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Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations An
Introduction for Scientists and Engineers 4th Edition
Dominic Jordan Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Dominic Jordan, Peter Smith
ISBN(s): 9780199208258, 0199208255
Edition: 4
File Details: PDF, 6.21 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
Nonlinear Ordinary
Differential Equations
An introduction for Scientists and Engineers
FOURTH EDITION

D. W. Jordan and P. Smith

Keele University

1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© D. W. Jordan and P. Smith, 1977, 1987, 1999, 2007
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 1977
Second edition 1987
Third edition 1999
Fourth edition 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,
or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate
reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,
Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Jordan, D.W. (Dominic William)
Nonlinear ordinary differential equations / D.W. Jordan and
P. Smith. — 3rd ed.
(Oxford applied and engineering mathematics)
1. Differential equations, Nonlinear. I. Smith, Peter, 1935–
II. Title, III. Series.
QA372.J58 1999 515
.352—dc21 99-17648.
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk

ISBN 978–0–19–920824–1 (Hbk)

ISBN 978–0–19–920825–8 (Pbk)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Preface to the fourth edition vii

1 Second-order differential equations in the phase plane 1

1.1 Phase diagram for the pendulum equation 1

1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane 5
1.3 Mechanical analogy for the conservative system ẍ = f (x) 14
1.4 The damped linear oscillator 21
1.5 Nonlinear damping: limit cycles 25
1.6 Some applications 32
1.7 Parameter-dependent conservative systems 37
1.8 Graphical representation of solutions 40
Problems 42

2 Plane autonomous systems and linearization 49

2.1 The general phase plane 49

2.2 Some population models 53
2.3 Linear approximation at equilibrium points 57
2.4 The general solution of linear autonomous plane systems 58
2.5 The phase paths of linear autonomous plane systems 63
2.6 Scaling in the phase diagram for a linear autonomous system 72
2.7 Constructing a phase diagram 73
2.8 Hamiltonian systems 75
Problems 79

3 Geometrical aspects of plane autonomous systems 89

3.1 The index of a point 89

3.2 The index at infinity 97
3.3 The phase diagram at infinity 100
3.4 Limit cycles and other closed paths 104
3.5 Computation of the phase diagram 107
3.6 Homoclinic and heteroclinic paths 111
Problems 113
iv Contents

4 Periodic solutions; averaging methods 125

4.1 An energy-balance method for limit cycles 125

4.2 Amplitude and frequency estimates: polar coordinates 130
4.3 An averaging method for spiral phase paths 134
4.4 Periodic solutions: harmonic balance 138
4.5 The equivalent linear equation by harmonic balance 140
Problems 143

5 Perturbation methods 149

5.1 Nonautonomous systems: forced oscillations 149

5.2 The direct perturbation method for the undamped Duffing’s equation 153
5.3 Forced oscillations far from resonance 155
5.4 Forced oscillations near resonance with weak excitation 157
5.5 The amplitude equation for the undamped pendulum 159
5.6 The amplitude equation for a damped pendulum 163
5.7 Soft and hard springs 164
5.8 Amplitude–phase perturbation for the pendulum equation 167
5.9 Periodic solutions of autonomous equations (Lindstedt’s method) 169
5.10 Forced oscillation of a self-excited equation 171
5.11 The perturbation method and Fourier series 173
5.12 Homoclinic bifurcation: an example 175
Problems 179

6 Singular perturbation methods 183

6.1 Non-uniform approximations to functions on an interval 183

6.2 Coordinate perturbation 185
6.3 Lighthill’s method 190
6.4 Time-scaling for series solutions of autonomous equations 192
6.5 The multiple-scale technique applied to saddle points and nodes 199
6.6 Matching approximations on an interval 206
6.7 A matching technique for differential equations 211
Problems 217

7 Forced oscillations: harmonic and subharmonic response, stability,

and entrainment 223

7.1 General forced periodic solutions 223

7.2 Harmonic solutions, transients, and stability for Duffing’s equation 225
7.3 The jump phenomenon 231
7.4 Harmonic oscillations, stability, and transients for the forced van der Pol equation 234
7.5 Frequency entrainment for the van der Pol equation 239
 Contents v

7.6 Subharmonics of Duffing’s equation by perturbation 242

7.7 Stability and transients for subharmonics of Duffing’s equation 247
Problems 251

8 Stability 259

8.1 Poincaré stability (stability of paths) 260

8.2 Paths and solution curves for general systems 265
8.3 Stability of time solutions: Liapunov stability 267
8.4 Liapunov stability of plane autonomous linear systems 271
8.5 Structure of the solutions of n-dimensional linear systems 274
8.6 Structure of n-dimensional inhomogeneous linear systems 279
8.7 Stability and boundedness for linear systems 283
8.8 Stability of linear systems with constant coefficients 284
8.9 Linear approximation at equilibrium points for first-order systems in n variables 289
8.10 Stability of a class of non-autonomous linear systems in n dimensions 293
8.11 Stability of the zero solutions of nearly linear systems 298
Problems 300

9 Stability by solution perturbation: Mathieu’s equation 305

9.1 The stability of forced oscillations by solution perturbation 305

9.2 Equations with periodic coefficients (Floquet theory) 308
9.3 Mathieu’s equation arising from a Duffing equation 315
9.4 Transition curves for Mathieu’s equation by perturbation 322
9.5 Mathieu’s damped equation arising from a Duffing equation 325
Problems 330

10 Liapunov methods for determining stability of the zero solution 337

10.1 Introducing the Liapunov method 337

10.2 Topographic systems and the Poincaré–Bendixson theorem 338
10.3 Liapunov stability of the zero solution 342
10.4 Asymptotic stability of the zero solution 346
10.5 Extending weak Liapunov functions to asymptotic stability 349
10.6 A more general theory for autonomous systems 351
10.7 A test for instability of the zero solution: n dimensions 356
10.8 Stability and the linear approximation in two dimensions 357
10.9 Exponential function of a matrix 365
10.10 Stability and the linear approximation for nth order autonomous systems 367
10.11 Special systems 373
Problems 377
vi Contents

11 The existence of periodic solutions 383

11.1 The Poincaré–Bendixson theorem and periodic solutions 383

11.2 A theorem on the existence of a centre 390
11.3 A theorem on the existence of a limit cycle 394
11.4 Van der Pol’s equation with large parameter 400
Problems 403

12 Bifurcations and manifolds 405

12.1 Examples of simple bifurcations 405

12.2 The fold and the cusp 407
12.3 Further types of bifurcation 411
12.4 Hopf bifurcations 419
12.5 Higher-order systems: manifolds 422
12.6 Linear approximation: centre manifolds 427
Problems 433

13 Poincaré sequences, homoclinic bifurcation, and chaos 439

13.1 Poincaré sequences 439

13.2 Poincaré sections for nonautonomous systems 442
13.3 Subharmonics and period doubling 447
13.4 Homoclinic paths, strange attractors and chaos 450
13.5 The Duffing oscillator 453
13.6 A discrete system: the logistic difference equation 462
13.7 Liapunov exponents and difference equations 466
13.8 Homoclinic bifurcation for forced systems 469
13.9 The horseshoe map 476
13.10 Melnikov’s method for detecting homoclinic bifurcation 477
13.11 Liapunov exponents and differential equations 483
13.12 Power spectra 491
13.13 Some further features of chaotic oscillations 492
Problems 494
Answers to the exercises 507
Appendices 511
A Existence and uniqueness theorems 511
B Topographic systems 513
C Norms for vectors and matrices 515
D A contour integral 517
E Useful results 518
References and further reading 521
Index 525
Preface to the fourth edition

