Joscelyn shot up through a roly-poly childhood into slim , bewitching girlhood in a chill repressive atmosphere . Cyrus and Deborah were nothing if not thorough . The name of Joscelyn 's mother was never mentioned to her ; she was never called anything but Josie , which sounded more `` Christian-like '' than Joscelyn ; and all the flowering out of her alien beauty was repressed as far as might be in the plainest and dullest of dresses and the primmest arrangement possible to riotous ripe-brown curls . The girl was never allowed to visit her Aunt Annice , although frequently invited . Miss Ashton , however , wrote to her occasionally , and every Christmas sent a box of presents which even Cyrus and Deborah Morgan could not forbid her to accept , although they looked with disapproving eyes and ominously set lips at the dainty , frivolous trifles the actress woman sent . They would have liked to cast those painted fans and lace frills and beflounced lingerie into the fire as if they had been infected rags from a pest-house . The path thus set for Joscelyn 's dancing feet to walk in was indeed sedate and narrow . She was seldom allowed to mingle with the young people of even quiet , harmless Spring Valley ; she was never allowed to attend local concerts , much less take part in them ; she was forbidden to read novels , and Cyrus Morgan burned an old copy of Shakespeare which Paul had given him years ago and which he had himself read and treasured , lest its perusal should awaken unlawful instincts in Joscelyn 's heart . The girl 's passion for reading was so marked that her grandparents felt that it was their duty to repress it as far as lay in their power . But Joscelyn 's vitality was such that all her bonds and bands served but little to check or retard the growth of her rich nature . Do what they might they could not make a Morgan of her . Her every step was a dance , her every word and gesture full of a grace and virility that filled the old folks with uneasy wonder . She seemed to them charged with dangerous tendencies all the more potent from repression . She was sweet-tempered and sunny , truthful and modest , but she was as little like the trim , simple Spring Valley girls as a crimson rose is like a field daisy , and her unlikeness bore heavily on her grandparents . Yet they loved her and were proud of her . `` Our girl Josie , '' as they called her , was more to them than they would have admitted even to themselves , and in the main they were satisfied with her , although the grandmother grumbled because Josie did not take kindly to patchwork and rug-making and the grandfather would fain have toned down that exuberance of beauty and vivacity into the meeker pattern of maidenhood he had been accustomed to . When Joscelyn was seventeen Deborah Morgan noticed a change in her . The girl became quieter and more brooding , falling at times into strange , idle reveries , with her hands clasped over her knee and her big eyes fixed unseeingly on space ; or she would creep away for solitary rambles in the beech wood , going away droopingly and returning with dusky glowing cheeks and a nameless radiance , as of some newly discovered power , shining through every muscle and motion . Mrs. Morgan thought the child needed a tonic and gave her sulphur and molasses . One day the revelation came .
Cyrus and Deborah had driven across the valley XXXXX visit their married daughter .
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