clever, up-standin', manly young feller, but that where he hailed from
he belonged to the quality folks, which really was the p'int she seemed
most anxious about. That's whut I told her, and I was monstrous glad to
be able to tell her. A stranger might have thought it was pure impudence
on her part, but of course we both know, you and me, whut was in the
back part of her old kinky head. And when I'd got done tellin' her she
went down the street from here with her head throwed away back, singin'
till you could 'a' heard her half a mile off, I reckin."

"I never guessed it. She never told me she'd been to see you. And you
didn't tell me, either, when you came the other night to wish me joy,
Judge."

"I kind of figgered she wanted the matter treated confidential,"
explained Judge Priest. "So I respected whut I took to be her wishes in
the matter. But wasn't it fur all the world jest like that old black
woman?"

"Yes, it was just like her," agreed Emmy Lou, her face shadowed with
deepening distress. "And because it was just like her and because I know
now better than ever before how much she really loves me, those things
make it all the harder to tell you what I came here to tell you--make it
all the harder for me to decide what I should do and to ask your advice
before I do decide."

"Oh, I reckin it can't be so serious ez all that," said Judge Priest
comfortingly. "Betwixt us we oughter be able to find a way out of the
difficulty, whutever it is. S'pose, honey, you start in at the beginnin'
and give me all the facts in the matter that's worryin' you."

She started then and, though her voice broke several times, she kept on
until she came to the end of her tragic little recital. To Emmy Lou it
was very tragic indeed.

"So you see, Judge Priest, just how it is," she stated at the
conclusion. "From both sides I am catching the brunt of the whole thing.
Aunt Sharley won't budge an inch from the attitude she's taken, and
neither will Harvey budge an inch. He says she must go; she tells me
every day she won't go. This has been going on for a week now and I'm
almost distracted. At what should be the happiest time in a girl's life
I'm being made terribly unhappy. Why, it breaks my heart every time I
look at her. I know how much we owe her--I know I can never hope to
repay her for all she has done for me and my sister.

"But oh, Judge, I do want to be the right kind of wife to Harvey. All my
life long I mean to obey him a