And the time might come when her parson needed an influential friend on the committee and in the Regular society.
The news of the engagement between Captain Nat Hammond and Grace Van Horne, told by Dr.Parker to one or two of his patients, spread through Trumet like measles through a family of small children.

Didama Rogers learned it, so did Lavinia Pepper, and after that it might as well have been printed on the walls for all to read.

It was talked over and gossiped about in every household from the lighthouse keeper's family to that of George Washington Cash, who lived in the one-room hovel in the woods near the Wellmouth line, and was a person of distinction, in his way, being the sole negro in the county.

And whenever it was discussed it was considered a fine thing for both parties concerned.

Almost everyone said it was precisely what they expected.
Annabel Daniels and her father had not expected it.