has no right to interfere with----"

Grandmother in the background wasn't so sure, her eager little face
said, but she was a very obedient and adoring wife.

Joy interrupted him. He had given her a loophole, and she was
desperate to go. She couldn't wait forever for the lover!

"Grandfather, I--I _am_ engaged! I met him at one of your
receptions, and so did you, _quite_ socially. You--I know you
must have met him, and liked him, too--everybody does."

It was a terrible thing to do, and Joy's heart beat fast. But surely
the Wishing-Ring Man wouldn't mind--he would never know even! And
Grandfather had talked so long about giving her up at sight to that
hypothetical lover, that he might almost have been said to put the
wickedness into her head. And if she waited for a real one she might
wander alone about the parlors till she was an old, old maid with
trailing gray braids.

There was a frozen silence.

"En-gaged?" said Grandfather faintly.

Grandfather had a code all to himself. He didn't know it, being a
man, but he had. It forbade ever being taken by surprise, ever being
at a loss, ever being in the wrong, or ever contradicting himself.
This made for great respect, given to him by the world at large, his
family, and himself; but it put him at a terrible disadvantage in
things like this. He couldn't go back on what the great Alton