thing.  Is it not bad enough that one human being should be indifferent to the wants of another, just because they call each other strangers?  Was it right to bring such a hateful spirit of independence into a home, between parents and child?  If the world is base and unjust, is not that a reason the more why we should draw ever more closely to each other, and be to each other all that our power allows?  Independent!  Because I earned money and could support myself, you have told me I must be independent, and leave you the same.  That is the lesson that life has taught you.  It is well to have understanding for lessons of a deeper kind.’

‘Well, my child,’ protested the mother, to whom the general tenor of such reasoning was well-nigh as dark as its special application, ’we have always felt we were doing our duty to you.  At your age it is only right you should have your money for yourself; who knows when you may want it?  I don’t think you should be angry with us, just because we’ve felt we’d rather put up with a little hardship now and then than have you feel some day we’d been a burden on you.  I haven’t complained, and I’m not complaining now.  I’m sorry I came to speak to you about such a thing.  It seems as if you could never take a thing as I mean it.  It’s like the potatoes at dinner; I meant to do you a kindness by giving you the choice, and you flew out as if you hadn’t patience with me.’

Emily kept her eyes upon the window.

‘How you can say,’ went on Mrs. Hood, ’that we’ve been cruel to you and done you a wrong—­I know we’ve very different ways of looking at most things, but where we’ve wronged you is more than I can understand.’

‘You have taken from me,’ replied Emily, without moving her eyes, ’the power to help you.  I might have done much, now I can do nothing; and your loss is mine.’

’No, indeed, it isn’t, and shan’t be, Emily.  Your father and I have always said that one thing, that you shouldn’t suffer by us.  What did your father always say years ago?  “Emily,” he said, “shall have a good education, however we stint ourselves; then, when she grows up, she’ll always be able to keep herself from want, and our poverty won’t matter to her.”  And in that, at all events, he was right, and it’s come about as he said.  No, Emily, we’re not going to be a burden to you, so don’t fear it.’

’Mother, will you let me be by myself a little?  I will come down to you presently.’

‘Aren’t you well, my dear?’ the mother asked, with a mixture of offended reserve and anxiety occasioned by the girl’s voice and aspect.

‘I have a headache.  I will rest till tea-time.’

Mrs. Hood had for a long time been unused to tend Emily with motherly offices; like her husband, she was not seldom impressed with awe of this nature so apart from her own.  That feeling possessed her now; before Emily’s last words she moved away in silence and closed the door behind her gently.