d come into
the room to take away the tea-tray; but before she had closed the door,
Mrs. Bradford began again, still for her excitedly: "Ethel! Mrs.
Graham ran in for a minute while you were upstairs, and she says Laura
Temple's wedding is put off." There came a sudden crash of crockery
just beyond the door. "Caroline!" cried Miss Ethel, "have you let the
tray fall?"

Caroline did not answer at first; then she said in a low voice:
"There's nothing broken, Miss Ethel."

But she did not move away--only forced her hands to hold the tray
steadily so that they should not know she was there. The next moment
she heard Miss Ethel cross the room and was obliged to go back to the
kitchen.

There she stood washing up over the sink, seething with a conflict
which almost maddened her. The old habit of Aunt Creddle and Aunt
Ellen--grown into an instinct in course of generations--to guess, and
listen for chance words, and piece together any drama that was going on
"in the room" because their own lives were so circumscribed, fought
with her own free impulse to return openly and ask the plain question:
"Do you know why Miss Temple's engagement is broken off?"

The conflict made her feel terribly over-excited and nervous; but she
had one over-mastering reason for not obeying that impulse to ask a
direct question--she was afraid lest these two women might see she was
in love with Godfrey. Then she happened to glance at the clock, and
saw she was already late for the promenade; but as she hurried down the
drive she heard the whistle of a railway engine and stood perfectly
still just as if some one had called to her. But that was the
five-twenty-five train, of course. That by which Godfrey invariably
returned when he had spent the day in the city, was half an hour later.
If she waited outside the station until it came in, she would be
certain to see him. He _must_ speak to her then. This maddening agony
of uncertainty and suspense would be over at least.

But as she hurried along to the station with the moist west wind in her
face, she saw--behind those engrossing thoughts--the other girl waiting
angrily to be released from the pay-box. Still, that didn't matter to
Caroline. Nothing mattered in the world, but getting that talk with
Godfrey. For she had reached a point now, when all these business men
and shopping ladies who began to flow past her from the
platform--drawing their scarves closer, and buttoning their coats a