“If mother had had her way at home I’d never left,” the girl went on. “It was the old man—father, I mean. He drove me away. He didn’t seem to understand me at all. If I made a little mistake, he was so harsh and cruel with me. Why,” she exclaimed, suddenly relapsing into slang under the pressure of excitement, “the old duffer uster be a pretty gay boy himself, and there wasn’t any reason why his daughter shouldn’t take after him. All the same, he never thought of that, but he was dead hard on me.”
Frank knew this was the fault of many fathers. They forgot their own younger days and were harsh and hard with their sons or daughters who showed they had inherited certain lively qualities from their parents.
“But your mother—for her sake, you must overlook anything from your father.”
“Yes, I suppose I ought, but it’s pretty hard sometimes. He’s tried to be so strict with me it’s driven me to do some of the things I have done.”
“That is where you are making your mistake. I do not wish to lecture you now, Miss Blaney, and I am going to say no more about it. I am glad I was able to find you that night in St. Jo.”
Her eyes began to shine and something like a flush came to her cheeks, which, with satisfaction, Merry observed were now unmarred by paint.
“You were brave, Frank Merriwell!” she cried; “just as you seemed to be in the play—just as I knew you were! Those men did not frighten you in the least. You fought the whole crowd like a tiger. But I thought you would be killed till that woman interfered. Who was she?”
“A stranger—a woman I had never seen but once before in my life. Then she was in a plot to blackmail me. The plot failed, and she was ready to turn against her accomplices. What do you know of her?”
“Nothing, save that she is known in the sporting circles of St. Jo. as Queen Mab, and she is something of a mystery. There’s not a gay girl in the city who would not give anything to be like Queen Mab.”
“I am sure the woman is not all bad. It was rare good fortune that brought your mother along there just as we escaped from the place.”