bled
Bob Flippin. "I've always done everything on the square with the
Judge."

"I know," said Mary, with the sudden realization of how her act had
affected others, "I know. That's the only thing I am sorry about.
But--I don't believe the Judge would be so silly as to let anything I
did make any difference about you----"

"Where are you going to live?"

For the first time Mary's air of assurance left her. "He is hoping his
grandfather will want us at Huntersfield----"

"He can keep on a-hoping," said Bob Flippin. "I know the Judge."

Mary flared. "We can find a little house of our own----"

Her father laid his hand on her shoulder. "Look at me, daughter," he
said, and turned her face up to aim. "Our house is yours, Mary," he
said. "I don't like the way you did it, and I hate to think what will
happen when the Judge finds out. But our home is yours, and it's your
husband's. As long as you like to stay----"

And now Mary sobbed--a little slip of a thing in her father's arms.
All the long months she had kept her secret, holding it safe in her
heart, dreading yet longing for the moment when she could tell the
world that she was the wife of Truxton Beaufort, whom she had adored
from babyhood.

"I would have married him, Dad, if--if I had had to tramp the road."

Truxton came on the noon train. He drove at once to Huntersfield with
his mother, was embraced by the Judge, kissed Becky, and suddenly
disappeared.

"Where's he gone?" the Judge asked, irritably. "Where has he gone,
Claudia?"

"He will be back in time for lunch," said Mrs. Beaufort. "May I speak
to you in the library, Father?"

Becky, from the moment of her aunt's arrival, had known that something
was wrong. She had expected to see Mrs. Beaufort glowing with renewed
youth, radiant. Instead, she looked as if a blight had come upon her,
shrivelled--old. When she smiled it was without joy; she was dull and
flat.

It was a half hour before Aunt Claudia came out from the library. "My
dear," she said, finding Becky still on the porch, "I have something to
tell yon. Will you go up-stairs with me?--I--think I should like
to--lie down----"

Becky put a strong young arm about her and they went up together.

"It's--it's about Truxton," Aunt Claudia said, prone on the couch in
her room. "Becky--he's married----"

"_Married?_"

"Married, my dear. He did not tell me until--last night. He wanted me
to be happy--as long as I could. He's