Kedzie was assured that life
with Jim had nothing new to offer and she resented him as a barrier
between herself and the glory of her future with Strathdene and
"the stately homes of England."
Her mother and father arrived in Newport. Kedzie tried to suppress
them for fear that Strathdene might feel that they were the last
two back-breaking straws. But she needed a confidante and she told
her mother the situation.
Mrs. Thropp, like Kedzie, had an ambition that expanded as fast as
opportunity allowed. She was dazzled by the thought of being elevated
to the peerage. She supposed it made her a relative of royalty. She
who had once dreamed of being neighborly with the great Mrs. Dyckman
was now imagining herself exchanging crocheting formulas with Queen
Mary. She was saying she had always heard the Queen well spoke of.
And Adna Thropp spoke very highly of "George."
They agreed that it was their sacred duty to place the name of
Thropp as high as it could go, cost what it would.
"After all," said Adna one day, looking up from an article in a
Sunday paper--"after all, why ain't Thropp as likely a name as
Wettin? Or Hohenzollern? And what was Romanoff but an ordinary
family once?"
The only thing that seemed to stand in Kedzie's way was the odious
name of Dyckman.
"What's Dyckman, anyway?" said Mrs. Thropp. "Nothin' but a common
old Dutch name."
But how to shake it off was the problem. Kedzie had to cling to
Strathdene with one hand while she tried to release herself from
the Dyckmans with the other.
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