Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/282

 again as long as I live! I will never do another thing for anybody else! I am going to be a perfect pig!"

James Spencer stared for a few seconds in speechless astonishment at his daughter, standing before him with flaming cheeks and defiant eyes. Had she lost her mind, or had she become possessed of the devil? At any rate she looked surprisingly handsome, and that at least was as it should be. A sudden revulsion of feeling went over him, and holding out both hands to her, he cried:

"Mary Anne, come here! You're a trump! I'm proud of you!" He held her hands for a moment and gazed up at her from his big easy chair with a look wherein approbation still contended with amazement, and then he said: "See that you stick it out, my girl! see that you stick it out!"

For the moment om's misdemeanors were forgotten, and somehow they never assumed the same gigantic proportions in the family councils again. In his joy at having his daughter's virtues mitigated, James Spencer could afford to be indulgent to the sins of his son.

When, that same evening, a caller was announced, namely, Dr. Charles Winship, Mary Anne, witha queer little laugh, said to her younger sister: "Edith, I think you'd better play backgammon with Father this evening. I want to see Dr. Winship myself."