With a sigh of submission, the strong man obediently got his hat and took his place on the front seat of the coach, while Charles indignantly swung himself up beside his father. Then the family started for the wedding that was not to be. CHAPTER VII The long journey was anything but what it had promised to be when it was anticipated. The carryall containing the three girls headed the procession. They were talking in subdued and frightened tones, Madeleine and Cordelia endeavoring to find out from Betty more than the child really knew. When she could not satisfy their curiosity and anxiety with facts, she supplied them with running comments on human nature and her elder brother in particular. Now and again they pulled her up sharply with: "Betty, be still!" or "I am ashamed of you Elizabeth. You jump to conclusions. I am sure there must be some explanation. Charles was very wrong to tell you until he had made sure about it. You see Mother does not believe the story, or she would never go." "Mother wouldn’t believe Harrington had done wrong if she saw him do it," declared Betty irreverently. "Now, Betty! How you talk! One would think you didn’t love Harrington." "Well, I don’t very much, and that’s a fact," shrugged Betty. "Charles is worth two of him. Harrington always hushes me up when he comes home, and talks as if I were a baby yet. Besides, he is selfish. Look how he wouldn’t take me to Harriet Howegate’s corn-husking when he was home the last time, just because he was too lazy to change his clothes! I don’t see why I should love him if I don’t, just because he happens to belong to the same family. I’m sure he can’t love us much, or he wouldn’t have gone off so long ago and stayed away from us so much." "Why, Betty!" said Madeleine, shocked. "He had to go and earn his living and make a man’s way in the world." "No, he didn’t. He could have stayed at home and gone into business with Father, as Father wanted him to. I haven’t a bit of patience with Harrington." "I’m sure, Betty, that’s a very shocking way to talk about your own brother, and Mother would highly disapprove!" said Madeleine. "If I were you, I should keep still, Betty," advised Cordelia. Betty pouted, and a solemn silence settled upon the three as the old gray horse plodded sleepily over the road. The occupants of the coach were by no means at ease. Aunt Martha sat shrivelled in the back seat, with the ready tears coursing silently down her cheeks. She had heard enough of what her brother had told his wife, to be filled with gloomy apprehensions. Aunt Martha was always sure of the worst.