"It was August 23rd, and we've nothing later here than August 27th." Something leaped into his face.

"27th--23rd?
Then you're sure?
You know ?" She felt she scarce knew what--as if she might soon be pounced upon for some lurid connexion with a scandal.

It was the queerest of all sensations, for she had heard, she had read, of these things, and the wealth of her intimacy with them at Cocker's might be supposed to have schooled and seasoned her.

This particular one that she had really quite lived with was, after all, an old story; yet what it had been before was dim and distant beside the touch under which she now winced.

Scandal ?--it had never been but a silly word.