“I won’t apologize to that stuck-up thing—anyhow, not till she apologizes for speaking of my lemonade dress.”
“Now, that’s the real question before the board,” asserted Don. “You’re under trial, Sue, and if we decide you’re in the wrong, and you don’t apologize to Doris and do as Cousin Judith says, you’ll be divorced from our Articles of Adoption.”
Sue was white and frightened, but she held her ground.
“All right,” she said. “It’s up to you. I don’t want any adoption by anyone who won’t stand by me in a fight. And I’ll never—never—beg Doris’ pardon!”
They tried to argue with her, and explained the disgrace of being divorced and having no Little Mother. The divorce would separate her not only from association with Cousin Judith, but from that of her brothers and sisters, who would all hold strictly to the letter of the agreement they had signed.
Sue listened to it all and remained obstinate.
“It’s for you to say whether I’m right or wrong,” she avowed at the last, “and if I’m divorced I don’t care a rap. I won’t stand for any adoption that makes me apologize to a silly fool like Doris Randolph.”
Donald and Phœbe withdrew from the conference and talked it over between themselves. They decided that Sue, having defied Cousin Judith’s authority and broken the signed agreement, must submit to the penalty of divorce.
Phœbe drew up the paper and made an imposing looking copy on her typewriter. It read as follows:
“Whereas Sue Daring signed, under date of June 14th, 1908, a document known as the Articles of Adoption, whereby she promised and covenanted to support and acknowledge the authority of Miss Judith Eliot and to Adopt her as a Mother, and Whereas the said Sue Daring has broken that covenant and agreement and refuses longer to abide by it, Therefore the undersigned, chosen by her as a Committee to decide her case, hereby declares the said Sue Daring has been guilty of a violation of the terms of the said signed agreement and is therefore released from all its pledges and Divorced from any further participation in its benefits. Signed this 12th day of July, 1908.