But that, she told herself, leaping from her bed, taking the frigid shower of her father’s prescribing, flying into vest and knickers and the stern simplicity of her business dress, all that belonged to the past, before she was nineteen ... twenty.... “My dear,” Miss Ada remarked with solicitude, “you’ve hardly sipped your coffee, and you haven’t touched your cereal!” “I’m not hungry, Miss Ada.” Her friend began a soft and anxious clucking. “You’re _quite_ sure, honey, that you are perfectly well?” Then Glen Darrow did a startling thing. She jumped up from her place at the breakfast table and made a disconcerting dash for the faded teacher and gathered her into a breathless young hug. “Yes, Miss Ada, dear,” she spoke with her lips against the gentlewoman’s pallid cheek, “yes! I’m quite sure that I’m perfectly well and perfectly happy!”--and, leaving her wide-eyed and trembling, she sped out of the house and down the hill. Miss Tenafee rang the bell and directed Phemie to bring her another cup of coffee, and she drank it black. “It’s come,” she told herself unhappily. “It can’t be anything else. She’s made up her mind to marry that young savage, and the doctor has beaten me. I’m helpless ... _helpless_....” she pushed her chair back and the slow tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over and ran down her lean cheeks and the taste of them was salt in her mouth. “She’ll marry him, and I’d rather see her in her grave!” CHAPTER VII _Luke Manders agrees with her entirely, and Southern Europe contributes some of its culls to the mill, notably one Black Orlo, whose vitriolic utterances the doctor’s daughter finds nourishing._ WITH a sag of excitement, a sense of anti-climax, Glen found that Luke was not in his office: he would not return to the mill until late afternoon. This was not surprising, because old Ben Birdsall was shunting more and more of his own responsibilities upon his young assistant, and Luke Manders was doing much work which was far outside the borders of a bookkeeper’s position. He went frequently to outlying plantations and nearby towns on the mill’s business, and she was accustomed to his absences, but to-day it was disappointing out of all proportion.