"Evilena--honey!" murmured Aunt Sajane, chidingly, the more so as Matthew Loring had just crept slowly out with the help of his cane, and a negro boy. His alert expression betrayed that he had overheard the question. "You know," she continued, "folks have lots to think of these days without wedding dances, and it isn't fair to Gertrude to discuss it, for _I_ don't know that there really has been any settled engagement; only it would seem like a perfect match and both families seem to favor it." She glanced inquiringly at Loring, who nodded his head decidedly. "Of course, of course, a very sensible arrangement. They've always been friends and it's been as good as settled ever since they were children." "Settled by the families?" asked Delaven. "Exactly--a good old custom that is ignored too often these days," said Mr. Loring, promptly. "Who is so fit to decide such things for children as their parents and guardians? That boy's father and me talked over this affair before the children ever knew each other. Of course he laughed over the question at the time, but when he died and suggested me as the boy's guardian, I knew he thought well of it and depended on me, and it will come off right as soon as this war is over--all right." "A very good method for this country of the old French cavaliers," remarked Delaven, in a low tone, to the girl, "but the lads and lassies of Ireland have to my mind found a better." Evilena looked up inquiringly. "Well, don't you mean to tell me what it is?" she asked, as he appeared to have dropped the subject. He laughed at the aggrieved tone she assumed. "Whist! There are mystical rites due to the telling, and it goes for nothing when told in a crowd." "You have got clear away from Kenneth," she reminded him, hastily. "Did you mean that he was--well, in love with this magnificent Marquise?" Low as she tried to speak, the words reached Loring, who listened, and Delaven, glancing across, perceived that he listened. "In love with the Marquise? Bless your heart, we were all of course." "But my brother?" insisted Evilena. "Well, now he might have been the one exception--in fact he always did get out of the merely social affairs when he could, over there." "Showed his good sense," decided Loring, emphatically. "I don't approve of young people running about Europe, learning their pernicious habits and customs; I've had my fill of foreign places and foreign people." Mrs. Nesbitt opened her lips with a shocked expression of protest, and as promptly closed them, realizing the uselessness of it. Evilena laughed outright and directed an eloquent glance towards the only foreigner. "Me, is it?" he asked, doubtingly. "Oh, don't you believe it. I've been here so long I'm near a Southerner myself." "How near?" she asked, teasingly. "Well, I must acknowledge you hold me at arms length in spite of my allegiance," he returned, and in the laugh of the others, Mr. Loring's tirade against foreigners was passed over.