ve a good time."

"At her age?"

"Havin' a good time ain't a matter o' age," said Joshua. "It's a matter o'
bein' willin' to have a good time."

Lucinda screwed her face up mightily.

"If I was sure she'd be gone for a week," she said, "I'd go a-visitin'
myself."

"She'll be gone a week," said Joshua; and the manner and matter of his
speech were both those of a prophet.

Then he went out and the door slammed to behind him.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - AUNT MARY ENTRAPPED

Aunt Mary's arrival in the city just coincided with the arrival of that
day's five o'clock. Five o'clock in early June is very bright daylight,
therefore she was rather bewildered when the train pulled up in the
darkness and electricity of the station's confusion. The change from
sunlight to smoke blinded her somewhat and the view from the car window
did not restore her equanimity. When the porter, to whom she had been
discreetly recommended by Joshua, came for her bags, she felt woefully
distressed and not at all like her usual self.

"Oh, do I have to get out?" she said. "I ain't been in this place for
twenty-five years, and I was to be met."

The porter's grin hovered comfortingly over her head.

"You can stay here jus' 's long as you like, ma'am," he yelled, in the
voice of a train dispatcher. "I'll send your friends in when they
inquiahs."

Aunt Mary eyed him gratefully, and gave him the nickel which she had been
carefully holding in her hand for the last hour.

Then she looked up, and saw Jack!

A perfectly splendid Jack, in resplendent attire, handsome, beaming, with
a big bouquet of violets in his hand!

"For you, Aunt Mary," he said, and dropped them into her lap, and hugged
her fervently. She clung to him with a cling that forgot the immediate
past, disinheriting and all. Oh! she was so glad to see him!

The porter approached with a beneficent look.

"Has he taken good care of you, Aunt Mary?" Jack asked, as the man
gathered up the things and they started to leave the car.

"Yes, indeed," Aunt Mary declared.

So Jack gave the porter a dollar.

Then they left the train.

"I was so worried," Aunt Mary said, as she went along the platform hanging
on her nephew's arm. "I thought you'd met with an accident."

"I couldn't get on until the rest got off," he said, gazing down on her
with a smile; "but I was on hand, all right. My, but it's good to think
that you're here, Aunt Mary! Maybe you think that I don't appreciate