’d seen him often, a swell guy in white spats and a high hat—"and a young lawyer called Dunham and Ben Robinson, a Canadian like me. People see her with them and tell the doctor and there’s a row." I looked into the box as careful as if I was searching for a diamond. "Ain’t Mr. Reddy one of the happy family?" I asked. "Ah, here’s the last almond!"