Now lie down and take a good rest
this afternoon."
"Well," said Mrs. Hunter, with the air of one yielding a great deal, "I
will submit, even though I can not approve, on the one condition that you
have nothing more to say to Mr. Clancy."
A painful flush overspread Mara's features, and she replied in a
constrained voice, "You will have no occasion to worry about Mr. Clancy.
After--" then remembering that Aunt Sheba was within ear-shot, she
concluded, "Mr. Clancy will have nothing to say to me when he knows what
is taking place. When you have thought it over you will see that my plan
makes me independent of every one."
"That is, if you succeed," remarked Mrs. Hunter, "and it will be about the
only thing to be said in its favor."
This degree of toleration obtained, Mara prepared to join Aunt Sheba in
the kitchen, with the purpose of giving her whole thought and energy to
the securing of an independence, now coveted more than ever. In spite of
the influences and misapprehensions of her life which had tended to
separate her from Clancy, when she fully learned that he was affiliating
with those who dwelt as aliens in her thoughts, she had been overborne by
his words and the promptings of her own heart. She was glad, indeed, that
she had not revealed what she now regarded as her weakness, feeling that
it would have complicated matters most seriously. While she had been
compelled to see the folly of seclusion and inaction, the natural result
of a morbid pride which blinds as well as paralyzes, she was by no means
ready to accept his views or go to his lengths.
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