Val put her hand up, bewildered, to her eyes. "The last thing I would have believed of Valeria Gano was that she would do something underhand." "Oh, but I didn't--" "You didn't pretend to me that you were going to visit Mrs. Austin Ball when you were really running after Ethan?" "I haven't been running after any one." "Did he write you to come?" "No." "Did he expect you?" "No." "Some one who went up in the same train with you has had the audacity to bring back the report that you went to the hotel to see Ethan before you went to Mrs. Ball's at all." Val did not make the expected denial. "I'm ashamed of you"--the old face worked--"I've never been ashamed before of a woman of this house." "I am not ashamed," said Val. "Then all I can say is"--Mrs. Gano extended her shawled arm--"you are without the feelings of a decent woman." Val had sat down like one dazed. "Ask Emmeline," said the old voice, shaking as it rose; "the whole town is ringing with the story, how you left your home under false pretences, and pursued this man, who cares nothing for you--" "He does care for me." Val's nerves quivered under her grandmother's derisive laugh, but it did not escape her that Emmie had caught convulsively at the corner of the great buffet, and was leaning against the pillared cupboard. "I dare say," observed Mrs. Gano, "that Ethan cares for a good many ladies, if the truth's told, but he doesn't get most of them to run about the country after him; that honor is reserved for you." "Wait!" Val struggled to her feet with a sense that she was choking. "I'll tell you the honor that's reserved for me: Ethan cares more for me than for any one in the world." Emmie leaned forward with white face and glittering eyes. "Indeed," said Mrs. Gano, "and when is the wedding, if one may know?" Val sank slowly back in the chair, dropping her hands at her sides and her gloves on the floor. Emmie drew herself up, and the color came back into her face. "It's only an indefinite engagement as yet, perhaps," said the younger girl. Her dark eyes flew to Val's hands. "Did he give you a ring?" "Yes," said Val, mechanically. "Why don't you wear it?" "What is that to you--to any one but Ethan and me?" "It _is_ something to your family," said Mrs. Gano. "I, too, should like to see the engagement ring." Val thought of the gossip-loving town, the endless questions, "When is the wedding?" "Why the delay?" "There is no engagement." "You said he gave you a ring." Emmie's words were quick and glad under their suspicion. "I can't show you Ethan's ring." "Why, where's your own?" Emmie came nearer. Val got up and faced her sister with angry eyes. "How dare _you_ cross-question me? Don't you suppose I know it's _you_ that have brought in the town's chatter, and magnified it, and--" "Your sister has done no more than her duty. She at least cares something for the family dignity. She has felt all this gossip to the quick." "I've no doubt of it," said Val.