nse. You are building up a great mountain out of a very
insignificant mole-hill," reproved Bea with a smile. "It is quite absurd.
I see, however," with a resigned smile, "that you will never be satisfied
unless I go into the most elaborate details and tell you just how she
looked and just what she said."

"Oh, please," so simply and earnestly, that her heart was touched and she
gave him one of her rarest and most sympathetic smiles.

"Very well, to begin then," Bea spoke with assumed patience. "Of course,
I feel exactly as if I were in the witness box, but what will one not do
for one's friends. Then to be quite circumstantial: This afternoon, I
stopped at the Oldhams. Marcia was fortunately at home, and I noticed at
once that she was looking rather down in the mouth, and was very
distrait. She seemed in rather a peculiar state, to alternate from a mood
of excitement to one of depression, and more than once while I was
talking to her, I saw the tears well up to her eyes. I, at first, thought
that her mother had been bothering her, for that Venus was in one of her
most exacting and fractious moods, but I soon came to the conclusion that
that was not the root of the trouble. Fortunately, Marcia and I were
alone for a short time before I left and I endeavored to find out what
was weighing on her mind. Not from curiosity, believe me, but because I
felt convinced that something of more than usual importance had disturbed
her poise.

"She would not really unburden herself to me, Marcia is so reticent and
self-contained, you know; but she did admit that she was greatly worried.
From the various things she said, I was able to piece out some facts, and
you are welcome to them, although, I must confess that I think they throw
very little light upon the matter."

"Do let me know them!" begged Hayden. "You know, of course, dear Mrs.
Habersham, that I can not bear to hear of her being unhappy or
distressed, and I should like nothing in all the world so much as to feel
that I could be of some assistance to her."

"I am sure of that," said Bea sweetly; "but to go on. After her mother
left the room, I asked Marcia if she were quite well. She looked a little
surprised at the question, and then said: 'Yes, oh, yes,' but in the most
languid and listless of manners. And all the time that I was talking to
her, her mind seemed to be far, far away, as if she were working
constantly over some problem, trying to think it out. To tell the tr