"Haven't any of you heard?" asked Julia Esterbrook.

"No," admitted Abby, rather feebly. "I don't know as I have."

"Do you mean about Eudora's going so often to the Lancaster
girls' to tea?" asked Mrs. John Bates, with a slight bridle of
possible knowledge.

"I heard of that," said Mrs. Lee, not to be outdone.

"Land, no," replied Mrs. Glynn. "Didn't she always go there? It
isn't that. It is the most unheard-of thing she had done; but no
woman, unless she had plenty of money to bring it up, would have
done it."

"To bring what up?" asked Abby, sharply. Her eyes looked as
small and bright as needles.

Julia regarded her with intense satisfaction. "What do women
generally bring up?" said she.

"I don't know of anything they bring up, whether they have it or
not, except a baby," retorted Abby, sharply.

Julia wilted a little; but her sister, Mrs. Glynn, was not
perturbed. She launched her thunderbolt of news at once, aware
that the critical moment had come, when the quarry of suspicion
had left the bushes.

"She has adopted a baby," said she, and paused like a woman who