nature of
this phase of youth. He had lived long enough to see so many blushing
girls transformed into matter-of-fact matrons that the inevitable end of
the business was already present to his mind. He was vastly relieved
that Lydia had a mother to understand her fancies, and upon his wife,
whom he would not have trusted to undertake the smallest business
transaction without his advice, he transferred, with a sigh of content,
the entire responsibility of wisely counseling their daughter. "Thank
the Lord, that's not my job!" he had often said about some knotty point
in the up-bringing of the children. Mrs. Emery had always answered that
she could not be too thankful for a "husband who was not a meddler."

The Judge now listened at the door to the conversation between the two
women with a grin of satisfaction.

"Why, my dear, what is there so terrible in having the handsomest and
most promising young man in Endbury devoted to you? You don't need to
marry him for years and years if you don't want to--or never, if you
don't like him enough." She laughed a little, teasingly, "Perhaps it's
all just our nonsense, and he never has thought of you in that way.
Maybe when he comes to see you he'll tell you about a beautiful girl in
Urbana or Cincinnati that he's engaged to--and _then_ what would your
silly father say?"

"Oh, if I could only think that," breathed Lydia, as though she had been
reprieved from a death sentence. "Of course! Father was just joking. But
he startled me so!"

"He was probably thinking of his horrid law business, darling. When a
big trial is on he wouldn't know me from Eve. He says _anything_ at such
times."

Judge Emery laughed noiselessly, and quite without resentment at this
wifely characterization.

Lydia went on: "It wasn't so much what he said, you know--as--oh, the
way he took it for granted--"

"Well, don't think about it any more, dear; just be your sweet natural
self when Paul comes to see you the first time--and don't let's talk any
more now. Mother gets tired so easily."

Lydia's remorseful outcry over having fatigued her mother seemed a good
occasion for Judge Emery's entrance into the room and for his
announcement. He felt that she would make an effort to control any
agitation she might feel, and indeed, beyond a startled gasp, she made
no comment on his news. Mrs. Emery herself was more obviously stirred to
emotion. "To-night? Why, I didn't think he'd be in town for several days
ye