This book is a revised and reset edition of Nonlinear ordinary differential equations, published
in previous editions in 1977, 1987, and 1999. Additional material reflecting the growth in the
literature on nonlinear systems has been included, whilst retaining the basic style and structure
of the textbook. The wide applicability of the subject to the physical, engineering, and biological
sciences continues to generate a supply of new problems of practical and theoretical interest.
The book developed from courses on nonlinear differential equations given over many years
in the Mathematics Department of Keele University. It presents an introduction to dynamical
systems in the context of ordinary differential equations, and is intended for students of mathe-
matics, engineering and the sciences, and workers in these areas who are mainly interested in the
more direct applications of the subject. The level is about that of final-year undergraduate, or
master’s degree courses in the UK. It has been found that selected material from Chapters 1 to 5,
and 8, 10, and 11 can be covered in a one-semester course by students having a background of
techniques in differential equations and linear algebra. The book is designed to accommodate
courses of varying emphasis, the chapters forming fairly self-contained groups from which a
coherent selection can be made without using significant parts of the argument.
From the large number of citations in research papers it appears that although it is mainly
intended to be a textbook it is often used as a source of methods for a wide spectrum of
applications in the scientific and engineering literature. We hope that research workers in many
disciplines will find the new edition equally helpful.
General solutions of nonlinear differential equations are rarely obtainable, though particular
solutions can be calculated one at a time by standard numerical techniques. However, this
book deals with qualitative methods that reveal the novel phenomena arising from nonlinear
equations, and produce good numerical estimates of parameters connected with such general
features as stability, periodicity and chaotic behaviour without the need to solve the equations.
We illustrate the reliability of such methods by graphical or numerical comparison with numer-
ical solutions. For this purpose the Mathematica™software was used to calculate particular
exact solutions; this was also of great assistance in the construction of perturbation series,
trigonometric identities, and for other algebraic manipulation. However, experience with such
software is not necessary for the reader.
Chapters 1 to 4 mainly treat plane autonomous systems. The treatment is kept at an intuitive
level, but we try to encourage the reader to feel that, almost immediately, useful new investiga-
tive techniques are readily available. The main features of the phase plane—equilibrium points,
linearization, limit cycles, geometrical aspects—are investigated informally. Quantitative esti-
mates for solutions are obtained by energy considerations, harmonic balance, and averaging
methods.
viii Preface to the fourth edition

Various perturbation techniques for differential equations which contain a small parameter
are described in Chapter 5, and singular perturbations for non-uniform expansions are treated
extensively in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 investigates harmonic and subharmonic responses, and
entrainment, using mainly the van der Pol plane method. Chapters 8, 9, and 10 deal more for-
mally with stability. In Chapter 9 its is shown that solution perturbation to test stability can lead
to linear equations with periodic coefficients including Mathieu’s equation, and Floquet the-
ory is included Chapter 10 presents. Liapunov methods for stability for presented. Chapter 11
includes criteria for the existence of periodic solutions. Chapter 12 contains an introduction to
bifurcation methods and manifolds. Poincaré sequences, homoclinic bifurcation; Melnikov’s
method and Liapunov exponents are explained, mainly through examples, in Chapter 13.
The text has been subjected to a thorough revision to improve, we hope, the understanding of
nonlinear systems for a wide readership. The main new features of the subject matter include an
extended explanation of Mathieu’s equation with particular reference to damped systems, more
on the exponential matrix and a detailed account of Liapunov exponents for both difference
and differential equations.
Many of the end-of-chapter problems, of which there are over 500, contain significant
applications and developments of the theory in the chapter. They provide a way of indicat-
ing developments for which there is no room in the text, and of presenting more specialized
material. We have had many requests since the first edition for a solutions manual, and simul-
taneously with the publication of the fourth edition, there is now available a companion book,
Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations: Problems and Solutions also published by Oxford
University Press, which presents, in detail, solutions of all end-of-chapter problems. This oppor-
tunity has resulted in a re-working and revision of these problems. In addition there are 124
fully worked examples in the text. We felt that we should include some routine problems in the
text with selected answers but no full solutions. There are 88 of these new “Exercises”, which
can be found at the end of most sections. In all there are now over 750 examples and problems
in the book.
On the whole we have we have tried to keep the text free from scientific technicality and to
present equations in a simple reduced from where possible, believing that students have enough
to do to follow the underlying arguments.
We are grateful to many correspondents for kind words, for their queries, observations and
suggestions for improvements. We wish to express our appreciation to Oxford University Press
for giving us this opportunity to revise the book, and to supplement it with the new solutions
handbook.

Dominic Jordan
Peter Smith

Keele
June 2007
 Second-order differential
1 equations in the phase
plane
Very few ordinary differential equations have explicit solutions expressible in finite terms.
This is not simply because ingenuity fails, but because the repertory of standard functions
(polynomials, exp, sin, and so on) in terms of which solutions may be expressed is too limited
to accommodate the variety of differential equations encountered in practice. Even if a solution
can be found, the ‘formula’ is often too complicated to display clearly the principal features
of the solution; this is particularly true of implicit solutions and of solutions which are in the
form of integrals or infinite series.
The qualitative study of differential equations is concerned with how to deduce important
characteristics of the solutions of differential equations without actually solving them. In this
chapter we introduce a geometrical device, the phase plane, which is used extensively for
obtaining directly from the differential equation such properties as equilibrium, periodicity,
unlimited growth, stability, and so on. The classical pendulum problem shows how the phase
plane may be used to reveal all the main features of the solutions of a particular differential
equation.

1.1 Phase diagram for the pendulum equation

The simple pendulum (see Fig. 1.1) consists of a particle P of mass m suspended from a fixed
point O by a light string or rod of length a, which is allowed to swing in a vertical plane. If
there is no friction the equation of motion is
ẍ + ω2 sin x = 0, (1.1)
where x is the inclination of the string to the downward vertical, g is the gravitational constant,
and ω2 = g/a.
We convert eqn (1.1) into an equation connecting ẋ and x by writing
dẋ dẋ dx
ẍ = =
dt dx dt

 (1.2)
d 1 2
= ẋ .
dx 2
This representaion of ẍ is called the energy transformation. Equation (1.1) then becomes


d 1 2
ẋ + ω2 sin x = 0.
dx 2
2 1 : Second-order differential equations in the phase plane

mg

Figure 1.1 The simple pendulum, with angular displacement x.

By integrating this equation with respect to x we obtain

1 2
2 ẋ − ω2 cos x = C, (1.3)
where C is an arbitrary constant. Notice that this equation expresses conservation of energy
during any particular motion, since if we multiply through eqn (1.3) by a constant ma 2 , we
obtain
1 2 2
2 ma ẋ − mga cos x = E,
where E is another arbitrary constant. This equation has the form
E = kinetic energy of P + potential energy of P ,
and a particular value of E corresponds to a particular free motion.
Now write ẋ in terms of x from eqn (1.3):
√
ẋ = ± 2(C + ω2 cos x)1/2 . (1.4)
This is a first-order differential equation for x(t). It cannot be solved in terms of elementary
functions (see McLachlan 1956), but we shall show that it is possible to reveal the main features
of the solution by working directly from eqn (1.4) without actually solving it.
Introduce a new variable, y, defined by
ẋ = y. (1.5a)
Then eqn (1.4) becomes
√
ẏ = ± 2(C + ω2 cos x)1/2 . (1.5b)
Set up a frame of Cartesian axes x, y, called the phase plane, and plot the one-parameter family
of curves obtained from (1.5b) by using different values of C. We obtain Fig. 1.2. This is called
 1.1 Phase diagram for the pendulum equation 3

y = x·
2

–3
–

3
x
B A

Figure 1.2 Phase diagram for the simple pendulum equation (1.1).

