Mrs. Marjoy was at home, or in her lair, as certain uncharitable folk had expressed it. The doctor’s wife was in a particularly angelic mood. Mrs. Mince found Mrs. Marjoy closeted with the eldest Miss Snodley in her drawing-room. The mercurial lady was creaking to and fro in a patent-spring rocking-chair that needed oiling. She dribbled some lukewarm water into the exhausted teapot and greeted the vicaress with dubious delight. Mrs. Mince had seated herself with a species of portentous calm. She looked supremely cheerful, big and beaming with the fat confessions stowed in her motherly bosom. Tidings of honey, vineyards, and much corn! The lady gloated like an Israelite over the promised spoiling of Canaan. “Dear, dear, such news,” she said, fingering her fat wedding-ring, as though meditating upon the supreme respectability of her own lot. The two listeners were “muzzles up” on the instant, like hounds that give tongue over a struck scent. “What is it?” “That Ginge girl’s engaged at last!” “Nonsense.” “That hussy!” “Guess again, my dear.” “Your cook’s gone wrong?” said Mrs. Marjoy, who had a particular grievance against domestics. “No.” “Some one has eloped?” ventured Miss Snodley. “No, dear, much more exciting.” “Tell us, then.” Mrs. Mince took a deep breath and delivered herself of her tidings with fitting éclat. “Young Strong has compromised himself?” she said. There was a moment’s silence, then a kind of cackling outburst, like the pother in a farm-yard over the laying of an egg. “Never,” said Miss Snodley. “He has.” “When—how?” “I knew it,” quoth Mrs. Marjoy, with intense pride. “I always knew that fellow was a scoundrel.” “And Ophelia?” said Miss Snodley. The three ladies looked at one another and tittered. “It will take the airs out of her,” said Mrs. Mince. “Serve her right,” quoth the doctor’s wife. “Those Gussets were always so stuck up,” said Miss Snodley. Then they all stared at one another again, embraced rapturously in the spirit, and indulged in more tittering. “Tell us all about it,” said Mrs. Marjoy, reserving her own Domremy episode as a finale.