There is the
heart of the whole mystery, and yet right there is the place where I
must be reticent with you, mother, for though I know all about it, it
was told to me confidentially--professionally, as my aunt's agent--and
therefore--"
"Do you mean that you know nothing about his people?"
"I suppose it might be stated, crudely, in that way, but--"
"And knowing nothing about who or what he was, you simply picked him up
at the boarding-house, and admitted him to your friendship?"
"Picking-up is not the word that the most careful mothers employ, in
reference to their daughters' attitude toward young men. Mother, don't
you understand? I'm a democrat."
"It is not a thing," said Mrs. Weyland, with some asperity, "for a lady
to be."
Sharlee, fixing her hair in the back before the mirror, laughed long and
merrily. "Do you dare--do you _dare_ look your own daughter in the eye
and say she is no lady?"
"Do you like this young man?" Mrs. Weyland continued.
"He interests me, heaps and heaps."
Mrs. Weyland sighed. "I can only say," she observed, sinking into a
chair and picking up her book, "that such goings on were never heard of
in my day.
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