phase diagram for the problem, and the curves are called the phase paths. Various types of
phase path can be identified in terms of C. On the paths joining (−π, 0) and (π , 0), C = ω2 ; for
paths within these curves ω2 > C > −ω2 ; and for paths outside C > ω2 . Equation (1.56) implies
the 2π-periodicity in x shown in Fig. 1.2. The meaning of the arrowheads will be explained
shortly.
A given pair of values (x, y), or (x, ẋ), represented by a point P on the diagram is called
a state of the system. A state gives the angular velocity ẋ = y at a particular inclination x,
and these variables are what we sense when we look at a swinging pendulum at any particular
moment. A given state (x, ẋ) serves also as a pair of initial conditions for the original differential
equation (1.1); therefore a given state determines all subsequent states, which are obtained by
following the phase path that passes through the point P : (x, y), where (x, y) is the initial state.
The directions in which we must proceed along the phase paths for increasing time are
indicated by the arrowheads in Fig. 1.2. This is determined from (1.5a): when y > 0, then
ẋ > 0, so that x must increase as t increases. Therefore the required direction is always from
left to right in the upper half-plane. Similarly, the direction is always from right to left in the
lower half-plane. The complete picture, Fig. 1.2, is the phase diagram for this problem.
Despite the non-appearance of the time variable in the phase plane display, we can deduce
several physical features of the pendulum’s possible motions from Fig. 1.2. Consider first the
possible states of the physical equilibrium of the pendulum. The obvious one is when the
pendulum hangs without swinging; then x = 0, ẋ = 0, which corresponds to the origin in
Fig. 1.2. The corresponding time-function x(t) = 0 is a perfectly legitimate constant solution
of eqn (1.1); the phase path degenerates to a single point.
If the suspension consists of a light rod there is a second position of equilibrium, where
it is balanced vertically on end. This is the state x = π , ẋ = 0, another constant solution,
represented by point A on the phase diagram. The same physical condition is described by
x = −π, x = 0, represented by the point B, and indeed the state x = nπ, ẋ = 0, where n
is any integer, corresponds physically to one of these two equilibrium states. In fact we have
displayed in Fig. 1.2 only part of the phase diagram, whose pattern repeats periodically; there
is not in this case a one-to-one relationship between the physical state of the pendulum and
points on its phase diagram.
4 1 : Second-order differential equations in the phase plane

Since the points O, A, B represent states of physical equilibrium, they are called equilibrium
points on the phase diagram.
Now consider the family of closed curves immediately surrounding the origin in Fig. 1.2.
These indicate periodic motions, in which the pendulum swings to and fro about the vertical.
The amplitude of the swing is the maximum value of x encountered on the curve. For small
enough amplitudes, the curves represent the usual ‘small amplitude’ solutions of the pendulum
equation in which eqn (1.1) is simplified by writing sin x ≈ x. Then (1.1) is approximated by
ẍ + ω2 x = 0, having solutions x(t) = A cos ωt + B sin ωt, with corresponding phase paths

y2
x2 + = constant
ω2

The phase paths are nearly ellipses in the small amplitude region.
The wavy lines at the top and bottom of Fig. 1.2, on which ẋ is of constant sign and x
continuously increases or decreases, correspond to whirling motions on the pendulum. The
fluctuations in ẋ are due to the gravitational influence, and for phase paths on which ẋ is very
large these fluctuations become imperceptible: the phase paths become nearly straight lines
parallel to the x axis.
We can discuss also the stability of the two typical equilibrium points O and A. If the
initial state is displaced slightly from O, it goes on to one of the nearby closed curves and the
pendulum oscillates with small amplitude about O. We describe the equilibrium point at O as
being stable. If the initial state is slightly displaced from A (the vertically upward equilibrium
position) however, it will normally fall on the phase path which carries the state far from
the equilibrium state A into a large oscillation or a whirling condition (see Fig. 1.3). This
equilibrium point is therefore described as unstable.
An exhaustive account of the pendulum can be found in the book by Baker and Blackburn
(2005).

path
a se
Ph
Whirling region
C

Oscillatory Oscillatory
region A region

Whirling region

Figure 1.3 Unstable equilibrium point for the pendulum: typical displaced initial state C.
 1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane 5

1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane

The second-order differential equation of general type

ẍ = f (x, ẋ, t)

with initial conditions, say x(t0 ) and ẋ(t0 ), is an example of a dynamical system. The evolution
or future states of the system are then given by x(t) and ẋ(t). Generally, dynamical systems are
initial-value problems governed by ordinary or partial differential equations, or by difference
equations. In this book we consider mainly those nonlinear systems which arise from ordinary
differential equations.
The equation above can be interpreted as an equation of motion for a mechanical system,
in which x represents displacement of a particle of unit mass, ẋ its velocity, ẍ its acceleration,
and f the applied force, so that this general equation expresses Newton’s law of motion for
the particle:

acceleration = force per unit mass

A mechanical system is in equilibrium if its state does not change with time. This implies
that an equilibrium state corresponds to a constant solution of the differential equation, and
conversely. A constant solution implies in particular that ẋ and ẍ must be simultaneously zero.
Note that ẋ = 0 is not alone sufficient for equilibrium: a swinging pendulum is instantaneously
at rest at its maximum angular displacement, but this is obviously not a state of equilibrium.
Such constant solutions are therefore the constant solutions (if any) of the equation
f (x, 0, t) = 0.

We distinguish between two types of differential equation:

(i) the autonomous type in which f does not depend explicitly on t;

(ii) the non-autonomous or forced equation where t appears explicitly in the function f .

A typical non-autonomous equation models the damped linear oscillator with a harmonic
forcing term
ẍ + k ẋ + ω02 x = F cos ωt,

in which f (x, ẋ, t) = −k ẋ − ω02 x + F cos ωt. There are no equilibrium states. Equilibrium states
are not usually associated with non-autonomous equations although they can occur as, for
example, in the equation (Mathieu’s equation, Chapter 9)
ẍ + (α + β cos t)x = 0.

which has an equilibrium state at x = 0, ẋ = 0.

In the present chapter we shall consider only autonomous systems, given by the differential
equation
ẍ = f (x, ẋ), (1.6)
6 1 : Second-order differential equations in the phase plane

in which t is absent on the right-hand side. To obtain the representation on the phase plane, put
ẋ = y, (1.7a)

so that
ẏ = f (x, y). (1.7b)

This is a pair of simultaneous first-order equations, equivalent to (1.6).

The state of the system at a time t0 consists of the pair of numbers (x(t0 ), ẋ(t0 )), which can
be regarded as a pair of initial conditions for the original differential equation (1.6). The initial
state therefore determines all the subsequent (and preceding) states in a particular free motion.
In the phase plane with axes x and y, the state at time t0 consists of the pair of values
(x(t0 ), y(t0 )). These values of x and y, represented by a point P in the phase plane, serve
as initial conditions for the simultaneous first-order differential equations (1.7a), (1.7b), and
therefore determine all the states through which the system passes in a particular motion. The
succession of states given parametrically by

x = x(t), y = y(t), (1.8)

traces out a curve through the initial point P : (x(t0 ), y(t0 )), called a phase path, a trajectory or
an orbit.
The direction to be assigned to a phase path is obtained from the relation ẋ = y (eqn 1.7a).
When y > 0, then ẋ > 0, so that x is increasing with time, and when y < 0, x is decreasing
with time. Therefore the directions are from left to right in the upper half-plane, and from right
to left in the lower half-plane.
To obtain a relation between x and y that defines the phase paths, eliminate the parameter t
between (1.7a) and (1.7b) by using the identity
ẏ dy
= .
ẋ dx
Then the differential equation for the phase paths becomes
dy f (x, y)
= . (1.9)
dx y
A particular phase path is singled out by requiring it to pass through a particular point P :
(x, y), which corresponds to an initial state (x0 , y0 ), where

y(x0 ) = y0 . (1.10)

The complete pattern of phase paths including the directional arrows constitutes the phase
diagram. The time variable t does not figure on this diagram.
The equilibrium points in the phase diagram correspond to constant solutions of eqn (1.6),
and likewise of the equivalent pair (1.7a) and (1.7b). These occur when ẋ and ẏ are
simultaneously zero; that is to say, at points on the x axis where

y=0 and f (x, 0) = 0. (1.11)

 1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane 7

Figure 1.4 (a) The representative point P on a segment of a phase path. (b) A closed path: P leaves A and returns
to A an infinite number of times.

Equilibrium points can be regarded as degenerate phase paths. At equilibrium points we obtain,
from eqn (1.9),

dy 0
= ,
dx 0
so they are singular points of eqn (1.9), although they are not singular points of the time-
dependent equations (1.7) (see Appendix A for a description of singular points).
In the representation on the phase plane the time t is not involved quantitatively, but can be

featured by the following considerations. Figure 1.4(a) shows a segment AB of a phase path.
Suppose that the system is in a state A at time t = tA . The moving point P represents the states

at times t ≥ tA ; it moves steadily along AB (from left to right in y > 0) as t increases, and is

called a representative point on AB.

