The Precipice | Page 6

it does to me. A mother's--"

Dr. Barrington raised his hand.
"Never mind about a mother's love," he said decisively. "If you had
seen it fail as often as I have, you'd think the less said on the subject the
better. Women are mammal, I admit; maternal they are not, save in a
proportion of cases. Did you have a pleasant journey down, Kate?"
He had the effect of shutting his wife out of the conversation; of
definitely snubbing and discountenancing her. Kate knew it had always
been like that, though when she had been young and more passionately
determined to believe her home the best and dearest in the world, as
children will, she had overlooked the fact--had pretended that what was
a habit was only a mood, and that if "father was cross" to-day, he
would be pleasant to-morrow. Now he began questioning Kate about
college, her instructors and her friends. There was conversation enough,
but the man's wife sat silent, and she knew that Kate knew that he
expected her to do so.
Custard was brought on and Mrs. Barrington diffidently served it. Her
husband gave one glance at it.
"Curdled!" he said succinctly, pushing his plate from him. "It's a pity it
couldn't have been right Kate's first night home."
Kate thought there had been so much that was not right her first night
home, that a spoiled confection was hardly worth comment.
"I'm dreadfully sorry," Mrs. Barrington said. "I suppose I should have
made it myself, but I went down to the train--"
"That didn't take all the afternoon, did it?" the doctor asked.
"I was doing things around the house--"
"Putting flowers in my room, I know, mummy," broke in Kate, "and
polishing up the silver toilet bottles, the beauties. You're one of those
women who pet a home, and it shows, I can tell you. You don't see
many homes like this, do you, dad,--so ladylike and brier-rosy?"

She leaned smilingly across the table as she addressed her father,
offering him not the ingratiating and seductive smile which he was
accustomed to see women--his wife among the rest--employ when they
wished to placate him. Kate's was the bright smile of a comradely
fellow creature who asked him to play a straight game. It made him
take fresh stock of his girl. He noted her high oval brow around which
the dark hair clustered engagingly; her flexible, rather large mouth,
with lips well but not seductively arched, and her clear skin with its
uniform tinting. Such beauty as she had, and it was far from negligible,
would endure. She was quite five feet ten inches, he estimated, with a
good chest development and capable shoulders. Her gestures were free
and suggestive of strength, and her long body had the grace of
flexibility and perfect unconsciousness. All of this was good; but what
of the spirit that looked out of her eyes? It was a glance to which the
man was not accustomed--feminine yet unafraid, beautiful but not
related to sex. The physician was not able to analyze it, though where
women were concerned he was a merciless analyst. Gratified, yet
unaccountably disturbed, he turned to his wife.
"Martha has forgotten to light up the parlor," he said testily. "Can't you
impress on her that she's to have the room ready for us when we've
finished inhere?"
"She's so excited over Kate's coming home," said Mrs. Barrington with
a placatory smile. "Perhaps you'll light up to-night, Frederick."
"No, I won't. I began work at five this morning and I've been going all
day. It's up to you and Martha to run the house."
"The truth is," said Mrs. Barrington, "neither Martha nor I can reach the
gasolier."
Dr. Barrington had the effect of pouncing on this statement.
"That's what's the matter, then," he said. "You forgot to get the tapers. I
heard Martha telling you last night that they were out."
A flush spread over Mrs. Barrington's delicate face as she cast about

her for the usual subterfuge and failed to find it. In that moment Kate
realized that it had been a long programme of subterfuges with her
mother--subterfuges designed to protect her from the onslaughts of the
irritable man who dominated her.
"I'll light the gas, mummy," she said gently. "Let that be one of my
fixed duties from now on."
"You'll spoil your mother, Kate," said the doctor with a whimsical
intonation.
His jesting about what had so marred the hour of reunion brought a
surge of anger to Kate's brain.
"That's precisely what I came home to do, sir," she said significantly.
"What other reason could I have for coming back to Silvertree? The
town certainly isn't enticing. You've been doctoring here for forty years,
but you havn't been able to cure the local