able to think of Eric as a brother-in-law; but I can't. That was what the drive down to town was all about,—that and the thought of the final break with home and the old order, and how awfully hollow you'd feel if there weren't any Rhoda to absorb shocks for you between now and the time you were eighty, if you could bear living till then. Now, when I put it to myself in those terms, I can see how beastly selfish my whole attitude has been, and what you meant when you told me I always wanted to have my cake and eat it. I couldn't see it at the moment; I was too busy being miserable.
"Until I actually got on board the train. And then, when my bags were stowed away I looked around and saw Rhoda's face. Like magic, misery and all the nasty little doubts went crashing into Limbo forever and ever. For any girl who controls her feelings in the adorable funny way Rhoda was at that moment visibly controlling hers will always be there for you, no matter if you both get married in the meantime and have a dozen children apiece. The combination Rhoda-and-me, whatever it is—I'll tell you what it is: do you remember Joseph Vance and Lossie? Well, that sort of thing. And I'm taking it abroad with me as a talisman.
"The rest of my impedimenta is precious light. It consists of one trunk, a good deal of nervous excitement, a nineteenth century romanticism, and my mind made up to turn into Somebody. Like every other
