"I shall never marry!"
Aunt Paget smiled.
"Well, at all events, it won't help you to be chiselling marble."
"Help me to what?"
"To a suitable marriage, of course."
Valeria's dark eyes flashed, but before she could speak her mother said:
"I am not one of those women who are anxious for their children to marry. I shall be more than content if Valeria remains single."
"Well, Sarah, forgive me, but I think it's a mistake. I said so before we left Maryland, when she refused young Middleton. Every one of us was married before we were Valeria's age, and none of us ever dreamed of wanting to go away from our home and study sculpture, or do anything in the least unladylike."
Valeria gathered up her sewing as if to leave the room.
"You must admit," Aunt Paget went on, "there's something unfeminine about sculpture. I'm not sure it isn't even a little irreligious."