I prefer the way you chose for me to be educated.”

“That’s very sweet of you, dear, and certainly we do not need any advice in arranging for your education. Your father and I have talked this matter over for several years, and we felt that on the whole we had chosen well and wisely. Also, we wanted to keep you near us as long as possible, and I still think that was right. But surely, Lisle, there is some mistake. It does not seem like the old Victor to criticize your family and your life plans. You must have misunderstood him. He must have been joking. Just doing what you call ‘kidding.’ He couldn’t have meant that. He was well brought up. His mother is very particular about behavior. He was taught to be polite almost from his babyhood!”

“Oh, he’s polite enough,” said Lisle thoughtfully. And then after an instant’s pause, “But very firm!”

Her mother studied her with a puzzled expression.

“What do you mean by that, dear?”

“He’s determined I shall think for myself, even if I do make mistakes, and not always have to consider what you would say or think about anything.”

“My dear, do you feel the need of more freedom in your actions?” asked the mother with a troubled look.

“No, Mother, I don’t,” said Lisle with a set of her firm little chin. “I’ve always sort of gloried in the fact that you and father never said ‘You shall’ or ‘You must,’ not since I was a very little child and very naughty. You’ve always taken me to a quiet place and explained why you felt it would not be a good thing to do, and then put it up to me to decide. And I couldn’t help but see that your advice was good. You gave me the feeling that you had had more experience than I, and you had found it wasn’t a good thing to do. You gave me confidence in your judgment. It was as if we were going down a strange road together, and you had traveled that way before and found where it led and where to turn off, and if I saw a side road where a lot of flowers grew and you said it led to a swamp where I might get drowned quickly and no one would know where I was, you taught me to think twice about it, and to remember what your experience had been when you took that same path years ago and almost lost your life.”

A look of great relief passed over the quiet dignity of the mother’s face. Then after a moment she asked, “And couldn’t you explain it that way to Victor?”

The girl’s face was swept by a stormy memory.

“I have, Mother. I told it to him just like that, and he simply got that maddening smile on his face, a sort of superior sneer he has, and said, ‘Times have changed, darling, and you are living in the antique past!’ ”

The mother looked startled.

“Well,” she said, “I’m afraid I shouldn’t at all approve of the college he attends. It seems to have done something undesirable to him. However, my dear, I suppose it is just a phase of his youth. He will probably get over it when he really grows up and gets beyond that superiority complex. That’s what your father feared when he heard Victor had chosen that college. They simply don’t believe anything. But I’m sure he’ll get over that.”

“I don’t think he will, Mother,” said Lisle sadly. “He really is grown up, you know. He’ll be of age in a few days now. You know that party his mother is giving is in honor of his twenty-first birthday. Mother, I wish I didn’t have to go to that! I don’t like his attitude toward me.