nyhow. Mamma's so fussy, and never gets anywhere. I don't mind you at
all, but I wish you'd sit down."

"All right." And he returned to his chair beside the trunk. "Go ahead
and cry all you want, Edith," he said. "No harm in that!"

"Sibyl told mamma--OH!" she began, choking. "Mary Vertrees had mamma and
Sibyl and I to tea, one afternoon two weeks or so ago, and she had some
women there that Sibyl's been crazy to get in with, and she just laid
herself out to make a hit with 'em, and she's been running after 'em
ever since, and now she comes over here and says THEY say Bobby Lamhorn
is so bad that, even though they like his family, none of the nice
people in town would let him in their houses. In the first place, it's
a falsehood, and I don't believe a word of it; and in the second place
I know the reason she did it, and, what's more, she KNOWS I know it! I
won't SAY what it is--not yet--because papa and all of you would think
I'm as crazy as she is snaky; and Roscoe's such a fool he'd probably
quit speaking to me. But it's true! Just you watch her; that's all I
ask. Just you watch that woman. You'll see!"

As it happened, Bibbs was literally watching "that woman." Glancing from
the window, he saw Sibyl pause upon the pavement in front of the old
house next door. She stood a moment, in deep thought, then walked
quickly up the path to the door, undoubtedly with the intention
of calling. But he did not mention this to his sister, who, after
delivering herself of a rather vague jeremiad upon the subject of her
sister-in-law's treacheries, departed to her own chamber, leaving him to
his speculations. The chief of these concerned the social elasticities
of women. Sibyl had just been a participant in a violent scene; she had
suffered hot insult of a kind that could not fail to set her quivering
with resentment; and yet she elected to betake herself to the presence
of people whom she knew no more than "formally." Bibbs marveled. Surely,
he reflected, some traces of emotion must linger upon Sibyl's face or in
her manner; she could not have ironed it all quite out in the three or
four minutes it took her to reach the Vertreeses' door.

And in this he was not mistaken, for Mary Vertrees was at that moment
wondering what internal excitement Mrs. Roscoe Sheridan was striving to
master. But Sibyl had no idea that she was allowing herself to exhibit
anything except the gaiety which she conceived proper to the manner of a
casual cal