"You will be good about it, Maggie; won't you?" said Mrs. Howland. "You won't destroy your poor mother's happiness? I have had such lonely years, and such a struggle to keep my head above water; and now that good man comes along and offers me a home and every comfort. I am not young, dear; I am five-and-forty; and there is nothing before me if I refuse Mr. Martin but an old age of great poverty and terrible loneliness. You won't stand in my way, Maggie?" "I can't, mother; though it gives me agony to think of your marrying him." "But you'll get quite accustomed to it after a little; and he is really very funny, I can assure you; he puts me into fits of laughter. You will get accustomed to him, darling; you will come and live with your new father and me at Laburnum Villa?" "Mother, you must know that I never will." "But what are you to do, Maggie? You've got no money at all." "Oh mother!" said poor Maggie, "it costs very little to keep me at Aylmer House; you know that quite, quite well. Please do let me go on with my education. Afterwards I can earn my living as a teacher or in some profession, for I have plenty of talent. I take after father in that." "Oh yes, I know I always was a fool," said Mrs. Howland; "but I have a way with people for all that." "Mother, you have a great deal that is quite sweet about you, and you're throwing yourself away on that awful man! Can't we go on as we did for a year or two, you living here, and I coming to you in the holidays? Then, as soon as ever I get a good post I shall be able to help you splendidly. Can't you do it, mother? This whole thing seems so dreadful to me." "No, I can't, and won't," said Mrs. Howland in a decided voice. "I am exceedingly fond of my Bo-peep--as I call him--and greatly enjoy the prospect of being his wife. Oh Maggie, you have not returned to be a thorn in our sides? You will submit?" "Never, never, never!" said Maggie. "Then I don't know what you are to do; for your new father insists on my keeping the very little money I have for my own personal use, and if you refuse to conform to his wishes he will not allow me to spend a farthing of it on you. You can't live on nothing at all." "I can't," said Maggie. "I don't know quite what to do. Are you going to be so very cruel as to take away the little money you have hitherto spent on me?" "I must, dear; in fact, it is done already. Mr. Martin has invested it in the grocery business. He already provides for all my wants, and we are to be married in a fortnight. I have nothing whatever to spend on you." "Well, mother, we'll say no more to-night. I have a headache, but I'll sleep on the sofa here; it's less hot than the bedroom." "Won't you sleep with your poor old mother?" "No, I can't, really. Oh, how dreadfully hot this place is!"