and business worries, and some of her money
is in the business, you know. Then she wanted
to have me in American schools for a while.
Also she was homesick. School was an excuse.

“That would have been an interesting thing
for me if it had not been for the trouble between
my father and my mother. He was tired of
trips to America, he said. Oh, one thing led to
another and they were so far apart it makes
me sick to think about it all. Finally I think
my father told her that if she went to America
to stay any length of time, that is, to stay with
me while I was having what she wanted in
school for me, she need not come back, so far
as he was concerned. And she said she never
would. Betty, my mother packed up and so
did my father; and after the next day -- I've
never seen my father since.”

Lucia choked a little, stopped and used the
little handkerchief again.

“Before he married my mother he was
interested in travel and hunting and all that. So
he started right away, for an eastern trip first,
over into India and other countries, and now
he is on an African _safari;_ he wrote me just
before he left Cairo for some other point. I've
heard from him as often as it was possible for
him to write. He does not intend to let _me_ go,

[[95]]

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