d trollop, the main thing being to get her and
her debased old Don Juan into a legal married state, even if they did
insist on going in with a brass band. Julia said she was glad I took it
this way.

"She came back to my room again that night, after her hair was down. The
only really human thing this lady ever did, so far as I could discover,
was to put some of this magic remedy on her hair that restores the
natural colour if the natural colour happened to be what this remedy
restores it to. Any way, she now wanted to know if I thought it was right
for Aunt Mollie to continue to reside there in that house between now and
the time when they would be lawful man and wife. I said no; I didn't
think it was right. I thought it was a monstrous infamy and an affront
to public morals; but mebbe we better resolve to ignore it and plow a
straight furrow, without stopping to pull weeds. She sadly said she
supposed I was right.

"So Uncle Henry hitched up his fat white horse to the buggy, and him and
Aunt Mollie drove round the country for three days, inviting folks to
their wedding. Aunt Mollie had the time of her life. It seemed as if
there wasn't no way whatever to get a sense of shame into that brazen old
hussy. And when this job was done she got busy with her trousseau, which
consisted of a bridge gown in blue organdie, and a pair of high white
shoes. She didn't know what a bridge gown was for, but she liked the
looks of one in a pattern book and sent down to Red Gap for Miss
Gunslaugh to bring up the stuff and make it. And she'd always had this
secret yearning for a pair of high white shoes; so they come up, too.

"Furthermore, Aunt Mollie had read the city paper for years and knew
about wedding breakfasts; so she was bound to have one of those. It
looked like a good time was going to be had by all present except the
lady who started it. Mrs. Julia was more malignantly scandalized by these
festal preparations than she had been by the original crime; but she had
to go through with it now.

"The date had been set and we was within three days of it when Aunt
Mollie postponed it three days more because Dave Pickens couldn't be
there until this later day. Mrs. Julia made a violent protest, because
she had made her plans to leave for larger fields of crime; but Aunt
Mollie was stubborn. She said Dave Pickens was one of the oldest
neighbours and she wouldn't have a wedding he couldn't attend; and
besides, marriage was a serious s