The velocity of P along the curve AB is given in component form by

(ẋ(t), ẏ(t)) = (y, f (x, y))

(from (1.7)): this depends only on its position P : (x, y), and not at all on t and tA (this is true
only for autonomous equations). If tB is the time P reaches B, the time TAB taken for P to
move from A to B,

TAB = tB − tA , (1.12)

is independent of the initial time tA . The quantity TAB is called the elapsed time or transit time
from A to B along the phase path.
We deduce from this observation that if x(t) represents any particular solution of ẍ = f (x, ẋ),
then the family of solutions x(t − t1 ), where t1 may take any value, is represented by the same
phase path and the same representative point. The graphs of the functions x(t) and x(t − t1 ),
and therefore of y(t) = ẋ(t) and y(t − t1 ), are identical in shape, but are displaced along the
time axis by an interval t1 , as if the system they represent had been switched on at two different
times of day.
8 1 : Second-order differential equations in the phase plane

Consider the case when a phase path is a closed curve, as in Fig. 1.4(b). Let A be any point
on the path, and let the representative point P be at A at time tA . After a certain interval of
time T , P returns to A, having gone once round the path. Its second circuit starts at A at time
tA + T , but since its subsequent positions depend only on the time elapsed from its starting
point, and not on its starting time, the second circuit will take the same time as the first circuit,
and so on. A closed phase path therefore represents a motion which is periodic in time.
The converse is not true—a path that is not closed may also describe a periodic motion. For
example, the time-solutions corresponding to the whirling motion of a pendulum (Fig. 1.2) are
periodic.
The transit time TAB = tB − tA of the representative point P from state A to state B along
the phase path can be expressed in several ways. For example,
 tB  tB
−1
dx dx
TAB = dt = dt
tA tA dt dt
 
dx dx
= 
= 
. (1.13)
AB ẋ AB y(x)
This is, in principle, calculable, given y as a function of x on the phase path. Notice that the final

integral depends only on the path AB and not on the initial time tA , which confirms the earlier
conclusion. The integral is a line integral, having the usual meaning in terms of infinitesimal
contributions:
  δxi
N−1
dx

= lim ,
AB y N →∞ y(xi )
i=0

in which we follow values of x in the direction of the path by increments δxi , appropriately
signed. Therefore the δxi are positive in the upper half-plane and negative in the lower half-
plane. It may therefore be necessary to split up the integral as in the following example.
Example 1.1 The phase paths of a system are given by the family x + y 2 = C, where C is an arbitrary constant.
√
On the path with C = 1 the representative point moves from A : (0, 1) to B : (−1, − 2). Obtain the transit
time TAB .
The path specified is shown in Fig. 1.5. It crosses the x axis at the point C : (1, 0), and at this point δx changes
 
sign. On AC, y = (1 − x)1/2 , and on CB, y = −(1 − x)1/2 . Then
   1  −1
dx dx dx dx
TAB =  +  = +
AC y CB y 0 (1 − x)1/2 1 [−(1 − x)1/2 ]
√
= [−2(1 − x)1/2 ]10 + [2(1 − x)1/2 ]−1
1 = 2 + 2 2.

For an expression alternative to eqn (1.13), see Problem 1.8.

Here we summarize the main properties of autonomous differential equations ẍ = f (x, ẋ),
as represented in the phase plane by the equations

ẋ = y, ẏ = f (x, y). (1.14)

 1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane 9

Figure 1.5 Path AB along which the transit time is calculated.

(i) Equation for the phase paths:

dy f (x, y)
= . (1.15)
dx y

(ii) Directions of the phase paths: from left to right in the upper half-plane; from right to left
in the lower half-plane.
(iii) Equilibrium points: situated at points (x, 0) where f (x, 0) = 0; representing constant
solutions.
(iv) Intersection with the x axis: the phase paths cut the x axis at right angles, except possibly
at equilibrium points (see (ii)).
(v) Transit times: the transit time for the representative point from a point A to a point B
along a phase path is given by the line integral

dx
TAB =  . (1.16)
AB y

(vi) Closed paths: closed phase paths represent periodic time-solutions (x(t), y(t)).
(vii) Families of time-solutions: let x1 (t) be any particular solution of ẍ = f (x, ẋ). Then the
solutions x1 (t − t1 ), for any t1 , give the same phase path and representative point.

The examples which follow introduce further ideas.

Example 1.2 Construct the phase diagram for the simple harmonic oscillator equation ẍ + ω2 x = 0.
This approximates to the pendulum equation for small-amplitude swings. Corresponding to equations (1.14)
we have

ẋ = y, ẏ = −ω2 x.

There is a single equilibrium point, at x = 0, y = 0. The phase paths are the solutions of (1.15):

dy x
= −ω2 .
dx y
10 1 : Second-order differential equations in the phase plane

Figure 1.6 (a) centre for the simple harmonic oscillator. (b) Typical solution.

This is a separable equation, leading to

y 2 + ω2 x 2 = C,

where C is arbitrary, subject to C ≥ 0 for real solutions. The phase diagram therefore consists of a family of
ellipses concentric with the origin (Fig. 1.6(a)). All solutions are therefore periodic. Intuitively we expect the
equilibrium point to be stable since phase paths near to the origin remain so. Figure 1.6(b) shows one of the
periodic time-solutions associated with a closed path.

An equilibrium point surrounded in its immediate neighbourhood (not necessarily over the
whole plane) by closed paths is called a centre. A centre is stable equilibrium point.

Example 1.3 Construct the phase diagram for the equation ẍ − ω2 x = 0.

The equivalent first-order pair (1.14) is

ẋ = y, ẏ = ω2 x.

There is a single equilibrium point (0, 0). The phase paths are solutions of (1.15):

dy x
= ω2 .
dx y

Therefore their equations are

y 2 − ω2 x 2 = C, (1.17)

where the parameter C is arbitrary. These paths are hyperbolas, together with their asymptotes y = ±ωx, as
shown in Fig. 1.7.

Any equilibrium point with paths of this type in its neighbourhood is called a saddle
point. Such a point is unstable, since a small displacement from the equilibrium state will
generally take the system on to a phase path which leads it far away from the equilibrium
state.
The question of stability is discussed precisely in Chapter 8. In the figures, stable equilibrium
points are usually indicated by a full dot •, and unstable ones by an ‘open’ dot ◦.
 1.2 Autonomous equations in the phase plane 11

M y N
y = –x y = x

N9 M9

Figure 1.7 Saddle point: only the paths MO and M
O approach the origin.

The differential equations in Examples 1.2 and 1.3 can be solved explicitly for x in terms
of t. For Example 1.2, the general solution of ẍ + ω2 x = 0 is

x(t) = A cos ωt + B sin ωt, (1.18)

where A and B are arbitrary constants. This can be written in another form by using the
ordinary trigonometric identities. Put

κ = (A2 + B 2 )1/2

and let φ satisfy the equations

A B
= cos φ, = sin φ.
κ κ
Then (1.18) becomes

x(t) = κ cos(ωt − φ), (1.19)

where the amplitude κ and the phase angle φ are arbitrary. Figure 1.6(b) shows an example of
this time-solution: all values of φ produce the same phase path (see (vii) in the summary above).
The period of every oscillation is 2π/ω, which is independent of initial conditions (known as
an isochronous oscillation).
For Example 1.3, the time-solutions of ẍ − ω2 x = 0 are given by

x(t) = Aeωt + Be−ωt , (1.20)

where A and B are arbitrary. To make a correspondence with Fig. 1.7, we require also

y = ẋ(t) = Aωeωt − Bωe−ωt . (1.21)

Assume that ω > 0. Then from eqns (1.20) and (1.21), all the solutions approach infinity as
t → ∞, except those for which A = 0 in (1.20) and (1.21). The case A = 0 is described in the
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 CHAPTER X

MEET BEN HARDY JUNIOR

“Oh, Gloria, I think he’s just lovely!” cooed Millie, dimpling.

