“My dear child,” said Mrs. Merrill, “you need not feel so badly.  There will be no change in your life until you yourself marry.  We shall live right along here.  This house is larger and more convenient than the doctor’s.  He will rent his house, and we shall live here.”

“And all those Ellridge girls,” sobbed Lily.

“They are very nice girls, dear.  Florence and Amelia will room together; they can have the southeast room.  Mabel, I suppose, will have to go in the best chamber.  Perhaps, by-and-by, Dr. Ellridge will finish off another room for her.  I don’t quite like the idea of having no spare room.  But you will keep your own room, and you will be all the happier for having three nice sisters.”

“I never liked them,” sobbed Lily.  It really seemed to her that she was called upon to marry the Ellridge girls, and that was the main issue.

“They are very nice girls,” repeated Mrs. Merrill, and there was obstinacy in her artificially sweet tone.  “Everybody says they are very nice girls.  You certainly would not wish your mother to give up her chance of a happy life, because you have an unwarrantable prejudice against the poor doctor’s daughters.”

“You have been married once,” said Lily, feebly.  It was as if she made a faint remonstrance because of her mother, who had already had her reasonable share of cake, taking a second slice.  She had too sweet a disposition to say bitter things, but the bitterness of the things she might have said was in her heart.

“I suppose you think because I am older it is foolish,” said her mother, in an aggressive voice.  “Wait till you yourself are older and you may know how I feel.  You may find out that you cannot give up all the joys of life because you have been a few years longer in the world.  You may not feel so very different from what you do now.”  Mrs. Merrill’s voice rang true in this last.  There was even a pathetic appeal to her daughter for sympathy.  But Lily continued to sob weakly, and did not say any more.

“Well, good-night, my dear child,” Mrs. Merrill said finally.  “You will feel very differently about all this later on.  You will come to see, as I do, that it is for the best.  You will be much happier.”  Mrs. Merrill kissed Lily again, and went out.  She closed the door with a slight slam.

Lily knew that her mother was angry with her.  As for herself, she considered that she had never been so unhappy in her whole life.  She thought of living with the Ellridge girls, who were really of a common cast, and always with Dr. Ellridge at the head of the table, dictating to her as he had done to-night, in his smooth, slightly satirical way, and her whole soul rose in revolt.  She felt sure that Dr. Ellridge was not at all in love with her mother, as George Ramsey might be in love with herself.  All the romance had been sucked out of them both years before.  She called to mind again her mother’s lined face, her too aggressive curves, her tightly