"Ain't the road dustier 'n the path?" inquired Debby contradictorily. "My stars! I guess 't is. Well, now, what do you s'pose brought me up here this mornin'?"
Letty's eyes involuntarily sought the bag, whose concave sides flapped hungrily together; but she told her lie with cheerfulness. "I don't know."
"I guess ye don't. No, I ain't comin' in. I'm goin' over to Mis' Tolman's, to spend the day. I'm in hopes she's got b'iled dish. You look here!" She opened the bag, and searched portentously, the while Letty, in some unworthy interest, regarded the smooth, thick hair under her large poke-bonnet. Debby had an original fashion of coloring it; and this no one had suspected until her little grandson innocently revealed the secret. She rubbed it with a candle, in unconscious imitation of an actor's make-up, and then powdered it with soot from the kettle. "I believe to my soul she does!" said Letty to herself.
But Debby, breathing hard, had taken something from the bag, and was holding it out on the end of a knotted finger.
"There!" she said, "ain't that your'n? Vianna said 't was your engagement ring."
Letty flushed scarlet, and snatched the ring tremblingly. She gave an involuntary look at the barn, where David was whistling a merry stave.
"Oh, my!" she breathed. "Where'd you find it?"
"Well, that's the question!" returned Debby triumphantly. "Where'd ye lose it?"
But Letty had no mind to tell. She slipped the ring on her finger, and looked obstinate.
"Can't I get you somethin' to put in your bag?" she asked cannily. Debby was diverted, though only for the moment.