{171}
"Are you quite sure you are completely finished, dear? I would n't dare affirm that of myself."
"If there were no other reasons--why, even if I wanted to go," Marvel went on, "there is my work. I have accepted a position in the English department. They are depending upon me. I am ready, and there is no one to take my place."
"You are mistaken there. Miss Anderson would be glad to retain the position for a year. Something has happened to her arrangements for foreign study, and I heard it intimated the other day that she regretted resigning when she did. She would be delighted to stay on. You could, I think, come back to the position next year. I believe you could arrange with Professor Axtell."
"O Evelyn! Why do you wish to {172} make my going easy? Don't you see I can't bear it?"
"I don't know how to say what I wish," said the elder woman wistfully. "If I remind you that after all she is your mother, I am afraid it will not mean to you what it does to me."
"Certainly I think that, as between us two, the fact no longer carries obligation from me to her!" said Marvel steadily.
"O Marvel! You are hard!"
"No! I am just."
"Justice is never so simple as that," returned Evelyn Charleroy. "But even if it were, your father--I--would rather see you merciful. It would be more like you, Marvel!"