"And bungled and made no end of trouble," she returned with a sad smile.
"It was old Mr. Floyd who made the trouble. Why couldn't he have given his daughter to the young fellow who loved her? What I am afraid of now is that he has ceased to care. Still, he has been a favorite with women, and no one has captured him. An attractive man has to quite run the gauntlet. And when he thinks a woman's love has failed—"
"Do you speak from experience?" inquired Jaqueline archly, her eyes in a tender glow.
"Yes." There was a rising color and a half-smile hovering over his face. "It is true that hearts are caught in the rebound."
"But no one caught you."
"Because, month after month, I waited. I said at first, 'She will marry Ralston.' Then there were other admirers—you know there were a host of them more attractive than I, but I could have forgiven you for marrying Ralston. If it had been someone else I should have turned bitter, and that would have been the danger-point. I might have wanted to convince you
"That, Miss Jacky Mason,
I care as little as ye care for me,"
paraphrasing an old ballad and substituting her own name, while she glanced up laughingly.
"Since we found the making-up process so delightful," returned Jaqueline, "we are anxious to pass it around. You see, now, Marian has no interest in life but to play the part of maiden aunt. Jane will absorb a good deal of her with the most generous intentions. She is a lovely nurse, and I think grandpa's and Mr. Greaves' influence has mostly died out. They were both so narrow and dogmatic about women that they reduced her to a sort of slavery. Mamma has brought her out to a sense of freedom. Single women may be heroic, yet, as I remember, the Revolutionary heroines were married and mothers, most of them, and it is the wife and mother who has the most exquisite happiness."