My good Petter," said Mr. Tippengray, "I have a pleasant house in town,
which I hope to occupy with my wife this winter, and I should like it
very much if you and Mrs. Petter would make us a visit there, and, if
you wish, I'll have some of the Germantown Rockmores there to meet you."

The landlord of the Squirrel Inn stepped back in amazement.

"Do you mean to say," he exclaimed, "that you know the Rockmores?"

"The way of it is this," replied the Greek scholar; "you see, my mother
was a Purley, and on the maternal side she belonged to the
Kempton-Tucker family, and you know that the head of that family married
for his second wife a Mrs. Callaway, who was own sister to John Brent
Norris, whose daughter married a Rockmore. So you see we are connected."

"And you never told me!" solemnly exclaimed Mr. Petter.

"No," said his companion; "there are pleasures of revelation, which are
enhanced by a delay in realization, and besides I did not wish to place
myself in a position which might, perchance, subordinate some of your
other guests."

"I must admit that I am sorry," said Mr. Petter; "but your action in the
matter proves your blood."

And now, Mrs. Cristie having finished her very earnest conversation with
Ida, the newly betrothed pair walked together towards the bluff from
which there was such a beautiful view of the valley below.

XXVI

ANOTHER SQUIRREL IN THE TAP-ROOM

"If I had known," said Lanigan Beam, as late that night he sat smoking
with Walter Lodloe in the top room of the tower, "that that old rascal
was capable of stealing my ladder in order to make love to my girl, I
should have had a higher respect for him. Well, I'm done for, and now I
shall lose no time in saying good-by to the Squirrel Inn and Lethbury."

"Why so?" asked his companion in surprise. "Was the hope of winning Miss
Mayberry the only thing that kept you here?"

"Oh, no," said Lanigan; "it was the hope that Calthea might get old
Tippengray. You will remember I told you that, but as she cannot now go
off with him, there is nobody for her to go off with, and so I must be
the one to travel."

Lodloe laughed. "Under the circumstances then," he said, "you think you
couldn't stay in this neighborhood?"

"Not with Calthea unattached," replied Lanigan. "Oh, no! Quite
impossible."

When Miss Rose had been convinced that all her plans had come to naught,
earnestly and with much severity and singleness of purpose she
considered th