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 ing Sheilah down onto her knees. 'There!' she exclaimed brightly, triumphantly. 'Now we're right! Now we can talk!' And she began to rock.

Sheilah sat rigidly on her mother's knees with her feet on the floor. It was like being made to ride a Shetland pony, after one has grown up, and one's legs were too long.

'Tell me, why should my little daughter want her mother to knock?'

Sheilah replied, 'Oh, don't knock if you'd rather not.'

How awful to feel, instead of the sympathy and understanding which her mother so wanted, distaste and something like disgust. Why, lately her feelings seemed determined to act contrary to every duty and ideal she had in the world. Liking Felix Nawn's hands on her wrists! Loathing her mother's arms around her waist!

'Tell me,' her mother persisted. 'Why did you want me to knock, Sheilah?'

'Oh, only because I was so hot and mussy after skating and I thought I might take a bath, and'

Her mother laughed lightly, playfully, flicking the end of Sheilah's nose.

'And didn't want her own mother to come in! Oh, Sheilah, Sheilah! Go ahead and take your bath, and we'll talk, like the two chums we are. You can tell me everything that has happened to-day. We