"No, hear me out! See for yourself if my plan is not diplomatic and feasible, and involves no surrender of pride. I shall send Willie Kerr on to Washington this afternoon. He will go ostensibly on private business with one of the Departments,--though I will, of course, pay all expenses,--and putting up at Hugo's hotel, will meet him as if by accident. In their talk Willie, who is tact and loyalty itself, will perhaps mention your sickness, though without comment. Gradually the impression will come to Hugo that if he returns, with, of course, suitable apologies--" "Mamma," said Cally, starting up, very white, "if you do any such thing as that I'll go away somewhere. I _will_ go and earn my own living.... I'll go _and live with the Cooneys_!" The two women gazed at each other. Over the mother's face there spread a slow flush; the round, purple birthmark darkened. Cally spoke again, with deadly earnestness. "I _did_ think you understood about this.... If you persuade Hugo to walk down from Washington on his knees.... I'll not see him." Mrs. Heth, curiously, had been brought down in full flight: perhaps by the force of that wild upstarting, perhaps by the grisly threat about the Cooneys. Carlisle in a flare-up had always required a certain handling. The worst of the mad girl was that she was really capable of doing these unspeakable things she mentioned. "So you refuse pointblank," said Mrs. Heth, in a muffled sort of voice, "to carry out your parents' wishes." "About this--I _must_. I'll do anything else you want me to, anything.... And, mamma, this isn't papa's wish," said the girl, with some emotion. "He told me--the other night--that I mustn't think of marrying anybody I didn't care for. He said he had never thought the same of Hugo--" Then mamma smote the flat arm of her morris-chair, and sprang up, exploding. "_That's it_! Shove it off on your poor, generous father!... How characteristic of your whole behavior! Why, you ought to be _ashamed_ to mention your father's name!" cried mamma; and, indeed, Cally was, though for reasons not known to her mother.... Mrs. Heth walked the floor, in the grip of those agonies which the defeat of her will brought her in poignant measure. It may be that her faith in her diplomatic plan had never been triumphantly strong. Now, certainly, her purposes were punitive only, and her flowing sentences well turned to her desire....