loudly."

Two weeks later Hazel wrote a letter to Marion, containing this item:

Elvira has lost the little up-and-down worry wrinkle between her
eyes--the only one she had; she looks about twenty-two. Mr.
Erastus Courtenay has come to Lindale to inspect his mills, but
he hasn't seen the inside of one of them yet. He is here a great
deal.

And this postscript was appended:

Tubs wouldn't hold the roses Mr. Courtenay squanders on Elvira.

Marion incautiously read the letter to Eulalie, and a tempest was at
once put to steep in a teapot.

"Oh, brag to me about your modest, self-sacrificing spinsters! Mighty
agreeable and willing was Miss Elvira to go and be a tonic to Madame
Hazel--and, incidentally, be handy for a rich mill owner to waste
roses on! The pair of them! Didn't know anything about it until she
got to Lindale? You're green enough for sheep to eat if you think she
wasn't planning it all ever since she heard of Hugh's uncle. She knew
he would be going to Lindale soon, and mighty easy it was for her and
Hazel to cook up a plot to have her there when he came. 'Oh, my, such
a surprise to meet you here, Mr. Courtenay!'" Eulalie gave an
imitation of Elvira's imagined giggle. "She's got to come straight
home again--that's what she has."

"My stars, Laly," besought Marion, "don't beat up a tornado about it.
What is it to you if Elvira does marry Hugh's uncle, or anybody she
sees fit?"

"She has no business--it's absurd at her age."

"Thirty-two isn't decrepit."

"It's too old for such didoes. And she knows that Mr. Courtenay has
vowed never to marry again, and that Hugh will inherit the mills if he
doesn't."

"Oh, that's the snag! But you are not engaged to Hugh, are you?"

"No, not yet."

"Did Elvira know you had intentions that way?"

"She might have known I'd take him when I got ready if she kept her
webs away from that old donkey of an uncle."

"What mortal, do you presume to say, could divine which one of your
ninety and nine misguided admirers you were going, when you get good
and ready, to favor with the empty husk of your frivolous little
heart? And if anyone could tell, what law or statute have you against
Elvira's equal right to the mills, provided she loves the miller?"

"It's scandalous!" Eulalie flew back to her grievance, unmindful of
Marion's logic. "She's got to come back where I can keep an eye on
her. And if the old guinea comes after her, I'll cut her out