“Yes? Glad you like him,” replied Gloria. “Don’t you?”
“Why should I?”
“Why—why shouldn’t you?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.”
“Why, Glo! You’re being—horrid.”
“Really!”
“Is there anything the matter?”
“Say, Millie, if folks don’t stop asking me that, I’ll—I’ll just make
something the matter.”
Good-natured Millie looked aghast. What could have happened to
Gloria, the jubilant?
“Of course, Glo dear, I know it is awful for you,” spoke her
companion, quickly as she recovered her gasping breath. “Having
your dad go and then you going away from all of us.” (There was no
mistaking the affection in her soft voice.) “But I was just thinking
how lovely it was that such very nice people are going to take your
house.”
“We wouldn’t give it to folks that were not nice,” retorted Gloria.
“Oh, you know what I mean,” sighed the unfortunate Millie. Try as
she might there seemed no way just now of pleasing the taciturn
Gloria.
 “Of course, I do, Millie. I was only teasing,” came now the
welcome assurance of restored good nature. But there was no real
ring in it and Gloria fussed about, picking things up and dropping
them quite as impotently and as nervously as any grown-up, moving
for the first time, might have indulged in.
“But the young man, you know, Gloria,” braved Millie, “he’s a
student, you know.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Have you—that is, have you met him?”
“Why, of course!” Scorn immeasurable exploded with the words.
“I mean, oh, I know you have met him, but—have you been
talking to him?” Millie managed to ask.
A burst of laughter rang true this time.
“Millie Willy! Tiddle-down-dilly!” chanted Gloria. “I believe you are
going to fall in love with Benjamin Hardy, Junior.”
“Oh, Gloria Doane!” and the plump pink cheeks flushed deeper. “I
was only just saying—”
“Here he comes! Now you say it to him.”
“Oh, Gloria, please!” fluttered Millie, looking for a way to escape.
“I’ve got to go.”
“You can’t, wait until you hear his velvet voice,” laughed Gloria
mockingly.
“Honestly, Glo, I promised mother I’d go right back. She’s doing
up crab apple—”
Gloria put a firm hand on the round arm. “You’ve got to stay,” she
insisted. “Think I’m going to take care of—of anything like that all
alone?”
A moment later “that” was on the porch and both girls waited
expectantly. Millie was not alone in her conscious flushing.
He was fine looking, not handsome but scholarly, and he did have
a velvet voice.
 Without the least hint of embarrassment he advanced to the
doorway already blocked by Gloria, while Millie merely peeked over
her shoulder.
“I hope I’m not too early,” he said simply, “but mother wanted me
to hand you this note— Miss—”
“Gloria,” said the girl in the doorway.
“Oh, yes, Gloria,” he smiled. “Some time when we are better
acquainted I’m going to tell you what a pretty name you’ve got,” he
said, after the manner of any young man who sees a good opening
for a clever compliment.
Millie pinched her chum’s elbow. Also she emitted a little hissing
gasp. But Gloria was grown up enough to repress the smile behind
her lips.
“Did you—wish an answer?” she faltered in a politely strained
voice.
“Oh, no. It’s just something about—something.” (He was
attractive.) “As far as I’m concerned Old Briney is so glorious I don’t
care about even a roof, but of course, it may come in handy before
winter is over,” he remarked pleasantly.
“Oh, it will,” replied Gloria, letting her polite reserve fly out on the
breeze that accidently flew in. “The house does keep well heated,”
she felt bound to advertise, “but it gets good and cold in Barbend,”
she added wisely.
He was edging away. “That’s a wonderful rocky hill over there. Not
often do we find one like that around the ocean. May I go up and
take a look?”
Millie almost pushed Gloria out the door.
“Oh, Mr. Hardy,” said the girl at front. “I would like to introduce my
friend, Miss Millie Graham.”
The meaningless words that followed led up to all three going
over to Baldy Rock to inspect the universe from that critical outlook.
Presently as they exchanged the usual opinions on the glory of the
ocean, and the gentility of the land that edged it—even Millie forgot
to blush and even Gloria forgot to be anxious.
Here was a boy, a rather grown-up boy, who appeared to have the
manners of a young man. He naturally put his hand to the arm of
either or both girls if they seemed to need the least assistance in
climbing the uncertain rocky way that led to the small cliff.
Now, if that had been Tom or any of the other boys, they might
have had a hearty laugh should Millie Graham or Gloria Doane “take
a header.”
Naturally the girls thought of such a possibility, yet rather daintily
did they “pick their steps” under the guidance of the stranger.
Millie was especially susceptible. She “found her tongue” as Jane
would have expressed it, and she chattered so incessantly about the
wonders of Barbend that Gloria felt already an alien.
“And when you want to, you can go out to the Light House,”
chirped Millie, as they landed on Baldy Rock.
“That’ll be fine,” replied the stranger.
“And you’ll be sure to be interested in the big lights—”
“Oh, yes. I mean to take that all in.”
“And we know the Light House Keeper, Peter Bender, don’t we,
Glo?”
“Yes,” said Glo.
“And we often go out there in the launch.”
A flash from Gloria’s dark eyes warned Millie. She stopped
suddenly, smiled, and dropped down to a spot from which she was
in no danger of sliding. Gloria joined her and both laughed slyly
while Ben Hardy focussed his marine glasses upon the coveted view.
“Great!” he exclaimed. “This was worth leaving school for.”
“Have—you—left?” asked Gloria.
“Well, you see,” he replied rather awkwardly, “I’m going in for
science and I’m determined to get my field work done while I need
it. I could have gone on with the books—”
 “How dad would have loved to have met you!” exclaimed Gloria
impulsively.
“Indeed! Why?”
“Because, that’s just his—hobby also. He wants to see a part of
the world. He knows all about this” (with an encompassing wave
toward land and over sea), “but he wanted to prove his book work,
as he expressed it. That’s why he’s gone away.” She could not keep
the droning tone out of her voice. Ben Hardy respected it and only
nodded his head.
“But when he comes back,” chirped up Millie, “maybe he’ll bring
an Indian Prince—to Gloria.”
“A Prince! I thought you might have said a little slave, one of
those water pitcher kind,” laughed Ben.
“Oh, yes, with the earrings—” added Millie.
“And the masquerade costumes,” ventured Gloria.
“Well, I’ll say he ought to bring something pretty nice to make up
for taking you away from all this,” conceded Ben. “Don’t you hate to
leave it?”
“Oh, you mustn’t,” warned Millie, jumping up quickly. “We are all
pledged to keep Gloria—to—to—”
“Oh, I see. A thousand pardons!” begged the young man. “And
maybe I’m keeping you from something more important, although it
couldn’t be more enjoyable than this,” he declared.
Millie laughed outright.
“Now see here, Miss Millie Graham,” he objected, “I didn’t say
this,” touching his coat with his field glasses, “I said that!” waving
them at the scenery.
They all laughed. Somehow it seemed easier to laugh than to
reply, and Millie just loved a good giggle.
A shout in a well-known voice attracted their attention.
“Oh, here comes Tom!” exclaimed Gloria. “I wonder if—”
 “No, nothing is the matter,” quickly interrupted Millie. “Don’t be so
jumpy, Glo. You are really getting fidgety.”
Along the rocky footpath Tom was scrambling up to their retreat.
“He’s got a letter,” faltered Gloria.
“Hope it’s good news,” ventured Ben.
“Hey, Glo!” sang out Tom. “Here’s a special!”
Gloria was jumpy. Her heart pounded just now.
“I wonder—” she began.
“It is from New York,” volunteered Tom. Then he saw the young
man who had been just a little lower down on the other side of the
big rock. Tom’s blue eyes swept critically over the stranger before he
turned to leave.
“Wait a minute, Tom,” said Millie. “You want to meet our new
neighbor. This is Ben Hardy who is going to live in Gloria’s place.”
“Oh,” said Tom, not over friendly. Then “Hello,” he added with a
measured smile. “I guess your mail is coming on ahead. I saw some
for Mr. Hardy this morning,” he said simply.
“You help the postmaster out, I see,” replied Ben without any
effort to impose upon the boy standing bareheaded in the sun. “Yes,
I suppose the mail will find us even out here,” he added. “Going
back to town? So am I. We can toddle together,” suggested Ben
good naturedly.
“I’d like to only I’m on my wheel,” replied Tom, losing sight of his
resentment in the young man’s affability. Tom did resent any young
fellow’s coming in on his friendship with Millie and Gloria. That may
have been how he felt, but possibly he would not have put it just
that way.
Nevertheless both boys tramped off, leaving Gloria gasping with
her “special” in hand unopened, and Millie gazing at her anxiously.
“What is it, Glo?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” replied the other, “but it’s from dad. Oh, Millie!
Suppose he didn’t go!” Millie took hold of Gloria’s hand. “Shall I open
it for you?” she offered.
 “Oh, no, I’m not so silly,” faltered Gloria with a quick smile. “But
you see, Millie, he’s only three days away, and after all—this—”
“Yes, I know, Glo,” soothed the other. “But I’m sure he’s gone. He
wanted to go, he told dad so, only, of course,” she hesitated, “of
course, he did hate to leave you.”
The letter was now torn open and the sheet inside was unfolded
in the uncertain hands of Gloria.
“Oh!” she breathed, a smile and a sigh of relief filling out the
simple word. “It’s all right, Millie. This is only a steamer letter. Sit
down and let’s read it,” and the two chums proceeded to “devour”
the contents of the first welcome letter from the voyager. As they
read it they discovered that all was well, and the missive fairly
teemed with thrilling details of introduction to the great adventure.
 CHAPTER XI

