engagement to her son? We're crazy to know!' Of
course I didn't let on at first that we weren't even invited, but it had
to leak out later. Oh, it is simply humiliating!"

"Is she at Grassmere now--Mrs. Sewall, I mean?" I asked quietly.

"Yes, she is. There's a big house-party going on there this very
minute. The club girls knew all about it. Mrs. Sewall has got a niece or
somebody or other with her, for the rest of the summer, and the ball is
being given in her honor. Gale Oliphant, I believe the girl's name is.
But look here, it seems very queer to me that _I'm_ the one to be giving
you this information instead of Breck. What does it all mean anyhow?
Come, confess. You must have had a tiff or something with Breck."

"I don't have tiffs, Edith," I said, annoyed.

"Well, you needn't get mad about it. There must be some reason for our
being slighted in this fashion. I'm sure _I've_ done nothing. It's not
my fault. I wouldn't care if it was small, but everybody who isn't
absolutely beyond the pale is invited."

"There's no use losing your nerve, Edith," I said in an exasperatingly
calm manner.

"Good heavens!" Edith exclaimed. "You seem to enjoy slights, but if I
were in your place I shouldn't enjoy slights from my prospective
mother-in-law, anyhow!"

"You needn't be insulting," I remarked, arranging a sofa-pillow with
care underneath my head and turning my attention to my magazine.

Edith went into the house. The screen door slammed behind her. I didn't
stir, just kept right on staring at the printed page before me and
turning a leaf now and again, as if I were really reading.

Gale Oliphant! I knew all about her. I had met her first at the
house-party at Grassmere--a silly little thing, I had thought her,
rather pretty, and a tremendous flirt. Breck had said she was worth a
million in her own name. I remembered that, because he explained that he
had been rather keen about her before he met me. "That makes my eight
hundred dollars a year look rather sickly, doesn't it?" I replied.
"Yes," he said, "it sure does! But let me tell you that _you_ make _her_
look like a last year's straw hat." However, the last year's straw hat
possessed some attraction for Breck, because during the three years that
Grassmere was closed and the Sewalls were in Europe, Breck and Gale
Oliphant saw a lot of each other. Breck told me that she really was
better than nothing, and his mater was terribly keen about having her
around.

I t