Oliver was alone. I shall always remember how he looked on that spring evening as he swung along, overcoat open and flapping in the wind, head held high and brow smooth and cloudless. His step was as sure and firm as when he joined us all after he had received his diploma on his graduation day at college. My heart went out to him--poor Oliver always getting into trouble, gifted and talented in a way (he can sing like an angel) awfully good-looking and lovable (he has friends everywhere), poor Oliver--what would become of him? I heard his step on the veranda, and a minute later he was standing, six feet high, smiling and confident in the door of the library. There is something irresistible about Oliver's smile. If he had only looked at me I should have smiled back, but his eyes rested on Tom. "Hello, everybody!" he said. "Hello, Tom! Mighty good of _you_ to come way on East. Well, well," he glanced swiftly around the room, "all here, aren't you?" Then he added, "Well, what do you think?" "Seen the paper?" inquired Tom. "Is it in the paper?" asked Oliver, and Malcolm pulled the horrible thing from beneath my elbow and thrust it into Oliver's hands. I watched Oliver closely. I saw the slow, dark colour spread over his face and across that cloudless brow of his. I saw his eyes travel once through the article and then go back and retrace each painful word of it again. When he had satisfied himself he laid the paper down and looked up. "Well, it's true," he said, and six pairs of eyes glowered upon him. "What explanation have you for this--step of yours?" asked Tom. Oliver's confidence fell away a little. He picked off a bit of lint from the sleeve of his coat. "Oh, why hash the whole thing over?" he said. "I'm married all right. What's the use--of course I'm sorry it is in the paper." "Sorry!" sniffed Ruth. "But _I_ didn't let it out. Hang it all," he broke off, "you bury me in a hole like that--she was the only girl worth looking at. _I_ didn't want to go to Glennings Falls. It was _your_ plan." "You had had six other positions before we resorted to Glennings Falls," fired Alec. Oliver flushed. "Oh, well--if you've all made up your minds to be disagreeable! I left Madge at the station to come up in a carriage," he explained. "She'll be here in five minutes. I hope at least you'll be decent to _her_." "Decent to _her_, Oliver Vars!" Edith had found her voice, "I guess you better begin and think how _you_ can be decent to _us_. Do you know what you've done? You've simply ruined our reputations and just when Breck Sewall--oh, you've disgraced us all! I shall never want to hold up my head again, and Ruth has invitations out for a big bridge. Madge Tompkins! Don't ask _me_ to be decent to _her_. She'll never spend a night under _this_ roof as long as _I_ live. Oh, I've seen her--common little--"