“And what am I to do with all those young men?” asked Mrs. Easterfield mischievously.  She would have added, “And one of them your future husband?” But she remembered the coachman.

Olive laughed.  “They will annoy you less when I am not there.  If you will be so good as to ask your maid to pack up my belongings, I will send for my trunk.”  She glanced at the coachman.  “Would you mind taking a little walk with me along the road?”

“I shall be glad to do so,” said Mrs. Easterfield, getting out of the carriage.

“Now, my dear Mrs. Easterfield,” said Olive when they were some distance from the toll-gate and the house, “I am going to ask you to add to all your kindness one more favor for me.”

“That has such an ominous sound,” said Mrs. Easterfield, “that I am not disposed to promise beforehand.”

“It is about those three young men you mentioned.”

“I mentioned no number, and there are four.”

“In what I am going to ask of you one of them can be counted out.  He is not in the affair.  Only three are in this business.  Won’t you be so good as to decline them all for me?  I know that you can do it better than I can.  You have so much tact.  And you must have done the thing many a time, and I have not done it once.  I am very awkward; I don’t know how; and, to confess the truth, I have put myself into a pretty bad fix.”

“Upon my word,” cried Mrs. Easterfield, “that is a pretty thing for one woman to ask of another!

“I know it is,” said Olive, “and I would not ask it of anybody but the truest friend—­of no one but you.  But you see how difficult it is for me to attend to it.  And it must be done.  I have given up all idea of marrying, I am going to stay here, and when my father comes with his young lady he will find me settled and fixed, and he and she will have nothing to do with making plans for me.  Now, dear Mrs. Easterfield, I know you will do this favor for me, and let me say that I wish you would be particularly gentle and pleasant in speaking to Mr. Locker.  I think he is really a very kind and considerate young man.  He certainly showed himself that way.  I know you can talk so nicely to him that perhaps he will not mind very much.  As for Mr. Du Brant, you can tell him plainly that I have carefully considered his proposition—­and that is the exact truth—­and that I find it will be wise for me not to accept it.  He is a man of affairs, and will understand that I have given him a straightforward, practical answer, and he will be satisfied.  You must not be sharp with Mr. Hemphill, as I know you will be inclined to be.  Please remember that I was once in love with him, and respect my feelings as well as his.  Besides, he is good, and he is in earnest, and he deserves fair treatment.  I am sorry that I have worried you about him, and I will tell you now that I have found out he would not do at all.  I found it out this morning when I was talking to him about books.  His mind is neither broad nor cultivated.”