"I think it is a very good one," said Mr. Van Alstine. "Marion's great trouble seems to me to be that she doesn't know when she is well off, and I think she will find out if she stays with Gerty a month or two."
"I didn't think of letting her stay so long as that," said Eiley.
"My advice to you is to let her stay till she gets tired of it, or till Gerty is tired of her," replied her husband. "Maybe she will find out then what it means to have a good home."
"But her lessons?"
"There are more lessons than those to be learned out of books, my dear. I am not at all sorry that matters have taken this turn."
"I am disappointed in Marion, I must confess," said Mrs. Van Alstine, with a sigh. "I thought Barbara's teaching would turn out quite a different sort of a girl. Barbara is the most self-sacrificing person I ever saw."
"Exactly; and she has taken every stick and stone out of Marion's way, and let the girl walk over her in every direction. That is one explanation, I suspect. But Gerty won't do that, you know very well."
"Gerty is peculiar," said Eiley, with another little sigh.
"Peculiar! Yes, I should think so," said Mr. Van Alstine. "I wish she had been married ten times before Asahel ever saw her. Do you know what scheme she has in her head now?"
"Not I. I saw there was something in the wind, but she hasn't said anything to me."