"Father I have come to you.
Most girls go to their mother.

I have none.

I come to you because I--must! You ask me to put the--the idea out of my head." She laughed a low laugh of self-scorn and bitterness.

"Do you think I have not tried to steel, to harden, my heart against this feeling which has been creeping insidiously over me, creeping, stealing gliding like a cloud until it has enveloped me?
I have fought against it as never woman fought against the approach of love.

The first day--it was the day he took me on the lake--ah, you don't remember, but I--Shall I ever forget it!--the first day my heart went out to him I tried to call it back, to laugh at my weakness, to call myself a fool! And I thought I had succeeded in driving the insidious feeling away.