It was The
Jinnee's slipper.
CHAPTER XIV
THE TALISMAN
Mrs. Cheshire Scarboro was far from the fool her cousin Sophronisba
had credited her with being. She had sufficient cleverness to
understand that Hyndsville wasn't big enough to hold two factions.
For a faction was forming with Hynds House as its storm-center, and
it was one which threatened Mrs. Scarboro's hitherto unquestioned
sovereignty. Jimmy Scarboro himself, a most personable youth, was
one of the ringleaders of revolt.
A weaker woman would have kept up the fight. Mrs. Scarboro
understood that to spend one's powers trying to hold an untenable
position is a proof not of valor but of stupidity. She quietly
declared a truce, sending out, in the form of an invitation to one
of her sacred card-parties, tentative notice that she would consider
joining forces. We recognized the olive-branch, seriously extended.
The next move was ours.
"There's a time to fight, and a time to leave off fighting," Alicia
decided. "Here's where we disarm. When these people come from under
the shade of the dear old family tree, they're quite human. We have
got to let them give themselves the opportunity to discover that
we're human, too.
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