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 She shrugged her shoulders mentally… and called Lydia to her.

“My dear,” she said more abruptly even than was her ordinary habit, “sit down—there. You have been in my mind constantly. I have taken steps… done what I thought best. Your young man, I learn, is all that can be desired—personally. The thing which keeps you from him is his father…. A father who may be dead and out of the way before you can get home again. Am I right? Answer me.”

“Oh, Auntie, let’s not speak of it…. It’s all over…. Oh, I’m so miserable….”

“Maybe we can mend that. We’ll see. Because Angus Burke has a degraded father you can’t live with him. He’s tainted. Something must be wrong with him…. Criminal father—Canfield pride. Um…. I knew your grandmother well. Paris was none too distant from her and her family, family, family—always family. Now think, do you feel anything wrong with you? Is there any flaw in you, any defect that makes you unfit to marry any man in the world?”

“I—I don’t understand.”

“Any—er—hereditary defect? Like this Burke boy’s?”

“How could there be?”

“Umph!… Well, my dear, you’re in for a