stayed out as late as she liked without any
concessions to Richard. Mrs. Markham, senior, had heard strange stories
of Ethelyn's proceedings--"going to parties night after night, with her
dress shamefully low, and going to plays and concerts bareheaded, with
flowers and streamers in her hair, besides wearing a mask, and
pretending she was Queen Hortense."

"A pretty critter to be," Mrs. Markham had said to the kind neighbor who
had returned from Camden and was giving her the particulars in full of
Ethelyn's misdoings. "Yes, a pretty critter to be! If I was goin' to
turn myself into somebody else I'd take a decent woman. I wonder at
Richard's lettin' her; but, law! he is so blind and she so headstrong!"

And the good woman groaned over this proof of depravity as she
questioned her visitor further with regard to Ethie's departures
from duty.

"And he don't go with her much, you say," she continued, feeling more
aggrieved than ever when she heard that on the occasion of Ethie's
personating Hortense, Richard had also appeared as a knight of the
sixteenth century, and borne his part so well that Ethelyn herself did
not recognize him until the mask was removed.

Mrs. Markham could not suffer such high-handed wickedness to go
unrebuked, and taking as a peace offering, in case matters assumed a
serious aspect, a pot of gooseberry jam and a ball of head cheese, she
started for Camden the very next day.

Ethelyn did not expect her, but she received her kindly, and knowing how
she hated a public table, had dinner served in her own room, and then,
without showing the least impatience, waited a full hour for Richard to
come in from the court-house, where an important suit was pending. Mrs.
Markham was to return to Olney that night, and as there was no time to
lose, she brought the conversation round to the "stories" she had heard,
and little by little laid on the lash till Ethelyn's temper was roused,
and she asked her mother-in-law to say out what she had to say at once,
and not skirt round it so long. Then came the whole list of misdemeanors
which Mrs. Markham thought "perfectly ridiculous," asking her son how he
"could put up with such work."

Richard wisely forbore taking either side; nor was it necessary that he
should speak for Ethie. She was fully competent to fight her own battle,
and she fought it with a will, telling her mother-in-law that she should
attend as many parties as she pleased and wear as many masks. She d