bashed, "do not say so. It seems to me there
is nothing that she can envy or desire."

"Don't believe the half of that, little innocent! Oh, listen, this
measure is perfection! Come."

She rises, for she cannot endure sitting here and discussing madame,
and they all take so much for granted between her and Mr. Grandon.

The waltz is lovely out here in the summer moonlight. She forgets her
discomfort in it, and is very happy; but when it ends she feels that
her duty is done, that she would like to go home, and mentions her
desire to Eugene.

"Why, yes, if you like," he answers. "If it had not been for you the
whole thing would have bored me intolerably. Floyd may thank his stars
for an excuse to keep away."

They make their adieus to host and hostess. Marcia tosses her head with
a curt farewell.

But it has been a success. Doubtless many of the guests came from
curiosity; but Mrs. Wilmarth is delighted to have had what would have
been an enormous crush inside, and much elated to have it praised on
every hand.

"But what idiots Violet and Eugene made of themselves," she says, in
the privacy of her own room, when all is quiet and the old orchard is
left to the weird dancing shadows of the moonlight, while the insect
voices of the night keep up an accompaniment.

"Did they? I thought he was unusually modest and chary of his numerous
graces," returns Jasper Wilmarth, with his usual sneer, which is nearly
always lost upon Marcia, who has settled it as belonging to his way and
not meaning anything.

"That is just what I complain of. They walked round or sat under trees
like a couple of spooning lovers. I believe they did waltz once; and
Violet did nothing but dance the night of her ball."

"I wonder," Jasper Wilmarth says, slowly, "if Eugene does not, or will
not regret giving up the St. Vincent fortune."

"Giving up the fortune!" Marcia turns straight around, with a
resemblance to Medusa, since her short, uneven hair stands out every
way with the vigorous use of her magnetic brush. "How could he have had
the St. Vincent fortune?"

Wilmarth is surprised. Is it possible that Marcia does not know? Have
these two men kept the secret from the family?

"Why of course you are aware that it was offered to Eugene!" he
answers, composedly.

"No, I am not," she replies, shortly. "Was it to marry Violet?"

He nods. "Yes, she seemed to go begging for a husband. I had the chance
first, but I really fancied she was not m