d a soft little chuckle. "I reckin I
would have made the effort, too, only it seemed like that old nigger
woman of yours appeared to have prior rights in the matter, and knowin'
her disposition I was kind of skeered to advance the suggestion.'"

"It was about Aunt Sharley that I came to see you to-day, Judge Priest."

"That so? I had a visit from her here the other day."

"What other day?" she asked, startled.

"Oh, it must have been a matter of three weeks ago--fully. Shall I tell
you whut she come to see me about? You'll laugh when you hear it. It
tickled me right smartly at the time. She wanted to know what I knew
about this here young Mr. Winslow--yes, that was it. She said all the
visible signs p'inted to a serious affair 'twixt you two young people,
and she said before it went any further she wanted to know ef he was the
kind of a young man to be gittin' hisself engaged to a member of the
Dabney family, and she wanted to know ef his folks were the real quality
folks and not this here codfish aristocracy: That was the very term she
used--'codfish aristocracy.' Well, I was able to reasshore her. You see,
honey, I'd took it on myself to do a little inquirin' round about Mr.
Winslow on my own responsibility--not that I wanted to be pryin' into
your business and not because I aimed to be tryin' to come between you
and the young man ef I wasn't altogether satisfied with the accounts I
got of him, but because I loved you and wanted to make sure in my own
mind that Tom Dabney's child wasn't makin' the wrong choice. You
understand, don't you? You see, ez fur back ez a month and a half ago,
or mebbe even further back than that, I was kind of given to understand
that you and this young man were gittin' deeply interested in each
other."

"Why, how could you?" inquired Emmy Lou. "We weren't even engaged then.
Who could have circulated such a report about us?"

"The very first time I seen you two young folks walkin' up Franklin
Street together you both were circulatin' it," he said, chuckling again.
"You may not 'a' knowed it, but you were. I may be gittin' old, but my
eyesight ain't entirely failed up on me yit--I could read the signs when
I was still half a block away frum you. It was right after that that I
started my own little private investigation. So you see I was qualified
to reasshore Aunt Sharley. I told her all the available information on
the subject proved the young gentleman in question was not only a mighty