ch. When Mary
ran away at seventeen and married a man her father didn't know, I tell
you Yorkburg was scared to death."

"Do you remember it?"

"Remember! I should think I did. I cried for two weeks. Nearly ruined my
eyes. Mary and I were deskmates at Miss Porterfield's school, and I
adored her. I really did. So did Dick Moon." She stopped. Then: "Like
most women, I'm a compromise," and she laughed. But it was a happy
laugh. Mrs. Grey smiled too.

"Was Mary Alden engaged to Roy Wright when she married the other man?"
she asked. "Tell me all about her."

"No, she wasn't. Mary Alden was incapable of deceit, and Roy Wright knew
she didn't love him. He knew she was never going to marry him. Poor Roy!
He was as gentle and sweet and patient as Mary was high-spirited and
beautiful, and the last type on earth to win a woman of Mary's
temperament. She wanted to be mastered, and Roy could only worship."

"And her father--what did he do?"

"Do? The Aldens are not people who 'do' things. The day after the news
came, he and General Wright walked arm and arm all over Yorkburg, and
their heads were high; but oh, my dear, it was pitiful. They didn't
know, but they were clinging to each other, and the Major's face was
like death."

"Didn't some one say he had been pretty strict with her? Held too tight
a rein?"

"Yes, he had, and he deserved part of his suffering. His pride was
inherited, and Mary could go with no one whose great-grandparents he
didn't know about. But Mary cared no more for ancestors than she did for
Hottentots. When she met this Mr. Cary, a young English actor, at a
friend's house in Baltimore, she made no inquiry as to whether he had
any, and fell in love at once. He was a gentleman, however. That was as
evident as Major Alden's rage when he went to see the latter, and asked
for Mary. Mrs. Rodman happened to be in the house at the time, and what
she didn't see she heard. She says the one thing you can't fool her
about is a counterfeit gentleman. And Ralston Cary was no counterfeit."

"For Heaven's sake, don't get on what Mrs. Rodman thinks or says. Tell
me about the marriage. I'm asking a lot of questions, but you're so
slow."

"I'm telling as fast as I can. You interrupt so much with questions I
can't finish." And Mrs. Moon's voice was real spunky.

"They were married in Washington," she began again. "The morning after
the interview with the Major they caught the five-o'clock train, and
that afternoon