further ahead than the mere fact that I would be David's wife. That seemed to be all that the world could hold for me.
"And it looked so easy. Evalani was to sail in two days and was booked under a stage name which would hide her identity; and as for me, I could just quietly disappear, and people might think what they chose—that item was of small moment to me—excepting for my mother. But even the thought of her could not weigh against the fact that here was a chance for me to gain the one thing that I craved, and nothing else really mattered. One is very selfish at seventeen," she added, with a sorry little smile.
Dick only pressed her hand, and she went on. "Well, the next morning I came up the mountain, as I had promised David that I would, but my errand was a very different one from the useless effort which he had demanded. I put the project before Evalani and after her first gasp of incredulity, she fell in with the idea with enthusiasm. It was harder to convince the old grandmother and get her help, but we both argued and explained and told her how David had threatened to go to our father and try to get him to prevent Evalani's leaving, and how it was Evalani's one chance of her whole life; and so, as she was passionately devoted to her motherless grandchild, she at last consented and agreed to prepare the stain and the hair dye
