"All right! I don't care a mite how much you pinch yourself," she declared. "You've promised--and that's all I care for!" And she left the room with buoyant step. "You see," observed Mrs. Thayer significantly, as the door closed behind her. "Yes, I see--so far," nodded Dr. Frank Gleason with a sigh. "But I do wish I could see--what the end is going to be." "It isn't given to us to see ends," responded Mrs. Thayer sententiously. "We can only attend to the beginnings and make them right." "Humph!" grunted her brother, with some asperity. "I'm not saying I like the beginning, in this case. Honestly, to speak plainly, my dear Edith, I consider this thing one big fool business, from beginning to end." There was a moment's pause; then very quietly Mrs. Thayer asked:-- "Can you suggest, dear, all things considered, anything else for us to do than what we _are_ doing?" "No--confound it! And that's what's the matter," groaned Frank Gleason. "But that isn't saying that I _like_ to play the fool." "Well, I shouldn't worry. I'm not worrying," replied his sister, with an enigmatic smile. "Maybe not. But I'm glad I'm going on that Arctic trip, and that it's just next month. I'd as soon not see much of the Denbys just now. Feel too much like the evil-eyed, double-dyed villain in a dime movie," growled the doctor, getting to his feet, and striding from the room. CHAPTER XIV AN UNDERSTUDY Soon after the doctor started on his trip to the North the Thayers closed their Beacon Street home and went to their North Shore cottage. The move was made a little earlier than usual this year, a fact which pleased the children not a little and delighted Helen Denby especially. "You see, I'm always so afraid in Boston," she explained to Mrs. Thayer, as the train pulled out of the North Station. "Afraid?" "That somewhere--on the street, or somewhere--I'll meet some one from Dalton, or somebody that knew--my husband." Mrs. Thayer frowned slightly. "Yes, I know. And there was danger, of course! But--Helen, that brings up exactly the subject that I'd been intending to speak to you about. Thus far--and advisedly, I know--we have kept you carefully in the background, my dear. But this isn't going to do forever, you know." "Why not? I--I like it." Mrs. Thayer smiled, but she frowned again thoughtfully. "I know, dear; but if you are to learn this--this--" Mrs. Thayer stumbled and paused as she always stumbled and paused when she tried to reduce to words her present extraordinary mission. "You will have to--to learn to meet people and mingle with them easily and naturally." The earnest look of the eager student came at once to Helen Denby's face. "You mean, I'll have to meet and mingle with swell people if I, too, am-- Oh, that horrid word again! Mrs. Thayer, _why_ can't I learn to stop using it? But you mean-- I know what you mean. You mean I'll have to meet and mingle with--with ladies and gentlemen if I'm to be one myself. Isn't that it?"