're engaged to be married. We are, aren't we,
Kenelm?"

Kenelm tried to back away still further, but the wall was behind him
and he could only back against it. He was pale and he swallowed several
times.

"Kenelm, dear," said Imogene, "didn't you hear me? Tell your sister
about our bein' engaged."

Kenelm's mouth opened and shut. "Eh--eh--" he stammered. "I--I--"

"Don't be bashful," urged Imogene. "We're engaged to be married, ain't
we?"

Mr. Parker gulped, choked and then nodded. "Yes," he admitted, faintly.
"I--I cal'late we be."

His sister took a step forward, her arm raised. Captain Obed stepped in
front of her.

"Just a minute, Hannah! Heave to! Come up into the wind a jiffy. Let's
get this thing straight. Kenelm, do you mean--"

The gentleman addressed seemed to mean very little, just then. But
Imogene's coolness was quite unruffled and again she answered for him.

"He means just what he said," she declared, "and what he said was plain
enough, I should think. I don't know why there should be so much row
about it. Mr. Parker and I have been good friends ever since I come here
to work. He's asked me to marry him some time or other and I said maybe
I would. That makes us engaged, same's I've been tryin' to tell you. And
what all this row is about I can't see. It's our business, ain't it? I
can't see as it's anybody else's."

But Hannah was by this time beyond holding back. She pushed aside the
captain's arm and faced the engaged couple. Her eyes flashed and her
fingers twitched.

"You--you designin' critter you!" she shouted, addressing Imogene. "You
plannin', schemin', underhanded--"

"Shh! shh!" put in Captain Obed. "Easy, Hannah! easy, there!"

"I shan't be easy! You mind your own affairs, Obed Bangs! Kenelm Parker,
how dare you say--how dare you tell me you're goin' to marry this--this
INMATE? What do you mean by it?"

Poor Kenelm only gurgled. His lady love once more came to his rescue.

"He's told you times enough what he means," she asserted, firmly. "And
I'll thank you not to call me names, either. In the first place I
won't stand it; and, in the second, if you and me are goin' to be
sisters-in-law, we'd better learn how to get along peaceable together.
I--"

"Don't you talk to me! Don't you DARE talk to me! I might have expected
it! I did expect it. So this is why you two didn't go to the Fair? You
had this all planned between you. I was to be got out of the way, and--"

"That's enou