prodigal, indeed. And those
things Nancy Ellen had said--she was wild with anger. She had been
misinformed. Those things could not be true.

"Shouldn't you be in here helping Aunt Ollie?" asked George's voice
from the front step where he seated himself with his pipe.

"Yes, in a minute," said Kate, rising. "Did you see who came?"

"No. I was out doing the morning work. Who was it?" he asked.

"Nancy Ellen and Robert," she answered.

He laughed hilariously: "Brought them in a hurry, didn't we? Why
didn't they come in?"

"They came to tell me," said Kate, slowly, "that if I had married you
yesterday, as I did, that they felt so disgraced that I wasn't to come
to their home again."

"'Disgraced?'" he cried, his colour rising. "Well, what's the matter
with me?"

"Not the things they said, I fervently hope."

"Well, they have some assurance to come out here and talk about me, and
you've got as much to listen, and then come and tell me about it," he
cried.

"It was over in a minute," said Kate. "I'd no idea what they were
going to say. They said it, and went. Oh, I can't spare Nancy Ellen,
she's all I had!"

Kate sank down on the step and covered her face. George took one long
look at her, arose, and walked out of hearing. He went into the garden
and watched from behind a honeysuckle bush until he saw her finally
lift her head and wipe her eyes; then he sauntered back, and sat down
on the step beside her.

"That's right," he said. "Cry it out, and get it over. It was pretty
mean of them to come out here and insult you, and tell any lie they
could think up, and then drive away and leave you; but don't mind,
they'll soon get over it. Nobody ever keeps up a fuss over a wedding
long."

"Nancy Ellen never told a lie in her life," said Kate. "She has too
much self-respect. What she said she THOUGHT was true. My only chance
is that somebody has told her a lie. You know best if they did."

"Of course they did," he broke in, glibly. "Haven't you lived in the
same house with me long enough to know me better than any one else
does?"

"You can live in the same house with people and know less about them
than any one else, for that matter," said Kate, "but that's neither
here nor there. We're in this together, we got to get on the job and
pull, and make a success out of it that will make all of them proud to
be our friends. That's the only thing left for me. As I know the
Bates, once they make