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[Illustration: The occasion was not wholly barren of material for a trained psychologist (page 56)]
Author of "The Singular Miss Smith," "And So They Were Married," etc.
With Illustrations by Emily Hall Chamberlain
Copyright, 1908 By Phelps Publishing Company
Copyright, 1910 By Dodd, Mead and Company
The occasion was not wholly barren of material for a trained psychologist (page 56) _Frontispiece_
"Cwyin'?" he observed in a bird-like voice _Facing page_ 146
"She'll remember it, you'll find, better than one of Mrs. Stanford's whippings" " " 182
Elizabeth Brewster sat by the window of her sewing-room in the fading light of the winter afternoon. She had been straining her eyes a little over her work and the intent look did not leave them as she glanced out into the gathering dusk. She could see all three of the children at their play on the lawn. Carroll, tall and sturdy for his eight years; Doris slim and active, her reddish blond hair streaming out from under her hood and blowing about her eager little face, and three-year-old Baby Richard, toiling manfully to keep up with the others as they piled damp snow-balls into the rude semblance of a human figure.
"Darlings!" murmured the mother to herself, a happy light seemingly reflected from the red winter sunset shining on her face. She raised the sash a hand's breadth and called to them, "Come in now, children; it is growing too cold for Richard to stay out any longer."
She glanced regretfully at her unfinished sewing as she rose, gathering up thread, scissors and thimble with the absent-minded carefulness born of long habit. Something was scorching on the kitchen range, she feared, a well-founded distrust of the heavy-handed Norwegian maid hastening her steps down the precipitous back stairway.