She, herself, had been tossed by him in one of these tantrums, when, in answer to the cries of terror of those about her, he had shouted: "Let her fall! It won't hurt the little devil to break a few bones." This was her keenest memory of her stepfather, and it rather softened her judgment of her mother, made her sympathetic with her when she was inclined to be critical.

Of her own father she only knew that he had divorced her mother--why, she could not say.

She liked her mother on many counts, though she could not feel that she actually loved her--Mrs.Carter was too fatuous at times, and at other times too restrained.

This house at Pocono, or Forest Edge, as Mrs.
Carter had named it, was conducted after a peculiar fashion.

From June to October only it was open, Mrs.Carter, in the past, having returned to Louisville at that time, while Berenice and Rolfe went back to their respective schools.