“There, don’t be heart-broken.  You will be in the high school yourself in no time.”

Maud lifted up her eyes and her heart at these words.

“Yes, I will, darling!”

She had never thought of the high school before.  She had always expected to leave school that very season, and to go into service somewhere.  But from that moment she resolved that nothing should keep her away from those walls that had suddenly become her Paradise.

Her mother was easily won over.  She was a woman of weak will, more afraid of her children than of her husband, a phenomenon of frequent occurrence in that latitude.  She therefore sided naturally with her daughter in the contest which, when Maud announced her intention of entering the high school, broke out in the house and raged fiercely for some weeks.  The poor woman had to bear the brunt of the battle alone, for Matchin soon grew shy of disputing with his rebellious child.  She was growing rapidly and assuming that look of maturity which comes so suddenly and so strangely to the notice of a parent.  When he attacked her one day with the brusque exclamation, “Well, Mattie, what’s all this blame foolishness your ma’s being tellin’ me ?” she answered him with a cool decision and energy that startled and alarmed him.  She stood straight and terribly tall, he thought.  She spoke with that fluent clearness of girls who know what they want, and used words he had never met with before out of a newspaper.  He felt himself no match for her, and ended the discussion by saying:  “That’s all moonshine—­you shan’t go!  D’ye hear me?” but he felt dismally sure that she would go, in spite of him.

Even after he had given up the fight, he continued to revenge himself upon his wife for his defeat.  “We’ve got to have a set of gold spoons, I guess.  These will never do for highfliers like us.”  Or, “Drop in at Swillem’s and send home a few dozen champagne; I can’t stummick such common drink as coffee for breakfast.”  Or, “I must fix up and make some calls on Algonkin Av’noo.  Sence we’ve jined the Upper Ten, we mustn’t go back on Society.”  But this brute thunder had little effect on Mrs. Matchin.  She knew the storm was over when her good-natured lord tried to be sarcastic.

It need hardly be said that Maud Matchin did not find the high school all her heart desired.  Her pale goddess had not enough substantial character to hold her worshipper long.  Besides, at fifteen, a young girl’s heart is as variable as her mind or her person; and a great change was coming over the carpenter’s daughter.  She suddenly gained her full growth; and after the first awkwardness of her tall stature passed away, she began to delight in her own strength and beauty.  Her pride waked at the same time with her vanity, and she applied herself closely to her books, so as to make a good appearance in her classes.  She became the friend instead of the vassal of Azalea, and by slow degrees she found their positions reversed.