"The coast is clear, then, and we can talk," said Jared. "So much the better." They were now in the parlor; before seating himself he closed the door. "I have come up, mother, about this affair of Ruth's. As soon as I got back to Charleston and read your letters, I started at once. You have been careless, I fear; but at least I hope that nothing has been said, that no one knows?" "Everybody knows, Jared. At least, everybody in Asheville." "Who has told? Chase?" asked Jared, angrily. "Oh no; he left that to us. I have said nothing, and Dolly has said nothing. But--but--" "But what?" "Genevieve has announced it everywhere," answered Mrs. Franklin, her inward feeling against her daughter-in-law for once getting the better of her. "I will speak to Genevieve. But she is not the one most in fault, mother; she could not have announced it unless _you_ had given your consent. And how came you to do that?" "I don't think I have consented. I have been waiting for you." "Very well, then; we can act together. Now that _I_ have come, Horace Chase will find that there's some one on hand to look after you; he will no longer be able to do as he pleases!" "Our difficulty is, Jared, that it is not so much a question of his doing as he pleases as it is of Ruth's doing as _she_ pleases; she thinks it is all enchanting; and she is headstrong, you know." "Yes. That is the very reason why I think you have been careless, mother. You were here and I was not; you, therefore, were the one to act. You should have taken Ruth out of town at once; you should have taken her north, if necessary, and kept her there; you should have done this at any sacrifice." "It is not so easy--" began his mother. Then she stopped. For she was living on credit; she owed money everywhere, and there were still ten days to elapse before any remittances could reach her. But she would have borne anything, and resorted to everything, rather than let Jared know this. "It took me so completely by surprise," she said, beginning again. "I am sure that you yourself had no suspicion of any such possibility when we took that French Broad drive?" "No, I had not. And it enrages me to think how blind I was! He was laying his plans even then; the whole trip, and all those costly things he did--that was simply part of it." And leaving his chair, the brother walked up and down the room, his face darkly flushed with anger. "Ruth--a child! And he--thirty years older!" "Not that, dear. He is thirty-eight; and she was nineteen last week." "He looks much more than thirty-eight. But that isn't the point. You don't seem to see, mother, what makes it so insufferable; he has bribed her about _me_, bribed her with that place in Charleston; that's the whole story! She is so happy about that, that she forgets all else."