"I guess I understand well enough how you feel," he began humbly. "But Laura Lou loved me, and didn't love Hayes; that's about the only answer. Anyhow, I've told you I mean to pay back that loan as soon as ever I can. I've got the promise of a salary of fifteen hundred dollars, and I'm going to get right to work earning it, and as much over it as I can; and every cent I can put by each month will go to paying off Hayes. You couldn't seriously expect Laura Lou and me to let a thousand dollars separate us, could you?"

Mrs. Tracy replied, obliquely, that she supposed he knew by this time what his own folks intended to do for him; and this brought Vance up with a jerk, for he had not yet told his parents of his marriage. He stood before Mrs. Tracy flushed and irresolute while she added: "I guess a thousand dollars isn't the mountain to them it is to me. But maybe they don't fancy your getting married so young."

"I—I haven't heard yet," Vance stammered, and she said, evidently perceiving her advantage, and enjoying the chance to exercise a grim magnanimity: "Well, I guess you and Laura Lou'd better stay here till you hear what your family mean to do."

Vance and Laura Lou knew she was secretly thankful to have them there. Upton's new job made it impossible for him to live at Paul's Landing, and his mother was nervous alone in the house, yet reluctant to leave because of her monthly allowance for the care of the Willows; so that, her resentment once expressed, she found it easier to keep the offenders than to send them away.