“Maybe,” said Ethel, “her folks were opposed.” “Nobody ever opposed Eudora Yates except her own self,” replied Abby. “Her father was dead, and Eudora’s ma thought the sun rose and set in her. She would never have opposed her if she had wanted to marry a foreign duke or the old Harry himself.” “I remember it perfectly,” said Mrs. Joseph Glynn. “So do I,” said Julia Esterbrook. “Don’t see why you shouldn’t. You were plenty old enough to have your memory in good working order if it was ever going to be,” said Abby Simson. “Well,” said Ethel, “it is the funniest thing I ever heard of. If a girl wanted a man enough to go all to pieces over him, and he wanted her, why on earth didn’t she take him?” “Maybe they quarreled,” ventured Mrs. Edward Lee, who was a mild, sickly-looking woman and seldom expressed an opinion. “Well, that might have been,” agreed Abby, “although Eudora always had the name of having a beautiful disposition.” “I have always found,” said Mrs. Joseph Glynn, with an air of wisdom, “that it is the beautiful dispositions which are the most set the minute they get a start the wrong way. It is the always-flying-out people who are the easiest to get on with in the long run.” “Well,” said Abby, “maybe that is so, but folks might get worn all to a frazzle by the flying-out ones before the long run. I’d rather take my chances with a woman like Eudora. She always seems just so, just as calm and sweet. When the Ames’s barn, that was next to hers, burned down and the wind was her way, she just walked in and out of her house, carrying the things she valued most, and she looked like a picture--somehow she had got all dressed fit to make calls--and there wasn’t a muscle of her face that seemed to move. Eudora Yates is to my mind the most beautiful woman in this town, old or young, I don’t care who she is.” “I suppose,” said Julia Esterbrook, “that she has a lot of money.” “I wonder if she has,” said Mrs. John Bates. The others stared at her. “What makes you think she hasn’t?” Mrs. Glynn inquired, sharply. “Nothing,” said Mrs. Bates, and closed her thin lips. She would say no more, but the others had suspicions, because her husband, John Bates, was a wealthy business man. “I can’t believe she has lost her money,” said Mrs. Glynn. “She wouldn’t have been such a fool as to do what she has if she hadn’t money.” “What has she done?” asked Mrs. Bates, eagerly. “What has she done?” asked Abby, and Mrs. Lee looked up inquiringly. The faces of Mrs. Glynn, her daughter, and her sister became important, full of sly and triumphant knowledge. “Haven’t you heard?” asked Mrs. Glynn. “Yes, haven’t you?” asked Ethel. “Haven’t any of you heard?” asked Julia Esterbrook. “No,” admitted Abby, rather feebly. “I don’t know as I have.” “Do you mean about Eudora’s going so often to the Lancaster girls’ to tea?” asked Mrs. John Bates, with a slight bridle of possible knowledge. “I heard of that,” said Mrs. Lee, not to be outdone.