"Now we'll talk!" said Julia, when she had brought him back to the library fire again, and they were seated before it. "Don't you want to smoke?" He shook his head dismally, having no heart for what she proposed. "Well, then," she said briskly, but a little ruefully, "let's get to the bottom of things. Just what did you mean you had 'in black and white' in your pocket?"
Slowly Noble drew forth the historic copy of The North End Daily Oriole; and with face averted, placed it in her extended hand.
"What in the world!" she exclaimed, unfolding it; and then as its title and statement of ownership came into view, "Oh, yes! I see. Aunt Carrie wrote me that Uncle Joseph had given Herbert a printing-press. I suppose Herbert's the editor?"
"And that Rooter boy," Noble said sadly. "I think maybe your little niece Florence has something to do with it, too."
"'Something' to do with it? She usually has all to do with anything she gets hold of! But what's it got to do with me?"
"You'll see!" he prophesied accurately.
She began to read, laughing at some of the items as she went along; then suddenly she became rigid, holding the small journal before her in a transfixed hand.
"Oh!" she cried. "Oh!"
"That's--that's what--I meant," Noble explained.
Julia's eyes grew dangerous. "The little fiends!" she cried. "Oh, really, this is a long-suffering family, but it's time these outrages were stopped!"
She jumped up. "Isn't it frightful?" she demanded of Noble.
"Yes, it is," he said, with a dismal fervour. "Nobody knows that better than I do, Julia!"
"I mean this!" she cried, extending the Oriole toward him with a vigorous gesture. "I mean this dreadful story about poor Mr. Crum!"
"But it's true," he said.
"Noble Dill!"
"Julia?"
"Do you dare to say you believed it?"
He sprang up. "It isn't true?"
"Not one word of it! I told you Mr. Crum is only twenty-six. He hasn't been out of college more than three or four years, and it's the most terrible slander to say he's ever been married at all!"
Noble dropped back into his chair of misery. "I thought you meant it wasn't true."
"I've just told you there isn't one word of tr----"
"But you're--engaged," Noble gulped. "You're engaged to him, Julia!"