"What a dreadful untruth!" she cried, indignantly; "I have been so miserable about this; that woman my father has married has taken it into her head that I should marry this dreadful man, and she asks him to the house, and the other day sent him into the garden after me, and he asked me to marry him, and I told him I never should." "I should think not," said John Temple, quietly. "I detest him, and can not bear to be in the room with him," went on May; "and Mrs. Churchill has been so rude to me about it, and makes my home and my life quite miserable. My father seems to believe everything she says, and when I got angry and said she was no mother of mine, he took her part, and said if I did not choose to treat her with proper respect, that I should not remain in his house." John smiled. "And what did you say?" he asked. "I said, 'Very well, father; I will go.'" "Brave little girl! And do you mean to say that your father--actually your father!--could contemplate giving you to that brute Henderson?" "Oh, his wife can persuade him to do anything, and she has persuaded him that Mr. Henderson would be a very good match for me. It's too disgusting," continued May, her fair face flushing and her eyes sparkling, "and I told them both that my own mother would never have allowed such a person to come near me." "He shall never come near you, my dear child." "And he threatened--oh, don't go near him or speak to him, Mr. Temple." "Did he threaten me?" asked John, disdainfully. "He said some folly or other--he is horrid. He looks like a murderer, if he isn't one." "I have a very great idea that he is one." "At all events he behaved shamefully to that poor girl, and yet my father's wife praises him, and makes up to him in every way." "Let us forget that charming lady for awhile. What time can you meet me to-morrow, May, and where?" "I heard my father's wife say she was going somewhere to-morrow afternoon with my father, so I can come any time." "Come here at three o'clock, then, my dear little girl." John Temple spoke very tenderly, and felt very tenderly to the fair young girl by his side. He took both her hands in his; he smilingly admired the offending hat. "So this is the new picture hat, is it?" he said. "By Mrs. Layton's account, May, you are going straight on the road to perdition for wearing it." "And my father's wife found fault with it, too," answered May, smiling. "What do you think of it?" "I think it charming; only the face beneath it is so much more charming that I can not admire it long." "How you are flattering me!" At this moment Hal Churchill's rosy face appeared above from the other side of the hedge, and though it did not remain long, his observations induced him to remark to his brother Willie: "I say, Willie, I believe those two are spoons." "What makes you say that?" asked Will.