ter appeared in the doorway of her little sitting room. "Set
right down, and I'll have a cup of tea ready in less than five minutes."

"Thank'ee, I believe I will," said Miss Pryor, "though I didn't intend
to stay only long enough to tell you the news. I put this shawl over my
head and run just as I was."

"That's right, I'm glad of it. We'll have a sociable time now, Mr.
Wynn's cleared out. I never could bear a man around my kitchen. But what
news do you mean!"

"Why, ain't you heard?"

"Not a livin' word of anything. What on earth can have happened so
wonderful?"

"Well, that does beat all. Just to think! And you ain't seen a certain
magnificent gentleman, as grand as a prince, that sailed up to Widder
Hardyng's and asked for Miss Clemence Graystone? Every girl in town is
in love with him already."

"Do tell! And here I be tied to the house waitin' on Rose, and never
dreamin' all that's goin' on. You might have come over and told me
before, Betsey. I'd have done the same by you."

"Seein' as how it all happened yesterday, and I only found it out last
evening after prayer meeting', and it ain't ten o'clock in the forenoon
yet, I calkerlate I ain't done anything so very monstrous," said that
individual, in an injured tone.

However, the sight of a steaming cup of tea that filled the air with its
appetizing fragrance, soon mollified her, and after dispatching one cup
at boiling point, she paused to take breath before partaking of a
second.

"You see this is all there is of it: The elegantest man you ever saw
drove up all of a sudden to the tavern and wanted to know where Miss
Graystone was boarding. You'd better believe they asked him a few
questions, but he waved them all off, polite-like, but in a way that
convinced every one that he knew his own particular business better than
anybody else knew it for him; and dashed off in the direction of Widder
Hardyng's. Mrs. Swan's little girl happened to be down there on an
errand for her mother, and she heard all that transpired. His name's
Vaughn, and he's Miss Graystone's beau. He staid and talked a long time
with Mrs. Hardyng while he was waiting for the schoolmistress, who had
gone away; but after a time, when she didn't come back, he was so
impatient he went off trying to find her."

"And you didn't see him at all?" queried Mrs. Wynn.

"Oh, maybe I didn't," said Betsey, with a toss of her head; "trust me
for finding out anything I once set my mind on. I calle