Her mother depends on her every day and hour for protection, comfort, enjoyment.

The girls are at the opening of life--Agnes twenty, Rose eighteen, with all experience to come.

And Rose--Ah! at the thought of Rose Catherine's heart sinks deeper and deeper--she feels a culprit before her father's memory.

What is it has gone so desperately wrong with her training of the child?
Surely she has given love enough, anxious thought enough, and here is Rose only fighting to be free from the yoke of her father's wishes, from the galling pressure of the family tradition! No.

Her task has just now reached its most difficult, its most critical, moment.