For Thurley had been admitted and had rushed up the winding stairs like the “younger generation who come knocking at the door.” She had entered the mysterious front room and remained there, while Hopeful and Ali Baba remained below in a state of fearful curiosity. Whatever the conversation was it was of interest to Miss Clergy. An hour later Miss Clergy saw her guest to the door and then called Hopeful and said that she was taking Thurley Precore to New York by the morning train. She wished to have a trunk—this with a slight quaver in her voice—packed with the best of what she had; she would buy a new wardrobe as soon as she reached the city. She wished no questions asked nor did she wish Hopeful to answer any questions until they had boarded the train. Hopeful was to have her cousin Betsey Pilrig come to live at the Fincherie, because Thurley Precore wished to have her provided for—her voice softened at Thurley’s name—and they were liable to be away for a long time. Gasping, twisting her apron, dizzy with trying to comprehend new order of things, Hopeful had insisted, “But what am I to say after—after you have boarded the train?” “Say Miss Clergy has taken Thurley Precore to New York to have her study for grand opera,” Miss Clergy said, after a moment’s deliberation. “And the engagement with Dan Birge is broken for all time.” Meanwhile, at Betsey Pilrig’s house, Thurley was kneeling before the gentle old lady and telling in her rapt, dramatic fashion, “I’m going, Granny. I found out all in a moment that I didn’t love Dan as I should. Of course it hurts a little, but they say it is good to have a love affair terminating badly, if you’re to sing in opera. Anyway, I’m going. You are to stay at the Fincherie and be taken care of forever and ever, and, as soon as I’m famous, I’ll pay Miss Clergy back for all her kindness and we’ll have a lovely, white house, you and I, where I’ll come for vacations. It’s so different from singing in church, isn’t it?” She laughed the innocent laugh of pure joy. “Oh, I’m not afraid I’ll not make good. Something tells me I shall—the same as the day I told Philena that cripples could be conquerors—remember? And, Granny, it is really better for Dan, and, if he comes here to-night to see me, say I’ve gone to bed and I’m too tired to be called ... no, no, I’m sure of myself! Granny dear, don’t let the old box-car fall to pieces, I want it as a souvenir. When I build my beautiful house, it shall stay close beside it. It was my home, you know!” The scarlet lips quivered for an instant. “But are you happy, Thurley, giving up a good man’s love, going with that woman to New York?” The gentle, narrow mind could not comprehend this whirlwind of events, strange and astonishing.