"Seen the paper?" inquired Tom.
"Is it in the paper?" asked Oliver, and Malcolm pulled the horrible thing from beneath my elbow and thrust it into Oliver's hands. I watched Oliver closely. I saw the slow, dark colour spread over his face and across that cloudless brow of his. I saw his eyes travel once through the article and then go back and retrace each painful word of it again. When he had satisfied himself he laid the paper down and looked up.
"Well, it's true," he said, and six pairs of eyes glowered upon him.
"What explanation have you for this—step of yours?" asked Tom.
Oliver's confidence fell away a little. He picked off a bit of lint from the sleeve of his coat.
"Oh, why hash the whole thing over?" he said. "I'm married all right. What's the use—of course I'm sorry it is in the paper."
"Sorry!" sniffed Ruth.
"But I didn't let it out. Hang it all," he broke off, "you bury me in a hole like that—she was the only girl worth looking at. I didn't want to go to Glennings Falls. It was your plan."
"You had had six other positions before we resorted to Glennings Falls," fired Alec.
Oliver flushed.