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“I have not thought much of you for a twelvemonth,” he said, quietly, “but I have not forgotten you. Come!”

He led the way a few steps in advance, they following silently. In this brief interview they felt he had resumed the old dominance and independence, against which they had rebelled; more than that, in this half failure of their first concerted action they had changed their querulous bickerings to a sullen distrust of each other, and walked moodily apart as they followed James North into his house. A fire blazed brightly on the hearth; a few extra seats were quickly extemporized from boxes and chests, and the elder lady, with the skirt of her dress folded over her knees,–looking not unlike an exceedingly overdressed jointed doll,–dried her flounces and her tears together. Miss Maria took in the scant appointments of the house in one single glance, and then fixed her eyes upon James North, who, the least concerned of the party, stood before them, grave and patiently expectant.

“Well,” began the elder lady in a high key, “after all this worry and trouble you have given us, James, haven’t you anything to say? Do you know–have you the least idea what you are doing? what egregious folly you are committing? what everybody is saying? Eh? Heavens and earth!–do you know who I am?”

“You are my father’s brother’s widow, Aunt Mary,” returned James, quietly. “If I am committing any folly it only concerns myself; if I cared for what people said I should not be here; if I loved society enough to appreciate its good report I should stay with it.”

“But they say you have run away from society to pine alone for a worthless creature–a woman who has used you, as she has used and thrown away others–a–“

“A woman,” chimed in Dick, who had thrown himself on James’s bed while his patent leathers were drying, “a woman that all the fellers know never intended”–here, however, he met James North’s eye, and muttering something about “whole thing being too idiotic to talk about,” relapsed into silence.

“You know,” continued Mrs. North, “that while we and all our set shut our eyes to your very obvious relations with that woman, and while I myself often spoke of it to others as a simple flirtation, and averted a scandal for your sake, and when the climax was reached, and she herself gave you an opportunity to sever your relations, and nobody need have been wiser–and she’d have had all the blame–and it’s only what she’s accustomed to–you–you! you, James North!–you must nonsensically go, and, by this extravagant piece of idiocy and sentimental tomfoolery, let everybody see how serious the whole affair was, and how deep it hurt you! and here in this awful place, alone–where you’re half drowned to get to it and are willing to be wholly drowned to get away! Oh, don’t talk to me! I won’t hear it–it’s just too idiotic for anything!”

The subject of this outburst neither spoke nor moved a single muscle.

“Your aunt, Mr. North, speaks excitedly,” said the elder gentleman; “yet I think she does not overestimate the unfortunate position in which your odd fancy places you. I know nothing of the reasons that have impelled you to this step; I only know that the popular opinion is that the cause is utterly inadequate. You are still young, with a future before you. I need not say how your present conduct may imperil that. If you expected to achieve any good–even to your own satisfaction–but this conduct–“

“Yes–if there was anything to be gained by it!” broke in Mrs. North.

“If you ever thought she’d come back!–but that kind of woman don’t. They must have change. Why”–began Dick suddenly, and as suddenly lying down again.

“Is this all you have come to say?” asked James North, after a moment’s patient silence, looking from one to the other.

“All?” screamed Mrs. North; “is it not enough?”