PART PAYMENT

How very different it all was! And how hard, how very hard it was
going to be for Gloria! The painful separation was over. She had torn
herself literally from the arms of faithful Jane, she had waved a
goodbye to her dear friends in Barbend, she had promised so many
that she would write to them, and now she was beginning the new
life at Aunt Harriet’s.
“I’m so glad Hazel’s gone,” said the delicate looking woman with
the wispy gray hair.
“Why?” asked Gloria, colorlessly.
“Oh, she’s so fussy. And besides I think you and I shall get along
better alone.”
“Alone?”
“Why, yes, Hazel won’t be back for months, I expect. You can’t
imagine how much trouble we had getting all her things ready.” A
deep sigh vouched for this.
“But doesn’t—isn’t—Uncle Charley home?”
“Oh, no.” The thin face twitched. “He doesn’t come home often.”
Gloria’s heart sank, that is it felt still heavier, but to the girl seated
in the linen covered chair in the semi-darkened room, it did not
seem possible that her heart had any more depth to sink to.
“I didn’t know Uncle Charley was away,” she faltered.
 “No, Gloria, I just couldn’t tell you,” murmured her aunt. “You see
—” she hesitated, glanced up quickly, then bit an oppressed lip.
“Your uncle is rather—high-minded, you know.”
“High-minded?” repeated Gloria. “Why shouldn’t he be?”
“Well, what I mean is, he and I can’t agree on—well, on
everything.”
“Do you mean you have quarrelled?”
Again that painful shifting of expression. “Well, when a thing’s
done and can’t be undone I don’t see the sense of making a fuss
about it,” said the aunt, evasively.
The new disappointment was too much for Gloria. She had no
wish to press for its details. The one solace in her misery had
promised to be the companionship of her “high-minded Uncle
Charley,” her father’s boyhood friend. And now that was to be denied
her.
This new house with all its ornate furnishings—evidently the result
of Hazel’s extravagant taste—made Gloria feel just as she had felt
the day she saw Mrs. Gordon’s green plush parlor suit, bought ten
days after Jim Gordon’s funeral with his insurance money.
That was it. This all represented her dear Aunt Lottie’s money. And
she, Gloria, was being deprived of her share. It was too difficult to
understand. She could not resist the effort to fathom the mystery,
neither could she approach it without a chilling shudder.
“But dad is gone!” she kept reminding herself. “That’s the one
thing that counts, and he doesn’t know.”
“Did you—how did you manage about your mail?” her aunt asked
nervously.
“It will come here,” replied Gloria.
“Oh.” Then a long pause. It was not easy for Mrs. Towers to adjust
this high-strung girl to the unpleasant situation.
“I hope—you’ll like it here, Gloria,” she felt obliged to remark,
rather awkwardly.
 Gloria’s lip curled. “You needn’t worry about me, Aunt Hattie,” she
said crisply, “I can stand what I undertake. If I don’t like it here I’ll
go to Jane.”
“Oh, goodness’ sake, Gloria!” exclaimed the nervous woman. “You
wouldn’t do that!”
“Why not? Haven’t I agreed to keep your secret? You needn’t
worry that I’ll break my word,” she retorted, not in the most polite
tone of voice either.
“Oh, I know you wouldn’t do that,” her aunt returned quickly. “I
know, Gloria, you do consider a word of honor—sacred.” The thin
lips completely disappeared behind the woman’s strained expression.
“Yes, I guess I know what that means if I have been raised
without a mother,” said Gloria. She could not repress her chafing
sarcasm.
“But such a father as you have! Why, I can’t imagine Ed Doane—
well, acting as Charley Towers is acting now,” said the aunt, holding
on to the chair arms as if for moral support.
“Oh, I can,” exclaimed Gloria. “If it’s anything about—high
mindedness, there isn’t any one on earth higher than dad.”
Mrs. Towers sat back in her chair and breathed in little snatchy
gulps. She was evidently surprised at Gloria’s show of spirit. Once or
twice she seemed about to speak and then turned her head away
with a sharp twist.
This was the second day after Gloria’s arrival. The first had been
too bitter to remember, yet the girl, away from home and loved
ones, could not forget it. How hard it had been to satisfy Jane’s
questions? Her suspicion that things were not to be entirely happy
for her young charge kept her until the very last train out to her
sister’s at Logan Center.
And Gloria had been so eager to get her away! Mrs. Towers could
hardly speak civilly, her alarm was so great that Jane would discover
the true state of affairs. But Gloria was wise enough to talk of her
home and her absent father, thus seemingly, finally, to allay Jane’s
suspicion, and to account for her own state of depression.
 Good old, loyal Jane! Gloria would go to her —she felt determined
of that just now—she would go out to the sister Mary’s house where
all the interesting children were cuddled, if things became
unbearable at her Aunt Harriet’s.
For Gloria was not to go to boarding school!
This great disappointment was first made known to her on that
rainy afternoon, when she came out to Sandford in response to her
aunt’s request.
And that was why the world seemed to “go black” all around her,
that was why the picnic with all its merriment failed to arouse in her
a responsive echo of joy, and that was why her father had read in
her face an expression of relief when he was ordered to report
earlier—she was glad he would go before her own strength to guard
her secret might weaken, anxious that he should go before his own
love would sound the depths of her resolve: that his great expedition
should not be put off because her own plans for the year at boarding
school had been frustrated.
Yes, frustrated! That was the hateful word. But what did it mean?
How had it happened? Had not the loving Aunt Lottie been true to
her promise to provide for Gloria’s education?
Then why? What? How had the disappointment come about?
Question after question rose bitterly to her lips as she faced her
aunt, Hazel’s mother, and as she realized that Hazel was gone on to
the coveted boarding school.
But surely her own Aunt Harriet would not deliberately wrong her!
She had given some explanation, of course, but why had she not
explained clearly?
There had never been the slightest danger of Gloria telling her
father of this change, for that would have caused him to give up
instantly every thought of the foreign trip. It had only been the
boarding school opportunity for his daughter that had finally
influenced him to leave her. But the lure of a whole winter, and even
early summer at a most carefully managed seminary, the very one
her own dear mother had expressed a feeble wish for, as a place to
educate the baby when she should have grown to girlhood, this was
that great opportunity for Gloria that had induced Edward Doane to
consider his own chance on the foreign business trip.
And she had managed to get him away without discovering the
truth!
Even Tom and Millie had been suspicious, but, of course, there
was by no means so great and so brave a reason for her secrecy, so
far as companions were concerned.
Well, she had managed it all this far, Jane was gone, and now she
faced the first result of her heroic sacrifice.
“Part payment,” she reflected.
Could she go through with it?
And why was her aunt so secretive?
Why did her Uncle Charley not come home from his business out
in Layton?
After the shock she had experienced on the day of her arrival,
when the full weight of her loneliness descended upon her, Gloria
now picked up the stray ends of all these questions and turned them
over in her mind. But looking at the gray haired woman in the chair
before her, she who was too gray for her years and too nervous for
any reasonable discussion, Gloria could not find the courage to ask
again why all this must be so.
They had been sitting there in a strained silence. Her aunt jumped
up suddenly with a show of impatience and crossing the room to
where the cat had attempted to settle down in a comfortable
cushion, shoved the surprised little animal away, roughly.
“No place but a good chair will suit that cat,” the woman
complained. “Go ’long and snuggle in your own carpet.”
The “carpet” was out in the kitchen in a corner, Gloria
remembered, and compared with the chair chosen, was indeed hard
and uninviting. But she did not protest. Even a helpless cat was not
to be considered in her present upset state of mind.
 Her aunt came back from shaking the cushion and chasing the
cat, and looked at her sharply.
“I suppose you had better register if you intend going to school,”
she said indifferently.
“Intend going to school?” repeated Gloria. “Why, Aunt Harriet! You
didn’t imagine I intended to stay from school, did you?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I thought maybe you wouldn’t care so much
about school in Sandford—”
“I don’t. I just hate to think of it,” retorted Gloria, “but I’ve got to
go. Do you suppose dad would allow me to remain away?” She
almost choked on the words.
“Your dad’s a good many miles away now and he left you in my
charge, didn’t he?”
Indignation stung Gloria’s cheeks.
“I am sure, Aunt Harriet,” she said icily, “that I misunderstand
you.”
“Now, Gloria, don’t go getting bitter,” said the other. “I certainly do
not mean to propose anything that your father would not like. I was
just only thinking, if you really couldn’t bear to go—”
“I can’t, but I’m going,” flung back Gloria. “And I suppose I had
better register today.”
“While you’re out you may as well get some things from the
store,” said her aunt, ignoring her indignation. “We won’t want much
but we’ve got to eat, I suppose,” she conceded.
For a moment Gloria held her breath, then she exclaimed
impulsively:
“Oh, Aunt Harriet, why do I have to do all this!” Tears welled into
her dark, earnest eyes.
“Now, there, Glory,” soothed the woman. “It’ll be all right. You
won’t notice the time—”
“Won’t notice it—!”
 “I mean, a winter isn’t long and perhaps even by next term—” she
stopped and gave her head a pathetic toss. “You see, Glory, with
Hazel’s voice and her—her ways, she just couldn’t be—put off.”
“Oh, her voice,” cried Gloria, “what difference can her voice make
to me?”
“But she’s your own cousin. You ought to be proud of her. Her
teachers say she has the finest soprano—”
“What do you want from the store?” Gloria interrupted helplessly.
But when she had made out the skimpy list, she could not forget the
joy it had always been to go up to Tom’s store at home, and shop
for the things Jane was wont to order to please Gloria, or to surprise
her father.
This was indeed part payment for her unfair exchange.
 CHAPTER XII

