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!"