"Why couldn't your sister Helen have come here instead of
Martha?"
He smiled a little.
"In the first place, Helen would be perfectly if she had the care of
father in his present She is too young to have such responsibility.
In the second place, my brother John, with whom she has gone to live,
has a wife who would be quite crushed by my father and Martha. She is
one of those little tender, soft souls one could crush fingers. Now,
you are not of that sort; you have force of character enough to
enable you to live with them, while maintaining your own dignity and
remaining yourself in spite of circum stances."
"I thought you admired Martha above all thing and wanted me to be
exactly like her."
"I do admire her, but I do not want you to be like anybody but
yourself."
"But you nearly killed me by suggesting that I should take heed how I
talked in your father's presence."
"Yes, dear; it was very stupid of me, but my father has a standard of
excellence in his mind by which he tests every woman; this standard
is my mother. She had none of your life and fun in her, and perhaps
would not have appreciated your droll way of putting things any
better than he and Martha do."
I could not help sighing a little when I thought what sort of people
were watching my every word.
"There is nothing amiss to my mind," Ernest continued, "in your gay
talk; but my father has his own views as to what constitutes a
religious character and cannot understand that real earnestness and
real, genuine mirthfulness are consistent with each other.
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