of the house in one single glance, and then fixed her eyes upon
James North, who, the least concerned of the party, stood before
them, grave and patiently expectant.

"Well," began the elder lady in a high key, "after all this worry
and trouble you have given us, James, haven't you anything to say?
Do you know--have you the least idea what you are doing? what
egregious folly you are committing? what everybody is saying? Eh?
Heavens and earth!--do you know who I am?"

"You are my father's brother's widow, Aunt Mary," returned James,
quietly. "If I am committing any folly it only concerns myself; if
I cared for what people said I should not be here; if I loved
society enough to appreciate its good report I should stay with
it."

"But they say you have run away from society to pine alone for a
worthless creature--a woman who has used you, as she has used and
thrown away others--a--"

"A woman," chimed in Dick, who had thrown himself on James's bed
while his patent leathers were drying, "a woman that all the
fellers know never intended"--here, however, he met James North's
eye, and muttering something about "whole thing being too idiotic
to talk about," relapsed into silence.

"You know," continued Mrs. North, "that while we and all our set
shut our eyes to your very obvious relations with that woman, and
while I myself often spoke of it to others as a simple flirtation,
and averted a scandal for your sake, and when the climax was