nty. Grace was greatly agitated and very indignant.

"Who dared say so?" she demanded. "Who dared say we were engaged? It's
not true. It's a wicked lie and--Who is responsible, Aunt Keziah?"

"Well, I suppose likely I am, much as anybody, deary."

"You? You, Aunt Keziah?"

"Yup; me. You are in love with him; at any rate, you said so. And you're
here with him, ain't you? If you two ain't engaged you ought to be."

"Aunt Keziah, how can you speak so? Don't you realize--"

"Look here. Don't you want to marry him?"

"WANT to? Oh, please--How can you? I--"

"S-s-sh! There! there! I am a bull-headed old thing, for sure. But I'm
like the dog that chased the rat across the shelf where they kept the
best china, my intentions are good. Don't cry, deary. Let's get to the
bottom of this thing, as the man said when he tumbled into the well.
When I first knew that you and John were in love with each other, I felt
dreadful. I knew your uncle and I knew Trumet. If you had married then,
or let people know that you thought of it, 'twould have been the end,
and ruin for John and you. But things are diff'rent now, a good deal
diff'rent. John is worshiped pretty nigh, since his pluck with that
smallpox man. He could go into church and dance a jig in the pulpit and
nobody--or precious few, at least--would find fault. And you've stood
by him. If it wa'n't for you he wouldn't be here to-day, and people know
that. Dr. Parker and Captain Zebedee and Gaius Winslow and dozens more
are fighting for him and for you. And the doctor says they are going to
win. Do you want to spoil it all?"

"Aunt Keziah, that night before uncle died I was upstairs in my room and
I heard uncle and Captain Elkanah Daniels talking."

"Elkanah? Was he there at your house?"

"Yes. Somehow or other--I don't know how--he had learned about--about
John and me. And he was furious. Aunt Keziah, I heard him say that
unless I broke off with John he would drive him from the ministry and
from Trumet and disgrace him forever. He said that if I really cared for
him I would not ruin his life. That brought me to myself. I realized how
wicked I had been and what I was doing. That was why I--I--"

"There! there! Tut! tut! tut! hum! Now I see. But, Gracie, you ain't
goin' to ruin his life. No, nor Elkanah ain't goin' to do it, either.
He can't, no matter how hard he tries. I've lived to see the day when
there's a bigger man in the Reg'lar church than Elkanah Daniels, and I
tha