"I see he gave you a ring," Rupert remarked, glancing at the twinkling diamond on Lily's finger. "I'm only wearing it because it won't come off." "Why did you put it on in the first place?" Lily sighed. "I didn't--Caleb did." "I see. We've come full circle, Lily--back to my original question, which you so neatly evaded. Do you love Caleb Halliday?" Lily lowered her head. "Yes," she answered weakly. "I think about him all the time, and I get cold chills and hot flashes, just like when I had the flu. I even feel a little bit sick to my stomach." "It's love, all right," Rupert said. He sounded very worldly wise for a schoolmaster who had only now gotten around to considering marriage. "And you don't want to marry him because you think you might be like your mother?" Lily wanted to make her case by explaining how hot-blooded and wanton she was with Caleb, but it wouldn't be delicate to speak too specifically of such things with a man. "It's more than that," she said. "I've got my heart set on a place of my own, and on finding my sisters. Caleb wants to leave the army and go back to Pennsylvania to live. Marrying him would change the whole course of my life." "Love often does that." Lily"