"He came over this morning," pursued Margaret. "He wanted to marry
me at once."

"You should have given him no chance to change his mind again,"
cried Madam Bowker. "What a trifler you are! No seriousness! Your
intelligence all in the abstract; only folly and fritter for your
own affairs. You should have given him no chance to change!"

Margaret closed in and struck home. "I didn't," said she tersely.
"I married him."

The old lady stared. Then, as she realized how cleverly Margaret
had trapped her, she smiled a grim smile of appreciation and
forgiveness. "Come and kiss me," said she. "You will do something,
now that you have a chance. No woman has a chance--no LADY--until
she is a Mrs. It's the struggle to round that point that wrecks so
many of them."

Margaret kissed her. "And," she went on, "he has been made
Attorney-General."

Never, never had Margaret seen such unconcealed satisfaction in
her grandmother's face. The stern, piercing eyes softened and
beamed affection upon the girl; all the affection she had deemed
it wise to show theretofore always was tempered with sternness.
"What a pity he hasn't money," said she. "Still, it can be
managed, after a fashion."

"We MUST have money," pursued the girl. "Life with him, without
it, would be intolerable. Poor people are thrown so closely