r."

"Ma," said Elsa, and her voice was quiet and intense as though she
were keeping herself well in hand, "that's what _every one_ thinks
about Nat Burns."

"Wal," asked the elder woman, slightly resentful, "don't you think
so?"

"What I think has nothing whatever to do with the question. But what I
_know_ might have. I don't want Nellie's life ruined, that's all."

"Look here, Elsa, what're you drivin' at?" Ma Turner was becoming
wrought up. She knew there must be something behind these hints or
Elsa would never venture on such thin ice with her.

"Ye be'n't by any means jealous o' Nellie, be ye?" she asked, peering
through her spectacles.

"Heavens, no!" cried Elsa so convincingly that Mrs. Tanner was
satisfied once and for all.

"Wal, what's all the fuss, then?"

"Any girl would ruin her life that threw herself away on Nat Burns.
He's got a fine solid-gold case, but his works are very poor indeed,
Ma Tanner."

"Don't go talkin' educated or I can't follow ye. D'ye mean he's all
show an' nothin' in his mind or heart of Christian goodness?"

"Yes, I mean that, and I mean more besides. He doesn't stop by being
merely 'not good.' He is actively and busily downright bad."

"They's several kinds of 'bad,' Elsa Mallaby."

"Well, I mean the kind that makes a girl break her engagement and keep
it broken, and that drives a man out of a decent village."

There was a long and pregnant pause while Ma Tanner got everything
straight in her mind.

"You don't mean that he has--" she inquired, her little mouth a thin,
hard line.

"Yes, I do. Exactly that. I knew the case myself in this very village
before Jim died. There are some men who instinctively take the correct
course in a matter of that kind; others who don't care two pins as
long as they get out of it with a whole skin. Nat Burns was that
kind."

"Then you mean he ought already to be married?"

"Yes, or in jail."

"Why isn't he?"

"It was entirely up to the girl and she refused to act."

"Gawd! My poor Nellie!"

The servant knocked, and, upon receiving permission to enter, handed
Elsa a telegram, evidently just delivered from the village telegraph
office. Unconsciously the girl reached into a glass-covered bookcase
and drew forth a paper volume. Then she tore open the message and
commenced to read it with the aid of the book.

Mrs. Tanner did not notice her. She sat staring into the future with a
leaden heart. Such a thing as Elsa hinted at was