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Chapter II

"YOU know what sort of a home life I had," said the lady. "I used to call my father and my mother the last of the Puritans. They were so good and strict, such church-goers, so upright, so God-fearing, so hard on children. I think my father and my mother were never children themselves. They were born grown up. They were never tempted by light things. Dorothy was like them. She used to sew little samplers, and ask God to punish her if she was wicked. But I wasn't like that. I was very joyous, and glad that I was pretty. I used to stick flowers in my hair and dance before a glass. You remember our house—all horse-hair and mahogany, a stuffed duck under glass in the parlor. Fancy! The rooms were always darkened when the sun was shining its brightest. Our