some day. It's promised him."

"Holy Moses!"

"And I suppose he can't divorce her, because of that?"

"No, of course not. He'll have to drag her with him like millstone
round his neck."

"And he'd twigged right enough you were gone on him?"

Laura's coy smile hinted many things. "I should say so. Since the very
first day in church. He said--but I don't like to tell you what he
said."

"You must!"

"No. You'll only call me conceited."

"No fear, Kiddy. Out with it!"

"Well, then, he said he saw me as soon as he got in the pulpit, and he
wondered ever so much who the girl was with the eyes like sloes, and
the skin like ... like cream."

"Snakes-alive-oh! He went it strong."

"And how often were you alone with him?"

"Yes, and if he had met me before he was married--but no, I can't tell
any more."

"Oh, don't be such an ass!"

"No, I can't.--Well, I'll whisper it then ... but only to Maria," and
leaning over Laura put her lips to Maria's ear.

The reason for this by-stroke she could not have told: the detail she
imparted did not differ substantially from those that had gone
before.-- But by now she was at the end of her tether.

Here, fortunately for Laura, the dinner-bell rang, and the girls had to
take to their heels in order to get their books put away before grace.
Throughout the meal, from their scattered seats, they exchanged looks
of understanding, and their cheeks were pink.

In the afternoon, Laura was again called on to prove her mettle. Her
companion on the daily walk was Kate Horner. Kate had been one of the
four, and did not lose this chance of beating up fresh particulars.

After those first few awkward moments, however, which had come wellnigh
being a fiasco, Laura had no more trouble with her story. Indeed, the
plunge once taken, it was astounding how easy it became to make up
things about the Shepherds; the difficulty was, to know where to stop.
Fictitious details crowded thick and fast upon her--a regular
hotchpotch; she had only to stretch out her hand and seize what she
needed. It was simpler than the five-times multiplication-table, and
did not need to be learnt. But all the same she was not idle: she
polished away at her flimflams, bringing them nearer and nearer
probability, never, thanks to her sound memory, contradicting herself
or making a slip, and always able to begin again from the beginning.

Such initial scepticism as may have lurked in her hearers was soon got
the b