ll have
something to talk about for a week. And they'll all try to discover if
you mean to sell out at auction. Oh, they will be _so_ sorry!" said the
old lady, imitating imaginary callers; "'and, my dear Mrs. Newt, what
_are_ you going to do? And to think of your being obliged to leave this
lovely house!' Come?--did you ever know the vultures not to come to a
carcass?"

Mrs. Nancy Newt looked appalled; and so energetic was Mrs. Dagon in her
allusion to vultures and carcass, that her niece unconsciously put to her
nose the smelling-bottle she held in her hand.

"Oh, it's dreadful!" she sighed, rocking and smelling, and with the tears
oozing from her eyes.

"Fiddle! I won't hear of it. 'Tain't dreadful. It's nothing at all. You
must go out with me and make calls this very morning. It's none of your
business. If your husband chooses to fail, let him fail. He can't expect
you to take to making shirts, and to give up society. I shall call at
twelve in the carriage; and, mind, don't you look red and mopy. Remember.
So, good-morning! And, May, I want to speak to you."

They left Mrs. Newt rocking and weeping, with the smelling-bottle at her
nose, and descended to the solemn parlor.

"What brought this about?" asked Mrs. Dagon, as she closed the door.
"Your mother is in such a state that it does no good to talk to her.
Where's Abel?"

"Aunt Dagon, I have my own opinion, but I know nothing. I suppose Abel is
down town."

"What's your opinion?"

May paused for a moment, and then said:

"From what I have heard drop from father during the last few years since
Abel has been in the business, I don't believe that Abel has helped
him--"

"Exactly," interrupted Mrs. Dagon, as if soliloquizing; "and why on earth
didn't the fellow marry Hope Wayne, or that Southern girl, Grace Plumer?"

"Abel marry Hope Wayne?" asked May, with an air and tone of such utter
amazement and incredulity that Aunt Dagon immediately recovered from her
abstraction, and half smiled.

"Why, why not?" said she, with equal simplicity.

May Newt knew Hope Wayne personally, and she had also heard of her from
Gabriel Bennet. Indeed, Gabriel had no secrets from May. The whole school
story of his love had been told to her, and she shared the young man's
feeling for the woman who, as a girl, had so utterly enthralled his
imagination. But Gabriel's story of school life also included her brother
Abel, and what she heard of the boy agreed with what she knew