“Will it be my own money?”

“Certainly; I shall not exercise the slightest supervision over the way you spend it, so long as your Mill Road friends do not get quarreling over the division of it.”

“You do not understand my meaning.  Will it be the money my father left me?”

“I cannot promise it will be just the same.  No doubt that has passed through scores of hands since then; in fact, it may be lying in the bottom of the sea.  I did not expect you would be so exact in money matters, or I might have been more careful.”

“Mr. Winthrop, why do you so persistently misconstrue my meaning?” I said, desperately.  He looked down more gently from his superior height into my troubled face, and the mocking gleam faded from his eyes.

“Why are you so scrupulously, ridiculously insistent in maintaining such perfect independence?  Can you not believe I get well paid for all you cost me, if we descend to the vulgarity of dollars and cents, in having a bright, original young creature about the house with a fiery, independent, nature, ready to fight with her rich friends for the sake of her poor ones?”

“I wish we could be friendly, Mr. Winthrop,” I half sobbed, with an impulsive gesture stretching out my hands, but remembering myself, as quickly I drew them back, and without waiting for a reply fled from the room.  Once in the hall I took down my hat from the rack and slipped out into the night, my pulses throbbing feverishly, and with difficulty repressing the longing to find relief in a burst of tears.  The short twilight had quite faded away into starlight, but the autumn air was still warm enough to permit a stroll after nightfall.  When I grew calm enough to notice whither my feet had strayed, I found myself on the Mill Road.  Instinctively I felt I should not go so far from home in the darkness unattended; but I was naturally courageous as well as unconventional, and the desire was strong on me to tell Mrs. Blake my good news.  I got on safely until Daniel Blake’s light was in sight, when, just before me, I heard rough voices talking and laughing.  I turned and was about fleeing for home, when a similar crowd seemed to have sprung up, as if by magic, just behind me.  In my terror I attempted to climb a fence, but fence-climbing was a new accomplishment, and in my ignorance and fright, I dragged myself to the top rail and then fell over in a nerveless heap on the other side.  The crowd were too self-absorbed to notice the crouching figure divided from them by a slight rail fence, and went shouting on their way until stopped by the other crowd.  I waited until they had got to a safe distance, when I arose and sped swiftly along over the damp grass until another fence intercepted my progress; when fortunately I remembered that just beyond this fence was a low marshy field, with deep pools of water.  By some means I again got over the fence, bruising my fingers in the effort.  The voices were growing fainter in the distance, and