"You ah the great man," said she, "of the family Ah have so much cause to love." Here she stopped as if to regain self-control. "Ah wish mah po' papahs," she went on, "had--" "There, there!" said my mother, patting her arm. "It'll be all right anyway, dear!" I was considering what to say. Her skin was clear, white, daintily transparent, and of a delicacy our western girls seldom display (owing, I surmise, to climatic influences); she stood there on Aunt Judith's Persian rug, her petite figure with its rounded curves, half-levitated, like Atalanta upon the oat-heads--and there returned upon me the mental vertigo, the lack of cerebral coördination, and the obliteration of the material universe. "Am Ah so igno'ant, really?" said she. "Ah'm fond of children; and Ah _must_ find wohk!" Why did I hate Dustin? Why could I not command my speech? I always rally at the crises, however, and did so in this instance. "As for ignorance," said I, "Sir John Lubbock says: 'Studies are a means, not an end.' And Lord Bacon hath it: 'To spend too much time in studies is sloth.' I see that you have acted on these maxims. Professor Dustin's astigmatism and myopia rendered it impossible for him to see you." I stopped in some returning confusion. "Those dreadful cube roots and quadratics--" said she. "The personality of the teacher," said I, "controls the matter." I heard her laugh, a little delighted laugh, and found myself agreeing to the heresy that, after all, the chief thing is to train the girls to be gentle, and the boys brave! Then I gave her my arm in to dinner. Chester, who had never offered a girl his arm except at a dance or after dark, glared at me. Mother was uneasy at the stirring of the old brotherly antagonisms. I expanded, and told Miss Frayn that if all southern women were like the only one I had met, I didn't wonder at the feuds. Then seeing whither I was drifting, I asked her plans as to the school she would take, when I sent her her certificate. She said that "Mistah Chestah" was going to let her have the home school. "A boy like Chester," said I, "will have little influence with Mr. Middlekauff, the director." "Oh, cut it out, Oc!" burst in Chester. "I've got it all framed up to be elected director!" "My political plans," said I, "will not allow of a breach between my family and Mr. Middlekauff." "Well, mine do," retorted Chester. "You'll take your chances with the Middlekauffs, just as I do!" It was not the occult influence, but a desire to benefit educational conditions, that led me to visit Miss Frayn's school the week Chester's insurgency placed her in it. My memory is hazy as to the matter, but my notes show that her weakness was in the matter of organization.