been there. I was there when they brought
her ashore. It may have been idiotic, as you say, but I don't think it
was theatrical."

"You will when you know. Ena," he called up the stairs after they had
entered the hall; "Lois is here. Come down."

Mrs. Masterman entered the library a minute later with both hands
outstretched. "Oh, my dear, what a comedy this is!" It was not often
that her manner forsook its ladylike suavity. "_What_ a comedy! But of
course you don't know. Nobody knows, thank God! But we must tell _you_."
She turned to her husband. "Will you tell her, Archie, or shall I?"

"If it's about Claude and Rosie Fay," Lois said, when they had got
seated, "I know all that. Thor told me. He told me yesterday,
because--well, because I'd been taking an interest in Rosie for some
months past, and when I went to see her yesterday afternoon old Mr. Fay
wouldn't let me. He said there'd been trouble--or something--between
Claude and Rosie--"

"Oh, he's been so romantic, poor boy," Ena interrupted, "and so loyal.
You'd hardly believe. He's been taken in completely. He _did_ want to
marry her. That's true. There's no use denying it. He told his father
and he told me. Oh, you've no idea. We've been _so_ worried. But he must
have found her out--_simply_ found her out."

Lois weighed the wisdom of asking questions or of learning more than
Thor chose to tell her, but in the end it seemed reasonable to ask,
"Found her out--how?"

Ena threw up her pretty hands. "Oh, well, with a girl of that sort what
could you expect? Claude's been completely taken in--or he was. He's so
innocent, poor boy. He wouldn't believe--not even when I told him. I
tried to stand by him--I really did. Didn't I, Archie? When he said he
wanted to marry her I said, said I, 'If she's a good girl, Claude, and
loves you, I'll accept her.' I really did, Lois--and you can imagine
what it cost me. But I could see at once. Any one who wasn't infatuated
as Claude was would have seen at a glance. The girl must be--well,
something awful."

Lois spoke warmly. "Oh, I don't think that."

"My dear Lois, I _know_. What's more, Thor knows, too. And I must say I
can't help blaming Thor. He's backed Claude up--and backed him up when
all the while he's known what she was."

Lois felt obliged to speak. "I don't think he's known anything--anything
to her discredit."

"Oh, but he has. I assure you he has. And what amazes me about
Thor--simply amazes me--is that he sh