The girl stood up; she walked restlessly to the window and back before she cried: "Mother! mother! Have you not had experience enough of the curse of men?" Her great eyes rested gloomily on the older woman's face. There was a beautiful heredity marked in the pair; but seldom have more diverse souls been pent within similar tabernacles. "Don't speak so recklessly, dear," said the old lady. "You had the best of fathers. There are good men, too, in the world, and when a man is good, he is better than any woman." "It may be so. God knows. I hope it is so. But is Mr. Van Hupfeldt one of these fabulous beings? It has not struck me--" "Please, Violet, don't imagine that I desire to influence you in the slightest degree," said Mrs. Mordaunt. "I merely wish to hint to you what, in fact, you can't be blind to, that Mr. Van Hupfeldt's inclinations are fixed on you, and that he will probably give expression to them to-day. On Saturday he approached me on the subject, beseeching me with great warmth to hold out to him hopes which, of course, I could not hold out, yet which I did not feel authorized wholly to destroy. At any rate, I was persuaded upon to promise him a fair field for his enterprise to-day." "Oh, mother! Really, this is irritating of you!" cried Violet, letting fall with a clatter a spoon she had lifted off the table. "But I don't see it. Why so?" "It sounds so light-minded, at your years!" "As if I was one of the two parties concerned!" laughed Mrs. Mordaunt with a certain maternal complacency. She knew, or thought she knew, her wayward daughter. With a little tact this most suitable marriage could be arranged. "No," admitted Violet, angry at the weakness of her defense, "but you allow yourself to be drawn into having a hand in what is called a love-affair because it is an event; and it was not fair to Mr. Van Hupfeldt, since you knew quite well beforehand what would be the result." "Well, well," purred Mrs. Mordaunt good-humoredly, looking down to stroke the toy Pom on her lap, a nervous little animal which one might have wrapped in a handkerchief, "I will say no more. If the thought of allowing myself to be bereft of you has occurred to me, you understand for whose good I gave it a moment's entertainment. Marriage, of course, is a change of life, and for girls whose minds have been overshadowed by sorrow, it may not be altogether a bad thing." "But there is usually some selection in the matter, I think, some pretense of preference for one above others. Just marriage by itself hardly seems a goal." "Yes, love is good, dear--none knows better than I--but better marriage without love, than love without marriage," muttered Mrs. Mordaunt, suddenly shaken. "And better still life with neither, it seems to me; and best of all, the end of life, and good-by to it all, mother." "Vi, Vi! sh-h-h, dear!" Mrs. Mordaunt was so genuinely shocked that her daughter swung the talk back into its personal channel.