UNCLE CHARLEY

Each day seemed to bring new troubles.

“I just wonder,” Gloria asked herself, “if I really did right after all.
This is a lot—worse—than I ever expected.”
She looked about her at the plainly furnished room. Then in her
mind’s eye she saw through the wall into the room furnished for her
cousin Hazel. The girl with the wonderful voice, the girl with the
high-spirited ways, the girls so many at school talked about but so
few said anything tangible concerning.
It was always, “Your cousin has wonderful hair,” or “Your cousin is
going to be a singer,” or even, “I suppose you came up to be
company for your aunt while your cousin is away at boarding
school.”
Gloria had simply said “yes” or “no,” not deigning to add a remark
that might have pleased the curious or critical. But when Natalie
Warren said something about the Towers being “pretty well off,” and
with the comment bestowing a compassionate glance at the silent
Gloria, there had almost been an outbreak of the temperamental
flash that always seemed held in restraint just back of those
glittering eyes.
“I suppose they consider me the poor relation,” she was thinking
now, while preparing before the homemade dresser for her day at
Sandford Central School.
 This thought spoiled the ripple that was trying hard to hold its
place in her glossy hair, for a vicious twitch of the comb and a stab
with a small side comb made a jagged part at the wrong place, and
dragged the pretty wave down disconsolately too far over the sides
of her head.
She aired her bed, opened her window and slammed the closet
door. This last shook the bottle on her bureau, and if it hadn’t been
Mildred’s parting gift, her “toilet water for boarding school use,”
Gloria felt she would love to have seen it smash.
She just wanted to smash something. That house was so quiet
and so overly well cared for. Even Tobias, the cat, couldn’t seem to
have any fun in it.
“But it can’t last forever,” Gloria tried to assure herself, “and I
ought soon to be getting mail from dad.”
One Saturday evening some weeks later, Gloria’s Uncle Charley
came home. The sight of him filled her with sudden joy—he was just
a little like her dad, and he was the good-natured, thoughtful uncle,
who was ever willing to talk of the things she would care to talk of,
and always kind enough to “stir up a jolly atmosphere.” It was a
relief to see him, and the prospects of having the weight of gloom
lifted by his presence, gave Gloria a quick reaction to her old time
happy self.
She saw him coming and ran off to meet him. When he kissed her
he gave her hand a significant squeeze and bade her a hearty
welcome. But when they got back to the porch, where her aunt was
waiting, a hint of the strained relations existing between them was
too evident to overlook.
Mrs. Towers was eager to be very friendly and rather overdid the
attempt. Mr. Towers was quiet, smiled like a stranger, and acted
almost like a formal caller.
This astounded Gloria. That her own aunt and uncle should act
like that! After a few minutes of vainly trying to lend warmth to the
situation, she was glad to escape with an excuse to do something
within the house.
 From the dining room she could hear the even drone of their
voices. Now and then her aunt’s would rise insistently and the
escaping words were always in defense.
What could be the trouble? More than ever Gloria felt painfully out
of place and longed for the things she had sacrificed.
While she adjusted a curtain at the side window, her uncle’s words
floated in:
“I asked you not to do it. I told you it could not come out right
and I shall never stay in Sandford until the matter is cleared.”
Gloria drew back instinctively. What was the disgraceful thing he
was fleeing from?
Was that what her aunt had called his “high-mindedness”? Then
she heard her aunt insist:
“But Lottie agreed—”
“When you pestered her into it.”
Gloria was not listening. The words came to her as if they were
meant for her ears. She stole back into the other room and sat there
in the early darkness. More miserable than ever, she felt crushed,
stifled, and yet she could not even ask a question.
Is there anything more unhappy than to be in a house where a
quarrel is seething in the background?
She was going to cry. It was one of her rare occasions but she
could choke it down no longer. Here was Uncle Charley and he had
brought with him only more gloom. The big cat brushed up to be
noticed and Gloria’s hand smoothed the gray fur. A grateful purr
made her more lonely. Only a cat to be friends with!
For a long time she crouched there. Tobias was asleep and had
ceased to purr. The voices from the porch fell into snatches, then
footfalls announced their entrance to the house.
Quickly she turned on the light, it still seemed to her a matter of
luxury to merely touch a button to make a light, but this house was
equipped with all modern improvements, including electricity.
 True, there was the lamp she and her aunt always used, the
reading lamp it was called, but now with company, Gloria guessed
correctly that the electric light was that which her aunt wished put to
use.
“Well, Gloria,” said the uncle brightly, “how do you like it out
here?”
She searched his face before answering, but it was inscrutable.
Then she said, “Well, I’m getting used to it, I guess.”
“Of course you miss your dad.” He stopped. “That’s one big thing
in a girl’s life, to be real chums with her dad,” he added rather
solemnly.
“Now, Charley,” spoke up the aunt with aspersion. “You needn’t go
hinting about Hazel.”
“I’m not,” he retorted. “But I never can overlook the difference—
Oh, well,” he sighed, “what’s the use?”
“I had a letter from dad,” exclaimed Gloria, glad to break in on the
unpleasant trend.
“So soon? Why, I thought his cruise was going out beyond all the
incoming steamers,” remarked Mr. Towers.
“He did catch a passing steamer though,” said Gloria. “Wait, I’ll
run up and get the letter.” Presently they were both poring over its
contents. When they reached that clause referring to Gloria’s new
school, and had read the line inquiring with deep solicitude,
concerning how she liked it at the seminary, there came an ominous
pause.
Mrs. Towers left the room. Gloria tried vainly to divert her uncle’s
interest, but he was plainly indignant.
“Do you mean to say,” he asked, “that your dad doesn’t know you
are here?”
“No, Uncle Charley, he doesn’t,” said Gloria, miserably.
“Why?”
“He—would not have—gone.”
“And you wanted him to—go as much as all that?”
 “Yes.”
“I see.” He turned over the letter and looked away from the black
eyes pleading with him to understand.
“Yes, Gloria,” he said. “I do understand. You are a great little girl!”
“No, not really, uncle. I was just so determined that nothing
should interfere this time.” She gulped in spite of all her show of
courage.
Presently Charley Towers got up and paced the room. He was
laboring under stirring emotions, that was plain. Gloria wished she
had not produced the letter, but it was so difficult to do or say
anything safe under the trying circumstances.
“Please don’t mind so much, Uncle Charley,” she begged when he
crossed near her chair. “It will be all right—”
“I have no patience with such extravagance—” he broke in
sharply. “I never agreed with your aunt’s foolish plan and until the
