a high,
shrill voice that made Kate start in wonder. She did not take the
trouble to evade by asking "what thing?" she merely made assent with
her head.

"You are married to that--that--" Nancy Ellen choked until she could
not say what.

"It's TIME to stop, since I am married to him," said Kate, gravely.

"You rushed in and married him without giving Robert time to find out
and tell you what everybody knows about him?" demanded Nancy Ellen.

"I married him for what I knew about him myself," said Kate. "We shall
do very well."

"Do well!" cried Nancy. "Do well! You'll be hungry and in rags the
rest of your life!"

"Don't, Nancy Ellen, don't!" plead Robert. "This is Kate's affair,
wait until you hear what she has to say before you go further."

"I don't care what she has to say!" cried Nancy Ellen. "I'm saying my
say right now. This is a disgrace to the whole Bates family. We may
not be much, but there isn't a lazy, gambling, drunken loafer among us,
and there won't be so far as I'm concerned."

She glared at Kate who gazed at her in wonder.

"You really married this lout?" she demanded.

"I told you I was married," said Kate, patiently, for she saw that
Nancy Ellen was irresponsible with anger.

"You're going to live with him, you're going to stay in Walden to
live?" she cried.

"That is my plan at present," said Kate.

"Well, see that YOU STAY THERE," said Nancy Ellen. "You can't bring
that--that creature to my house, and if you're going to be his wife,
you needn't come yourself. That's all I've got to say to you, you
shameless, crazy--"

"Nancy Ellen, you shall not!" cried Robert Gray, deftly slipping the
lines from her fingers, and starting the horse full speed. Kate saw
Nancy Ellen's head fall forward, and her hands lifted to cover her
face. She heard the deep, tearing sob that shook her, and then they
were gone. She did not know what to do, so she stood still in the hot
sunshine, trying to think; but her brain refused to act at her will.
When the heat became oppressive, she turned back to the shade of a
tree, sat down, and leaned against it. There she got two things clear
after a time. She had married George Holt, there was nothing to do but
make the best of it. But Nancy Ellen had said that if she lived with
him she should not come to her home. Very well. She had to live with
him, since she had consented to marry him, so she was cut off from
Robert and Nancy Ellen. She was now a