“Who is Roy Wright, and where is he, that he didn’t tell Dr. Alden about the child?”

“Oh, Roy’s dead.  I believe Mary Alden’s marriage broke Roy’s heart; that is, if a man’s heart can be broken.  He had been in love with her all her life.  Not just loved her, but in love with her.  His house was next to the Aldens’, where the Reagans now live, and Major Alden and General Wright were old friends, each anxious for the match.  When Mary ran away at seventeen and married a man her father didn’t know, I tell you Yorkburg was scared to death.”

“Do you remember it?”

“Remember!  I should think I did.  I cried for two weeks.  Nearly ruined my eyes.  Mary and I were deskmates at Miss Porterfield’s school, and I adored her.  I really did.  So did Dick Moon.”  She stopped.  Then:  “Like most women, I’m a compromise,” and she laughed.  But it was a happy laugh.  Mrs. Grey smiled too.

“Was Mary Alden engaged to Roy Wright when she married the other man?” she asked.  “Tell me all about her.”

“No, she wasn’t.  Mary Alden was incapable of deceit, and Roy Wright knew she didn’t love him.  He knew she was never going to marry him.  Poor Roy!  He was as gentle and sweet and patient as Mary was high-spirited and beautiful, and the last type on earth to win a woman of Mary’s temperament.  She wanted to be mastered, and Roy could only worship.”

“And her father—­what did he do?”

“Do?  The Aldens are not people who ‘do’ things.  The day after the news came, he and General Wright walked arm and arm all over Yorkburg, and their heads were high; but oh, my dear, it was pitiful.  They didn’t know, but they were clinging to each other, and the Major’s face was like death.”

“Didn’t some one say he had been pretty strict with her?  Held too tight a rein?”

“Yes, he had, and he deserved part of his suffering.  His pride was inherited, and Mary could go with no one whose great-grandparents he didn’t know about.  But Mary cared no more for ancestors than she did for Hottentots.  When she met this Mr. Cary, a young English actor, at a friend’s house in Baltimore, she made no inquiry as to whether he had any, and fell in love at once.  He was a gentleman, however.  That was as evident as Major Alden’s rage when he went to see the latter, and asked for Mary.  Mrs. Rodman happened to be in the house at the time, and what she didn’t see she heard.  She says the one thing you can’t fool her about is a counterfeit gentleman.  And Ralston Cary was no counterfeit.”

“For Heaven’s sake, don’t get on what Mrs. Rodman thinks or says.  Tell me about the marriage.  I’m asking a lot of questions, but you’re so slow.”

“I’m telling as fast as I can.  You interrupt so much with questions I can’t finish.”  And Mrs. Moon’s voice was real spunky.

“They were married in Washington,” she began again.  “The morning after the interview with the Major they caught the five-o’clock train, and that afternoon there was a telegram telling of the marriage.