matter is adjusted I shall continue to stay away and work harder by
being near the business. At least we can do something to catch up
that way.”
“Is that why—you don’t come home as you used to, three times a
week?” gasped Gloria.
“Well, that is one reason,” he conceded. “That and the opposition I
have to Hazel’s monopoly of the home finances. Of course, she’s
only a girl,” he added kindly, “but—well, I can’t agree with the big
plan, that’s all.”
“Oh, Uncle Charley, I am sure Aunt Hattie is very lonely—”
“Gloria dear,” he interrupted, “I have no quarrel with your aunt—
now, but I must do what I can to straighten things out, and I can do
that best by sticking very closely to my post.”
Her aunt’s appearance put an end to the confidences. But Gloria
was more mystified than ever. What could he mean by straightening
things out?
A suggestion that they all go to the evening’s pictures was finally
agreed to by Mrs. Towers, and this was indeed a welcome treat for
Gloria. She had missed her companions so much—especially Tom
and Millie. Each day she told herself she would write them that she
was not at boarding school and thus establish a correspondence long
delayed, but somehow, when she undertook to write that letter (and
she had done so more than once) she would lay it down in despair.
What would her friends think of this mysterious change? She hated
the thought of their surprise and the talk it might provoke in
Barbend.
The photo-play was a rollicking comedy, and out of sheer
explosive emotion Gloria fairly shrieked over it. At home in Barbend
they had no “Movie House” and here at Sandford a very fine and
pretentious auditorium was filled nightly. This was Gloria’s first visit,
however, although Trixie Travers had invited her to go to see the
great picture shown the week previous. Trixy was a typical high
school girl and seemed to be fascinated with Gloria. But tonight the
picture play had been delightful. Gloria sighed deeply when “The
End” was flashed on. Her trials had given her a deeper appreciation
of joy, and this was a splendid sample of the new emotion. But hats
were on and they were now all going home.
When she returned with her aunt and uncle, in some way the
uncle discovered that she was not using Hazel’s room. This brought
about another protest.
“Why is she not in that big room with all its silly trappings?” she
heard asked.
“The other room is just as airy—”
“I’d like to see Hazel try it,” retorted the uncle. “Now see here,
Hattie,” he said firmly, “if you don’t cut out this nonsense short and
give Gloria her dues here at least—I’ll just cut short our fashionable
daughter’s career—”
“Charley—”
“Oh, I know how you feel about it, and I know you mean all right,
Hattie, but Hazel must learn something of the things we have to
know. It is no kindness to her to raise her in an element above that
in which she belongs.”
 There was no attempt to keep the tone of this conversation down,
and as the new point of controversy was raised Gloria felt miserable
indeed. After all, Uncle Charley’s visit had not exactly brought them
good cheer.
The next day she was moved into Hazel’s room.
There was no need to tell her why—her uncle had been very
positive in expressing his wish on that point, so Sunday though it
was, directly after church she moved her belongings into the
wonderfully decorated and daintily furnished Morningside room. Like
a glorious sunset this reacted upon the girl away from home. It was
simply inspiring. The paint was a soft ivory, the furniture was of soft
“bird’s-eye” with every little “eye” in the satiny wood almost blinking
its outlines through the ivory tones. Then the cretonnes!
“Imagine mine!” Gloria chuckled, recalling Jane’s effort with scrim
and a pretty figured flowered lawn. The lawn would always fade and
have to come down before winter was half over, and the scrim did
get so straggly. But when it was fresh in early fall, and when Millie
came in to help drape—Millie was much more domestic than Gloria—
during that period of enthusiasm the blue room in the cottage at
Barbend was indeed all that any girl might wish to be the possessor
of.
She placed her “tools,” as Trixy called brush, comb and complexion
implements, out on Hazel’s dresser in that sort of fashion she had
noticed on the afternoon she went with Trixy Travers while she
dressed for tennis. She hung up her dresses upon the satin covered
hangers just slightly perfumed, and she put her sweaters in the
window-seat box, so that they would not stretch—although she
didn’t care a pin about such trifles, she felt obliged to respect the
conveniences of Hazel’s room.
Her aunt was in and out so often that nothing but the fact of her
positive need in the kitchen or the consequences of a spoiled dinner,
saved Gloria from such supervision as she would have resented.
“Now, do be careful, Gloria,” the aunt would caution. “You have no
idea how fussy Hazel is, and this room cost—well, it cost—” A wave
of the shiny hands and a catch of the snatchy breath finished what
words failed to express.
“Yes, it must have cost an awful lot,” agreed Gloria. “I wonder
Hazel wouldn’t have rather bought a launch.”
“A launch! Hazel!”
“Why, yes. Doesn’t she like to run a launch? I just live for the day
when I shall be a captain of my own,” said Gloria, jabbing her best
silk scarf on a hook and making a hole in the Roman stripe.
“Dear me! I smell the beans,” exclaimed the nervous aunt. “But
please, Glory, don’t upset anything. You have no idea—Land sakes!
My beans are done for!”
Gloria stood before the mirror and gazed into her own eyes. There
was a sparkle of fun lurking in their depths, and the girl, so lately
stifled in her spontaneous merriment was silently agreeing with the
reflected temptation to have “some fun.” Why not? What girl could
live and be a girl and just mope?
“After dinner,” she promised, “we’ll see what sort of fun we can dig
up out here. I shall die if I don’t have a good laugh soon.”
 CHAPTER XIII

THE QUEST OF A TWEED COAT

With aunt and uncle safely ensconced on the side porch, between
books and papers enough to hold their attention for a considerable
time, Glory proceeded to “dig up the fun.”
“I’ll play I’m Hazel,” she decided, “although I hope no one asks me
to supply the wonderful voice.” An original trill demonstrated why.
The blinds were closely drawn, and the Morningside room seemed
a safe enough place for her exploit.
“Here, Tobias,” she ordered, “you can’t stay. You might scratch
something or upset a cushion. Skiddoo!”
Reluctantly the big cat went out and again the door was silently
closed.
“Every sort of make-up,” ruminated the girl. “I may as well be very
pretty while I’m about it.”
What Trixy called the “tools” were found in a corner of the small
side drawer of the dressing table, and along with them was a
collection of various shades of powders, tints and even paste, the
like of which Gloria had never before encountered.
They were fascinating. She daubed on white—all around her ears
and over her nose, then she perfectly white-washed her nose,
although she laughed so heartily, (if she did have to take it out in
chuckles,) that a shower of the powder came down almost into her
mouth.
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