I didn't want to tell him, but I knew from the very first that I'd have to tell him before I got through.

I could see it in his face.

And so, now, with his eyes blazing as he jumped almost out of his chair and exclaimed, "Your mother!" I let it out and got it over as soon as possible.
"I mean, on account of Mother--that not for you, or Aunt Jane, or anybody will I go back to that school and associate with folks that won't associate with me--on account of Mother." And then I told it--all about the girls, Stella Mayhew, Carrie, and how they acted, and what they said about my being Dr.Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde because I was a Mary and a Marie, and the ice-cream, and the parties they had to give up if they went with _me_.

And I know I was crying so I could hardly speak before I finished; and Father was on his feet tramping up and down the room muttering something under his breath, and looking--oh, I can't begin to tell how he looked.

But it was awful.
"And so that's why I wish," I finished chokingly, "that it would hurry up and be a year, so Mother could get married." "_Married!_" Like a flash he turned and stopped short, staring at me.
"Why, yes," I explained; "for if she _did_ get married, she wouldn't be divorced any longer, would she ?" But he wouldn't answer.