Of course the neighbourhood gloated; and the rustic convention was set aside in Rose\'s favour, and all the shame of her elopement heaped on Reuben.

"No w?onder as she cudn\'t stick to him—hard, queer chap as he be."

"And thirty year older nor she, besides."

"Young Handshut wur a pr?aper lad, and valiant. I ?un\'t surprised as she\'d rather have un wudout a penny than old Ben wud all his gold."

"And he ?un\'t got much o\' that now, nuther. They say as he\'ll be bust by next fall."

Heads were shaken in triumphant commiseration, and the stones which according to all decent tradition should have been flung at Rose, hurtled round her husband instead.

Far away at Cheat Land, Alice Jury watched them fall—Alice Jury five years older than when she had struggled with Boarzell for Reuben before he married Rose. Her parents thought he had treated her badly, even though they did not know of the evening when she had humbled herself to plead for her happiness and his. She remembered that moment uneasily—it hurt her pride. But she could not regret having used her most desperate effort to win him, and she felt sure that he had understood her motive and realised that it was for him as well as for her that she had spoken.

Now, when she ............