"Not at all! I hear perfectly;--except when people mumble. And I shall never change; my way of keeping house is the right way, so why should I change?" "I couldn't keep my girls a week if I were as strict as you," Mrs. Payton ventured. "It wouldn't be much loss, my dear!" the older woman said; she ran a white-gloved finger along the top of the piano beside her, and held it up, with a dry laugh. "You could eat off the floor in my house; but you never were much of a housekeeper. However, I didn't come to talk about servants; I came to tell you that I am going to call on those cousins of Mr. Weston's, and explain that at any rate _I_ don't approve of my granddaughter's going into business!" "I'm sure I don't, either!" poor Mrs. Payton protested. "I am dreadfully distr--" "Why don't you tell her it isn't _done_? Why do you allow it?" Mrs. Holmes demanded. Mrs. Payton raised protesting hands: "'Allow' Freddy?" "If you'd stop her allowance, you'd stop her nonsense. That is what I would do if a daughter of mine cut such didos!" "I can't--she's of age. You can't control girls nowadays," Mrs. Payton sighed. "She ought to be married," said Mrs. Holmes, clutching at the back of a gilt chair as she got on to her shaking old legs; "though I can't imagine any nice man wanting to marry a girl who talks as she does. Maria Spencer told me she heard that Fred said that men ought not to be allowed to marry unless they had a health certificate." Mrs. Payton gasped with horror. "Mama! are you _sure_? I can't believe-- What _are_ we coming to?" "It mortified me to death," said Mrs. Holmes. ("Oh, do pick up that card-case for me!) I wish Arthur Weston would marry her, but I suppose he never got over that Morrison girl's behavior? No; the real trouble is, you insist on living in this out-of-the-way place! Oh, yes, I know; poor Mortimore. Still, the men won't come after her here, because it looks as if she had no money--that, and her queerness. Really, you ought to try to get her settled. You ought to move over to the Hill; but you love that poor, brainless creature up-stairs more than you do Fred!" Mrs. Payton stiffened. "I love both my children just the same; and I can't discuss Mortimore, Mama, with anybody. As for being brainless, Doctor Davis always said, 'The intellect is _there_; but it is veiled.'" The tears brimmed over. "You don't understand a mother's feelings, Mama." Mrs. Holmes shrugged her shoulders and brushed a powdered cheek against her daughter's worn face. "Good-by. Of course, you never take any advice--I'm used to that! If I wasn't the warmest-hearted creature in the world I should be very cross with you. I suppose you are terribly lonely without Freddy?" "Oh, terribly," said Mrs. Payton.