The Woodburys had been there the night before to look at the house; they thought of buying it and Mildred, just recently home from Europe with Edith Blair--they had had a hard time getting home, because of the war--had, according to his own way of putting it, made Ted tired. She was so fretful with her father and her ideas of how the place could perhaps be made presentable by being all done over had seemed to Ted "pretty airy." He'd rather strangers had the house. He heard that Mildred was going about a lot with Bob Gearing--one of the fellows in town who had money. Ted pulled out his watch. "I want to get down and see Deane at his noon office hours," he said. Harriett turned from the window. "What have you got to see him about?" she asked sharply. "Why--just see him," he answered in surprise. "Why shouldn't I want to see him? Haven't seen him since I got back. He'll want to hear about Ruth." Harriett seemed about to speak, then looked at the door of the kitchen, where a man was packing dishes. "I don't think I'd go to him for _that_," she said in lowered voice. Ted looked at her in bewildered inquiry. "Mrs. Franklin has left him," she said shortly. She glanced at the kitchen door, then added in a voice that dropped still lower: "And the talk is that it's because of Ruth." For a minute Ted just stood staring at her. Then his face was aflame with angry blood. "The _talk_!" he choked. "So that's the new 'talk'! Well--" "S--h," warned Harriett, and stepped over and closed the kitchen door. "I'd like to tell some of them what I think of their 'talk,'" he blazed. "Oh, I'd like to tell some of these _warts_--" "Ted!" she admonished, nodding her head toward the closed door. "What do I care? I'd like to have 'em hear me! I _want_ them to know that I--" He broke off and stood looking at her. "It doesn't seem to worry you much!" he thrust at her. "It did, Ted," she said patiently. "I--it did." She looked so distressed, so worn as she said it that it mollified him until she added: "And still, you mustn't be too hard on people. A woman who has put herself in that position--" "There you go! 'Put herself' in that position! Put herself!" he jeered angrily, "in that position! As if the position was something Ruth got into on purpose! And after all these years!--still talking about her 'position.' Let me tell you something! I'll tell you the woman that's 'put herself' in the position I'd think would make her hate herself! That's Mrs. Williams! _She's_ the one that's 'put herself'--" "Ted," she broke in sternly, "you must _not_!" But, "You make me _sick_!" he flung back at her and snatched hat and coat from the hall rack and left the house with a violent bang of the front door.