ght choose to offer; then they relapsed into
innocuous desuetude and talked crops.

As soon as the repairs were well under way, the whole town was wild
with gossip about Maxwell and Miss Bascom. If he were going to occupy
the rectory, the necessary inference was that he was going to be
married, as he surely would not contemplate keeping bachelor's hall by
himself. At last Virginia had attained the height of her ambition and
captured the rector! Consequently she was the center of interest in
every social gathering, although, as the engagement had not been
formally announced, no one felt at liberty to congratulate her. To any
tentative and insinuating advances in this direction Virginia replied
by non-committal smiles, capable of almost any interpretation; and the
seeker after information was none the wiser.

Mrs. Roscoe-Jones, by virtue of her long intimacy with Hepsey and her
assured social position in Durford's thirty gentry, felt that she was
entitled to some definite information; and so, as they walked back
from church one Wednesday afternoon, she remarked:

"I hear that the parish is going to repair the rectory, and that you
are taking a great interest in it. You must be on very intimate terms
with Mr. Bascom and the vestry!"

"Well, not exactly. Bascom and I haven't held hands in the dark for
some time; but I am going to do what I can to get the house in order
for Mr. Maxwell."

"I wonder where the money is coming from to complete the work? It
seems to me that the whole parish ought to be informed about the
matter, and share in the work; but I suppose Mr. Bascom's shouldering
it all, since there's been no effort to raise money by having a
fair."

"I really don't know much about it as yet, Sarah. Of course Bascom's
charitable work is mostly done in secret, so that nobody ever finds it
out. He is a modest man and wouldn't like to be caught in the act of
signing a check for anybody else. It might seem showy."

"Yes, I understand," Mrs. Roscoe-Jones retorted dryly; "but under the
circumstances, that is----"

"Under what circumstances?" Mrs. Burke inquired quickly.

"Oh, considering that Mr. Bascom is Virginia's father and would want
to make her comfortable, you know----"

"No, I don't know. I'm awful stupid about some things. You must have
discovered that before."

"Now Hepsey, what is the use of beating around the bush like this? You
must know the common gossip of the town, and you must be in Mr.
Maxwel