It cannot be denied that Mrs. Bassett and Marian found Harwood a convenient reed upon which to lean.  Nor was Blackford above dragging his father’s secretary (as the family called him) forth into the bazaars of Washington Street to assist in the purchase of a baseball suit or in satisfying other cravings of his youthful heart.  Mrs. Bassett, scorning the doctors of Fraserville, had now found a nerve specialist at the capital who understood her troubles perfectly.

Marian, at Miss Waring’s school, was supposed to be preparing for college, though Miss Waring had no illusions on the subject.  Marian made Mrs. Owen her excuse for many absences from school:  what was the use of having a wealthy great-aunt living all alone in a comfortable house in Delaware Street if one didn’t avail one’s self of the rights and privileges conferred by such relationship?  When a note from Miss Waring to Mrs. Bassett at Fraserville conveyed the disquieting news of her daughter’s unsatisfactory progress, Mrs. Bassett went to town and dealt severely with Marian.  Mrs. Owen was grimly silent when appealed to; it had never been her idea that Marian should be prepared for college; but now that the girl’s mother had pledged herself to the undertaking Mrs. Owen remained a passive spectator of the struggle.  Mrs. Owen was not so dull but that she surmised what had inspired this zeal for a collegiate training for Marian; and her heart warmed toward the dark young person at Wellesley, such being the contrariety of her kindly soul.  To Miss Waring, a particular friend of hers and one of her admirations, Mrs. Owen said:—­

“I want you to do the best you can for Marian, now that her mother’s bitten with this idea of sending her to college.  She’s smart enough, I guess?”

“Too much smartness is Marian’s trouble,” replied Miss Waring.  “There’s nothing in the gymnasium she can’t do; she’s become the best French scholar we ever had, but that’s about all.  She’s worked hard at French because she thinks it gives her a grand air.  I can’t imagine any other reason.  She’s adorable and—­impossible!”

“Do the best you can for her; I want her to go to college if she can.”

Miss Waring had the reputation of being strict, yet Marian slipped the cords of routine and discipline with ease.  She had passed triumphantly from the kitchen “fudge” and homemade butterscotch period of a girl’s existence into the realm of marrons glaces.  Nothing bored her so much as the afternoon airings of the school under the eye of a teacher; and these she turned into larks when she shared in them.  Twice in one winter she had hopped upon a passing street car and rolled away in triumph from her meek and horrified companions and their outraged duenna.  She encouraged by means the subtlest, the attentions of a strange young gentleman who followed the school’s peregrinations afar off.  She carried on a brief correspondence with this cavalier, a fence corner in Pennsylvania Street serving as post-office.