Herbert bore much more than this. He had seated himself on the third step of the stairway, and maintained as much dogged silence as he could. Once, however, they got a yelp of anguish out of him. It was when Cousin Virginia said: "Oh, Herbert, Herbert! How could you make up that terrible falsehood about Mr. Crum? And, _think_ of it; right on the same page with your cousin Florence's pure little poem!" Herbert uttered sounds incoherent but loud, and expressive of a supreme physical revulsion. The shocked audience readily understood that he liked neither Cousin Virginia's chiding nor Cousin Florence's pure little poem. "Shame!" said his father. Herbert controlled himself. It could be seen that his spirit was broken, when Aunt Fanny mourned, shaking her head at him, smiling ruefully: "Oh, if boys could only be girls!" Herbert just looked at her. "The worst thing," said his father;--"that is, if there's any part of it that's worse than another--the worst thing about it all is this rumour about Noble Dill." "What about that poor thing?" Aunt Harriet asked. "We haven't heard." "Why, I walked up from downtown with old man Dill," said Mr. Atwater, "and the Dill family are all very much worried. It seems that Noble started downtown after lunch, as usual, and pretty soon he came back to the house and he had a copy of this awful paper that little Florence had given him, and----" "_Who_ gave it to him?" Aunt Fanny asked. "_Who_?" "Little Florence." "Why, that's curious," Cousin Virginia murmured. "I must telephone and ask her mother about that." The brooding Herbert looked up, and there was a gleam in his dogged eye; but he said nothing. "Go on," Aunt Harriet urged. "What did Noble do?" "Why, his mother said he just went up to his room and changed his shoes and necktie----" "I thought so," Aunt Fanny whispered. "Crazy!" "And then," Mr. Atwater continued, "he left the house and she supposed he'd gone down to the office; but she was uneasy, and telephoned his father. Noble hadn't come. He didn't come all afternoon, and he didn't go back to the house; and they telephoned around to every place he _could_ go that they know of, and they couldn't find him or hear anything about him at all--not anywhere." Mr. Atwater coughed, and paused. "But what," Aunt Harriet cried;--"_what_ do they think's become of him?" "Old man Dill said they were all pretty anxious," said Mr. Atwater. "They're afraid Noble has--they're afraid he's disappeared." Aunt Fanny screamed. Then, in perfect accord, they all turned to look at Herbert, who rose and would have retired upstairs had he been permitted.