during the course of
a slow ride, for his non-appearance at various dinners and teas.

"Well, I've been rather bowled over, don't you know? I've been getting
my bearings," said Duncan, simply.

"Of course you have!" said Harriet, with an expectant thrill.

"I'd gotten to count on monopolizing the governor," pursued Duncan,
presently, with a rueful smile. "I shall feel no end in the way for a
while, I'm afraid, Of course, I didn't think Dad would always keep"-his
serious eyes met Harriet's--"always keep my mother's place empty; but
this came rather suddenly, just the same."

"Had your father written you?" said Harriet, confused between fear of
saying the wrong thing and dread of a long silence.

"Oh, yes!" Duncan attempted an indifferent tone. "He had written me in
August about meeting Miss Charteris and her little brother in Rome, you
know, and how much he liked her. Her brother was an invalid, and died
shortly after; and then Dad met her again in Paris, quite alone, and
they were married immediately."

He fell silent. Presently Harriet said daringly: "She's--clever; she's
gifted, isn't she?"

"I think you were very bold to say that, dear!" said Mrs. Van Winkle,
when Harriet repeated this conversation, some hours later, in the
family circle.

"Oh, Aunt Minnie, I had to--to see what he'd say."

"And what did he say?" asked Harriet's mother,

"He looked at me gravely, you know, until I was ashamed of myself," the
girl confessed, "and then he said: 'Why, Hat, you must know that Mrs.
Coppered was a professional actress?'"

"And a very obscure little actress, at that," finished Mrs. Culver,
nodding.

"Pacific Coast stock companies or something like that," said Harriet.
"Well, and then, after a minute, he said, so sadly, 'That's what hurts,
although I hate myself for letting it make a difference.'"

"Duncan said that?" Mrs. Van Winkle was incredulous.

"Poor boy! With one aunt Mrs. Vincent-Hunter and the other an English
duchess! The Coppereds have always been among Boston's best families.
It's terrible," said Mrs. Culver.

"Well, I think it is," the girl agreed warmly. "Judge Clyde Potter's
grandson, and brought up with the very nicest people, and sensitive as
he is--I think it's just too bad it should be Duncan!"

"There's no doubt she was an actress, I suppose, Emily?"

"Well," said Harriet's mother, "it's not denied." She shrugged
eloquently.

"Shall you call, mother?"

"Oh, I shall have to once,