If Sylvia's advent marked the flowering in Mrs.Owen of some new ideals of woman's development, Mrs.Bassett felt it to be her duty to discover them and to train Marian along similar lines.

She felt that her husband would be displeased if anything occurred to thwart the hand of destiny that had so clearly pointed to Marian and Blackford as the natural beneficiaries of the estate which Mrs.Owen by due process of nature must relinquish.

In all her calculations for the future Mrs.
Owen's fortune was an integer.
Mrs.Bassett received a letter from her husband on Saturday morning in the second week of Sylvia's stay.

Its progress from the mining-camp in the mountains had been slow and the boat that delivered the letter brought also a telegram announcing Bassett's arrival in Chicago, so that he was even now on his way to Waupegan.

As Mrs.Bassett pondered this intelligence Sylvia appeared at the veranda steps to inquire for Marian.
"She hasn't come down yet, Sylvia.