"Madame! I beg you will not occupy yourself with such matters. I am perfectly able to provide sufficiently——"
"Good Lord! Are you trying to tell me again how to draw my will?" she demanded.
"I am not. I am simply requesting you not to encumber this child with any unnecessary fortune. There is no advantage to her in any unwieldy inheritance; there is, on the contrary, a very real and alarming disadvantage."
"I shall retain my liberty to think as I please, do as I please, and differ from you as often as I please," she retorted hotly.
They glared upon each other for a moment; Meacham's burnt-out gaze travelled dumbly from one to the other.
Suddenly Miss Quest smiled and stretched out her hand to Cleland.
"Thank God," she said again, "that it is you who have the child. Teach her to think kindly of me, if you can. I'll come sometimes to see her—and to disagree with you."
Cleland, bare-headed, took her out to her taxicab. She smiled at him when it departed.
CHAPTER V
There came the time when Easter vacation was to be reckoned with. Cleland wrote to Jim that he had a surprise for him and that, as usual, he would be at the station to meet the school train.