'Eh, stop! I canna abide it!' cried Hazel; but they did not hear.

Vessons came and stood in the doorway with the teapot in one hand and
the expression of acute agony he always wore when singing.

'All trouble and care
Will be left far behind us at home!'

'Not for the little foxes!' cried Hazel, and she plucked the music from
the piano and ran past Vessons, knocking the teapot out of his hand.
She stuffed the music into the kitchen grate.

Vessons was petrified.

'Well,' he said, 'you've got the ways of wild-cats and spinsters the
world over.' This was an unwilling compliment. 'And I'll say this for
you, whatever else I canna say, you've got sperit enough for the eleven
thousand virgins!'

Reddin felt that the scene was hardly festive enough. He wondered that
he himself did not feel more jubilant; reaction had set in. He wished
that all should be gay as for a bridal, for he felt that this was a
bridal in all but the name.

But the old house, like a being lethargic after long revelry, clad in
torn and stained garments, seemed unready for mirth. Andrew was highly
antagonistic. The hound had bristled, growling, at the intruder; and
Hazel--?