music stopped, voices arose; then the piano thumped again and Fan Huston sighed as in relief and leaned forward.
"I understand, Marcia dear," she said lowly. The girl bit her lip and turned her face away and made as if to withdraw her hand, but Fan leaned nearer. "Now don't think I'm butting in! I understand, and there isn't a bit of use thinking that you can keep me from helping you! It's a shame, and I'm here to say so! If John Taylor had come over today I was prepared to take the first chance and give him a generous piece of my mind—and make him like it."
Her brittle voice vibrated indignation and that quality met a need in Marcia's heart. Taylor's growing indifference had given her the feel of a jilted woman; she had been helplessly furious at the serene interest these other women took in her misfortune. But she had not yet reached the point of storming against the shabby treatment John had given her, and that is the specific which brings relief to the feminine heart when everything else has failed.
"You know that you can trust me, dear," Fan was saying. "You've been very sweet through it all, but you couldn't keep it from Fanny! I know; I've been through it and I've helped others through it and I can't help telling you that you're going too far, taking too much from John! It's a downright shame that he should treat a girl like you this way, but you're a little goose to put up with it! You have the right of every woman to protect her pride, and if you don't exercise that right, he may—walk on you, dear!"
Marcia's hand, which had lain rather tentatively in
