that religious fellows were hard. And out of this conviction there grew,
in time, her own resolve. Well, then, she would be hard, too. She would
avoid seeing or having any communication with Dr. Vivian, and if he
dared to repeat _anything_, she would simply laugh it all aside. She
would deny that she ever said any such preposterous thing in her life.
She would _have_ to do that; her duty to others demanded it.... And what
could he do then? It would merely be his word against hers, Miss Heth's.
He would be left in a most unpleasant position....

In this position V. Vivian remained while Carlisle slept. However, the
new day, as it pleasantly proved, brought no need for such severe
measures. Many rings at doorbell and telephone Cally's strained ears
heard between getting up and bedtime, but the hard ring of Nemesis was
never among them. All day silence brooded unbroken in the direction of
the Dabney House. And when another morning wore to evening, and no heart
brake, and yet another and another, there descended again upon the girl
the peaceful sense of re-won security....

In these days the House of Heth was in a continual bustle. On Tuesday
next--a week to a day from the Settlement meeting--the ladies were to
depart for New York, Hugo, and Europe, the Trousseau and the
Announcement, to return no more till mid-September. On the same day the
titular master of the house was to go off for a five days' fishing
junket, thence flying to New York for the "seeing off," and soon
thereafter starting out for a three weeks' business trip to the Far
West. Along with the various domestic problems raised by this programme,
there were all the routine duties of the season to be attended to.
Cold-weather things must still be salted down with camphor balls and
packed away; costly pictures provided with muslin wrappers; drawing-room
furniture with linen slip-covers; rooms cleaned and locked up, doors and