She silenced him. "Let me tell you the rest. I loved him, and when he told me that he loved me and wanted me to marry him, it seemed the sweetest, most natural thing in the world. I suppose here you think will come in the dark plot of the simple rector's daughter, and the haughty Earl who thinks she is not good enough for his son and heir. It was not a bit like that. Lord and Lady Hazelden were adorable. They came and welcomed me with open arms, and Lord Hazelden said he had been planning it ever since we were little tots!
"John, it just seemed as though they could not do enough for us. Lady Hazelden was in deep mourning for her mother, so we decided not to announce our engagement for six months. Then in three months more we would marry. Every day the Hazeldens drove over with some beautiful plan for our happiness. They had one entire wing of the castle done over for us. Ellston came down often as he could."
Helen lapsed into silence, and sat staring into the night.
"Well, what then?" asked Zaidos, staring at the lovely, sorrowful face beside him. "Did he die?"
"No," said Helen haltingly. "We quarreled."
"Quarreled?" echoed Zaidos. "Quarreled after all that? I don't see how you could!"
"I don't see now, either," said Helen. "It was my fault. I should have made him make up with me."
"What was the fuss about?" asked Zaidos. He was intensely interested. He had never been so close to a real love affair before. Of course he had met a girl at one of the hops; the one he gave the collar emblem to. Zaidos couldn't think of her name, but he remembered that he had been pretty hard hit. He knew she was a pretty girl; funny he couldn't think of her name! It occurred to Zaidos that a fellow ought to know a girl's name anyhow if he was crazy over her. And he had been quite crazy over her for a whole evening. Had it bad! Anyhow, he was sure she was a blonde. That was proof that he remembered and suffered! But Helen was speaking.
"I hate to tell you," she said. "It seems so trivial now."
"Well, let's hear about it," said Zaidos. "Perhaps we can get hold of the chap and fix things up."