“You’ll ruin everything!” cried my wife. “You’ll make us the laughingstock of Europe!” “We Americans of the rich class are that already,” replied I. Edna must have given her daughter some secret signal, for she abruptly and hastily left the room, closing the door behind her. I shrugged my shoulders, settled back on the exquisitely upholstered and carved sofa on which I had seated myself. Looking round I said, “This is a beautiful room. You’ve certainly arranged a fitting background for yourself and Margot.” But she was not listening. She was watching her fingers slowly twist and untwist the delicate little lace handkerchief. At last she said: “Godfrey, I’ve never asked a favor of you. I’ve given my whole life to advancing your interests--to making our child a perfect lady--and to placing her in a dazzling position.” “Yes,” said I. “You have worked hard--and you’ve made your tricks.” “I’ve played my hand well--as you have yours,” said she, accepting my rather unrefined figure with good grace. “I began to make Margot’s career before she was born. The first time I saw her little face, I murmured to myself, ‘Little Duchess.’ Now, you understand why I brought her up so carefully.” “Oh,” said I, looking at her with new interest. “That was it?” I who knew what a futile, purposeless, easily discouraged breed the human race is could not but admire this woman. If her intelligence had only been equal to her will, what might she not have accomplished! “I have never lost sight of it for a moment,” said she. “In the early days--for a time--when we were seemingly so hopelessly obscure, and I was too ignorant to learn which way to turn--for a while I was discouraged. But I never gave up--never! And step by step I’ve trained her for the grand position as a leader of European society she was one day to occupy--for, I knew that if she led Europe she would be leader at home, too. Over there they’re merely a feeble, crude echo of Europe.” “Socially,” said I. “That’s all we’re talking about,” replied she. “That’s all there is worth talking about. What else have you been piling up money for?... What else?” I could think of no reply. I was silent. What else, indeed? “I kept her away from other children,” Edna went on. “After she could talk I never trusted her to nurses until we could afford fashionable servants. I got her the right sort of governesses--so that she should speak French, Italian, and German, and should have a well-bred English accent for her own language. I even trained her in the children’s stories she read--had her read only the fairy tales and the other stories that would fill her mind with ideas of nobility and titles and the high things of life.” “The high things of life,” said I.