auce for the fish.

Lefferts continued:

"Eliot said that she was a most indiscriminating fascinator--engaged to
three men last summer, to his knowledge. Our Northern girls are infants
compared--"

Reed suddenly sprang up from the table.

"I'd be obliged, sir," he said, "if you'd tell Mr. Eliot, with my
compliments, that that story of his is untrue, and if he doesn't know
it, he ought to. I don't blame you, sir, a stranger, for repeating all
you hear about one of the loveliest young ladies in the country, but I
do blame him--"

At this the cook approached him and said with a stern civility:

"Do sit down and eat your fish, sir, before it gets cold." They
exchanged a long and bitter glance, but Reed sat down.

"I'm sure you'll believe," said Lefferts, "that I'm sorry to have said
anything I ought not, particularly about any friend of yours, Mr. Reed,
but the truth is, I thought of it only as being immensely to the credit
of the young lady, in a neighborhood which must be, you'll forgive my
saying, rather dull if you're not fond of hunting."

"The point is not whether it is to her credit or not," returned Reed,
who was by no means placated, "the point is that it is not true."

"Probably not," Lefferts agreed, "only," he added, after a second's
thought, "I don't see how any one can say that except the young lady
herself."

"Miss Claudia Revelly," answered Reed, "is one of the most respected and
admired young ladies in the State, I may say in the whole South. I have
known her and her family since she was a child, and I should have been
informed if anything of the kind had taken place."

As he said this, the glance that the cook cast at him was
indescribable. It was mingled pity and wonder, as much as to say, "What
hope is there, after all, for a man who can talk like that?"

"Undoubtedly you're right, Mr. Reed," said Lefferts, "and yet I have
never heard of a girl's announcing more than one engagement at a time,
although it has come within my experience to know--"

"But, after all, why not?" said Crane. "Perhaps that will be the coming
fashion. We shall in future get letters from our friends, which will
begin: 'I want you to know of the three great happinesses that have come
into my life. I am engaged to John Jones, Peter Smith and Paul Robinson,
and I feel almost sure that one of these three, early next June--'"

Seeing that Reed was really growing angry, Lefferts hastened to
interrupt his host.

"I thin