She assumed
at once toward him that maternal attitude which is peculiar to office
girls endowed with psychological insight. He sought to improve the
character of fiction she kept at hand for leisure moments, and was
surprised by the aptness of her comments on the books she borrowed on
his advice from the Public Library. She was twenty-four, tall and trim,
with friendly blue-gray eyes and a wit that had been sharpened by
adversity.
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.
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