The little fiends!" she cried. "Oh,
really, this is a long-suffering family, but it's time these outrages
were stopped!"

She jumped up. "Isn't it frightful?" she demanded of Noble.

"Yes, it is," he said, with a dismal fervour. "Nobody knows that better
than I do, Julia!"

"I mean _this_!" she cried, extending the _Oriole_ toward him with a
vigorous gesture. "I mean this dreadful story about poor Mr. Crum!"

"But it's true," he said.

"Noble Dill!"

"Julia?"

"Do you dare to say you believed it?"

He sprang up. "It isn't true?"

"Not one word of it! I told you Mr. Crum is only twenty-six. He hasn't
been out of college more than three or four years, and it's the most
terrible slander to say he's ever been married at all!"

Noble dropped back into his chair of misery. "I thought you meant it
wasn't true."

"I've just told you there isn't one _word_ of tr----"

"But you're--engaged," Noble gulped. "You're engaged to him, Julia!"

She appeared not to hear this. "I suppose it _can_ be lived down," she
said. "To think of Uncle Joseph putting such a thing into the hands of
those awful children!"

"But, Julia, you're eng----"

"Noble!" she said sharply.

"Well, you _are_ eng----"

Julia drew herself up. "Different people mean different things by that
word," she said with severity, like an annoyed school-teacher. "There
are any number of shades of meaning to words; and if I used the word you
mention, in writing home to the family, I may have used a certain shade
and they may have thought I intended another."

"But, Julia----"

"Mr. Crum is a charming young man," she continued with the same
primness. "I liked him very much indeed. I liked him very, very much. I
liked him very, _very_----"

"I understand," he interrupted. "Don't say it any more, Julia."

"No; you don't understand! At _first_ I liked him very much--in fact, I
still do, of course--I'm sure he's one of the best and most attractive
young men in the world. I think he's a man any girl ought to be happy
with, if he were only to be considered by himself. I don't deny that. I
liked him very much indeed, and I don't deny that for several days after
he--after he proposed to me--I don't deny I thought something serious
_might_ come of it. But at that time, Noble, I hadn't--hadn't really
thought of what it meant to give up living here at home, with all the
family and everything--and friends--friends like you, Noble. I hadn't
thought what it would