cy sakes! The girl's crazy. You MIGHT be--if you wanted to! Who
with? If you're thinkin' of marryin' anybody seems to me I ought to know
it. Why, you ain't met more'n a dozen young fellers in this town,
and I've taken good care to know who they were. If you're thinkin' of
fallin' in love--or marryin'--"

Imogene interrupted. "I ain't," she declared. "And, anyhow, ma'am,
gettin' married don't necessarily mean you're in love."

"It don't! Well, this beats all I ever--"

"No, ma'am, it don't. Sometimes it's a person's duty to get married."

Thankful gasped. "Duty!" she repeated. "You HAVE been readin' more of
those books, in spite of your promisin' me you wouldn't."

"No, ma'am, I ain't. Honest, I ain't."

"Then what do you mean? Imogene, what man do you care enough for to make
you feel it's your--your duty to marry him?"

"No man at all," declared Imogene, promptly and decisively. And that is
all she would say on the subject.

Thankful repeated this astonishing conversation, or part of it, to
Emily. The latter considered it a good joke. "That girl is a strange
creature," she said, "and great fun. You never can tell what she will
say or think. She is very romantic and that nonsense about duty and
the rest of it undoubtedly is taken from some story she has read. You
needn't worry, Auntie. Imogene worships you, and she will never leave
you--to be married, or for any other reason."

So Thankful did not worry about Imogene. She had other worries, those
connected with a houseful of boarders, and these were quite sufficient.
And now came another. Kenelm Parker was threatening to leave her employ.

The statement is not strictly true. Kenelm, himself, never threatened
to do anything. But another person did the threatening for him and that
person was his sister. Hannah Parker, for some unaccountable reason,
seemed to be developing a marked prejudice against the High Cliff House.
Her visits to the premises were not less frequent than formerly, but
they were confined to the yard and stable; she no longer called at the
house. Her manner toward Emily and Thankful was cordial enough perhaps,
but there was constraint in it and she asked a good many questions
concerning her brother's hours of labor, what he did during the day, and
the like.

"She acts awful queer, seems to me," said Thankful. "Not the way she did
at first at all. In the beginnin' I had to plan pretty well to keep her
from runnin' in and sp'ilin' my whole morni