"WHAT was?" He remarked with anxiety the incredulity in her tone.

"It was about Aunt Clara," he said.

"Your Aunt Clara!" she repeated. "Do you mean your mother's sister who
married Mr. Farry of Dayton, Illinois?"

"Yes--Uncle John," returned Penrod sorrowfully. "The trouble was about
him."

Miss Spence frowned a frown which he rightly interpreted as one of
continued suspicion. "She and I were in school together," she said. "I
used to know her very well, and I've always heard her married life was
entirely happy. I don't----"

"Yes, it was," he interrupted, "until last year when Uncle John took to
running with travelling men----"

"What?"

"Yes'm." He nodded solemnly. "That was what started it. At first he was
a good, kind husband, but these travelling men would coax him into a
saloon on his way home from work, and they got him to drinking beer and
then ales, wines, liquors, and cigars----"

"Penrod!"

"Ma'am?"

"I'm not inquiring into your Aunt Clara's private affairs; I'm asking