“It’s great,” he said, smacking his lips.  “I think the person who invented it should have a gold medal.”

They spent a few days at Columbus.  Ethel went to see Mattie and her mother.  She also spent the night with Nora.  Their home was very handsome and Ethel could not help but respect kind-hearted Mr. Casey, who tried to make it so pleasant for her.  She had grown very fond of Nora.  She saw her good traits,—­her splendid unselfishness, and her tenderness towards her father as she tried to take her mother’s place with him.

“What a narrow, selfish girl I’ve been,” she thought, “never to have noticed them before.  Why, the way Nora shielded Mattie when the girl took her ring was a lesson to me, and I never took it.”

During their stay at Uncle John’s Mrs. Hollister came up, and the meeting between her husband and self was like lovers.  Ethel was glad.

“And it was I that kept them apart,” she told Kate—­“I with my society and expensive schools.  Poor Father! what could he do but grind from morning until night; and Mother with her hopes and ambitions—­what could she do?  Why, they had no time to speak to each other except on business and money.  It was all so false and wrong.  Now they are as they should have been, but think of the lost years, and all for me.”  “Never think of it, Ethel,” said Kate, “it’s past and over.  Everything has come smooth.  Forget it, dear; you were not to blame.”

Judge Sands called nearly every evening.  He and Uncle Archie struck up quite a friendship.  The Judge took him on auto trips far into the country, Kate, Patty, and Ethel going along.

One evening, after they all had gone back to Akron, Judge Sands called Patty into the library.

“I wish to have a little talk with you, my dear,” he said.

“Are you going to scold me for running over my allowance last month?” she replied, “because if you are I just couldn’t help it.  I wanted to give all of the girls a little remembrance, and—­”

“Patty, my child, have I ever scolded you for anything—­think?  Haven’t you done exactly as you chose since your childhood?”

“Yes,” replied the girl, “but I know that there are times when you should scold me, Papa, for I know I am self-willed and disobedient.”

“Well, we shall forget that.  You’re a pretty good girl considering that you have but one parent.  Now this is what I wish to see you about.  Your mother died when you were three, dear, and you’ve been with me ever since.  It’s been lonely for both of us at times, and for me especially so while you are away at school.  Patty, how should you like a mother?  Of course, no one can take the place of her who has gone, but I mean another one.”

The girl began to cry.

“I should not like it, Papa.”

Then she looked at him.  He was a handsome man, and if ever she were to marry he would be alone, in the prime of life.

“I suppose I’m selfish,” she sobbed, clinging to him, “but I should hate a stepmother.  Think of her taking Mamma’s place.  Oh, Papa!  I couldn’t bear it.”