“Yes, that’s what I mean. Well, Mr. Carleton got tired of that stilted kind of an attitude⁠—or, at least, she thought he did. I don’t know, I’m sure, but she was possessed with a notion that he cared for some other girl⁠—someone of the clinging rosebud sort.”

“Do you know this?” asked Mrs. Markham; “I mean, do you know that Maddy thought this?”

“Yes, I know it,” asserted Kitty, with a wag of her wise little head. “I tried to persuade her that no clinging rosebud could rival a tall, proud lily, but she thoroughly believed there was someone else.”

“But Mr. Carleton was to marry her,” said Mrs. Markham. “I can’t believe he would do that if he loved another.”