avy footfalls all at once approached her--two men were coming from the
house. There was the spitting crackle of a match, and as she peered out,
its red flare lighted the massive face and floating hair of Major
Bristow. His companion's face was in the shadow. She waited, thinking
they would pass; but to her annoyance, when she looked again, they had
seated themselves on a bench a few paces away.

To be found mooning in the shrubbery like a schoolgirl did not please
her, but it seemed there was no recourse, and she had half arisen, when
the major's gruff-voiced companion spoke a name that caused her to sit
down abruptly. To do Katharine justice, it did not occur to her at the
moment that she was eavesdropping. And such was the significance of the
sentences she heard, and such their bearing on the turmoil of her mind,
that a woman of more sensitive fiber might have lingered.

"Bristow, Shirley's a magnificent girl."

"Finest in seven counties," agreed the major's bass.

"Whom do you reckon she'll choose to marry?"

"Chilly Lusk, of course. The boy's been in love with her since they
were in bibs. And he comes as near being fit for her as anybody."

"Humph!" said the other sardonically. "No man I ever saw was half good
enough for a good woman. But good women marry just the same. It isn't
Lusk. I used to think it would be, but I've got a pair of eyes in my
head, if you haven't. It's young Valiant."

The pearl fan twisted in Katharine's fingers. What she had guessed was
an open secret, then!

The major made an exclamation that had the effect of coming after a
jaw-dropped silence. "I--I never thought of that!"

The other resumed slowly, somewhat bitterly, it seemed to the girl
listening. "If her mother was in love with Sassoon--"

Katharine's heart beat fast and then stood still. Sassoon! That was the
name of the man Valiant's father had killed in that old duel of which
Judge Chalmers had told! "If her mother"--Shirley Dandridge's
mother--"was in love with Sassoon!" Why--

"_Was_ she?"

The major's query held a sharpness that seemed almost appeal. She was
conscious that the other had faced about abruptly.

"I've always believed so, certainly. If she had loved Valiant, would
she have thrown him over merely because he broke his promise not to
be a party to a quarrel?"

"You think not?" said the major huskily.

"Not under the circumstances. Valiant was forced into it. No gentleman,
at that day, could have decline