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 flaunted and several feminine voices murmured polite denials of the last statement.

“Yes,” went on Mrs. Selden, who was thoroughly enjoying her martyr role, “I shall soon follow my darling to the land beyond.”

“Well, meantime, Mother,” Barham tried to turn the trend of conversation to a pleasanter theme, “I shall do all I can to help you bear your loss”

“You don’t care that our Maddy is gone forever! You don’t care”

“Now, Marcia, stop that,” her sister remonstrated. “It’s unfair to Andrew. He and Maddy were all right—a whole lot happier together than you and your husband ever were!”

“Sarah, you hush! I won’t listen to such slander! Andrew, will you put Sarah out of the house?”

“Oh, come, now, Mother, we don’t want Sarah to go until after dinner, anyway.”

“Dinner! I’d like to know who could eat dinner. No one but me really mourns our darling.”

“Yes, we do, Marcia,” her sister said, “but these things have to be borne. I lost my dear daughter, too, you know”

“Oh, you, Sarah! You have no heart. Now, I’m a sensitive nature, an affectionate nature”

“You are, Mother,” Andrew said, sincerely. “But let us try to bear our sorrow bravely and help one another”

“Andrew, you make me sick! You and your preaching! Pity your weren’t a minister! Claudine, take me to my room. I must be alone.”

“She’ll stay alone about five minutes,” Mrs. Beresford said, as Marcia went away with the long-suffering Claudine. “What are you going to do, Andrew?”