"No, indeed! They never fight--aren't you ashamed of yourself! It's the other two--Aunt Fee and Harry. She says she never loved him much anyhow, and she didn't ask him to go down South and bother her, and he said he didn't believe she knew her own mind, and she said she wished he had any mind worth knowin', and she wished he was half as much of a man as Lieutenant Jermyn, that he'd been abusin'. She said you was a man, and he wasn't nothin' but a boy. And papa and mamma was gone out, and I was awful frightened, and I got the cook to bring me around here, so I could ask Miss Trewman if somethin' couldn't be done for 'em." "Why should he have abused me?" asked Jermyn of no one in particular. "Why should she compare him with you?" asked Kate. "Jermyn," she exclaimed, "did you ever make love to Fenie Wardlow?" "Never! Upon my honor, my dear." "Then I'm sure I don't know----" "Neither do I. Suppose I go around with Trixy and find out?" "I shall go with you," said Kate. There was something in her voice that Jermyn had never heard before, and it distracted his thoughts about Harry and Fenie. Nevertheless the two quickly left the house together, and Jermyn talked to Trixy rather than to Kate, and Kate was made so uncomfortable thereby that she talked incessantly to Trixy, which mystified Jermyn greatly, although Kate's hand grasped his arm tightly all the while. On their way they chanced to meet Harry, to whom Jermyn said quickly: "Well met, old chap! Come along with us. We are going to make a call and would like to have you with us; we can promise that you shall have a pleasant time." "I'd be glad if something pleasant would happen on this particular evening--confound it!" replied Harry in the gruff tone which some very young men, despite good breeding and association, sometimes indulge in. When they reached the Highwoods' house and started up the steps Harry shrank backward and said: "Not there, thank you. Not this evening." He started quickly away, but Jermyn, with Kate still clinging to his arm, soon overtook him, grasped his shoulder as a policeman might seize a prisoner, and said, kindly enough: "My dear fellow, I've seen a score of clever youngsters through lovers' quarrels, and I'm going to see you through one this evening--now, or I'm going to break your neck. Which do you prefer?" Harry answered nothing, although he acted like a surly criminal led by a jailor. Meanwhile Kate was grasping Jermyn's arm tightly and pressing close to his side. What had become of Trixy no one knew or thought, yet no sooner did they ring the bell than the child stood in the open doorway. Kate hurried to Fenie's room, where she found the occupant bathed in tears. At any other time such a spectacle would have moved Kate to tenderness, but now she rudely shook the girl and asked: "Tryphena Wardlow, were you ever in love with Jermyn?" "No," replied the girl with a wondering blush. "That is----" "Did he ever make love to you? Tell me--this instant!"