I'm going back to my father this summer if
he wants me! I'm putting by enough money
for my fare and passage across, though I think
I could cash a draft from him without their
finding it out. Perhaps that would bring
Mother! I don't know! I've thought and
thought about it until I'm most sick over it
now.” Lucia checked a sob.

“You saw that horrid man at the table tonight
and heard the silly compliments he makes to my
mother. She doesn't care a _centime_ for him;
but she's getting so reckless with all this social
stuff that I'm most scared for fear she _will_ start
divorce proceedings.”

“Couldn't you talk to your uncle about it?”
asked Betty, who thought it a terrible situation
indeed. “It doesn't seem to me that it would
do for you to just go off, even if your father
does want you.”

“I will if my mother is going to leave him. I
almost ran away to keep from coming.” Lucia's
voice was defiant.

“Well, then, why don't you write to your
father, tell him that you know your mother loves
him and tell him just to come over and _get_ her!”

Lucia laughed then. “The girls would say
that you are old-fashioned, Betty. Men don't
carry their wives off nowadays.”

[[97]]

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