"It's not true!" Deirdre gasped, turning away from her. "Who told you?"
"Mrs. Ross, it was," Mrs. Cameron replied. "She was over the other day ... she and Jess. She said the boys had heard at the sales."
"They tell me," Deirdre's eyes met Mrs. Cameron's, and her voice ran as quietly as hers, "that Davey's to marry Jess Ross."
"Oh," Mrs. Cameron exclaimed, distressfully, "I don't know! They say so, but Davey—"
Her face worked pitifully.
"He's so strange. I don't understand him at all, Deirdre. He's so changed. I can't help him ... can't do anything for him. He seems to have become a man quite suddenly, and—"
She put her hands over her eyes and began to cry.
Deirdre bent over her.
"Don't! Don't cry, Mrs. Cameron, dear," she whispered, kissing her.
"It's so foolish," Mary Cameron said tremulously, as if asking forbearance, "but my heart's just breaking to see Davey like he is! I have managed to keep his father from knowing, so far, but I'm afraid—I daren't think what will happen when he knows."