“Wonders will never cease!” exclaimed Mrs. Wynn, staring blankly, into her empty tea cup.  “Clemence Graystone turned out to be a rich heiress, after bein’ perfectly abused the whole live-long summer by everybody in the town of Waveland but me.  It’s beyond my comprehension.  But I always knew she was a lady, and stuck to her through ‘evil and good report.’”

“Fifty thousand dollars!” gasped Miss Pryor; “do I hear aright?  I wonder what Mrs. Dr. Little, and the Briers, and all them that turned against her, will say to that?  It will be a particularly sweet morsel for the Owens.  I must call round and visit each one of them, to enjoy their discomfiture.”

“What a thing it is to be ignorant and narrow-minded,” added Mrs. Wynn.  “I can’t see how people get along through life without any knowledge of human nature.  Our poor departed Elder used to say he never could quite make up his mind what to think of a new-comer until he had my opinion of them, and, if I do say it, as shouldn’t say it, I’ve used these eyes thus far to pretty good advantage.”

“If she’d have used them less about her neighbors and a little more in looking after that precious daughter of hers,” whispered the spinster, maliciously, as the old lady rose to put away the dishes, “it would have been better for all concerned, I guess.”

“Why, Betsey, how you do talk!” replied Mrs. Swan.  Then in a louder tone:  “I came near forgetting another thing that I wanted to ask you about.  I’ve sustained a dreadful shock.  It’s on account of these new people at the Burton place.  I had a long confidential talk with Sister Arguseye, lately, and I haven’t had a peaceful moment since.  She called in to see me to warn me about associating with them.  You know she came from the same place that they did, and knew all about the family.”

“What did she say?” chorused both voices.

“Well, I’m grieved to say her report wasn’t favorable.  It seems the elder Mrs. Garnet, who appears to be a perfect pattern of propriety, has a grown-up, illegitimate daughter, whose existence they are trying to conceal from strangers, whom they think they can successfully impose upon.”

“They have come to the wrong place for that.  Vice will be exposed in this community, and the workers of iniquity receive their reward,” responded Mrs. Wynn, oracularly, and pursing up her thin lips and sniffing her sharp nose higher in the air; “we must ferret this out, Betsey.”

“We must, indeed,” echoed the spinster, looking as if nothing would delight her more; “such a state of affairs cannot be tolerated in our midst.”

“The worst part of it is,” continued Mrs. Swan, “they say that the modest-looking daughter-in-law, whom I have felt so interested in, is equally culpable, and married the son for similar reasons.  I feel dreadfully about the affair, for I was expecting a good deal of enjoyment in their society.”

“They seem very intelligent and agreeable people; but I can’t doubt Sister Arguseye’s positive assertion.  A minister’s wife couldn’t lie,” said the elder lady, in a tone that showed deep conviction of an unpleasant truth.  “There is but one way to find out; to go and state the facts, and have the truth elicited.”