"You--you wanted me to know first, did you?" says she, with a break in
her shrill, cackly voice. "Me?"

"I thought it only right," says Westy. "You're Doris's mother, you know,
and----"

"Good boy!" says she, reachin' out after one of his hands and pattin'
it. "I'm glad you did too. Doris, she's got too fine for her old
mother. That ain't so much her fault as it is mine, I expect. I'm kind
of rough, and a good deal behind the times. I ain't kept up, not even
the way Leo has. But then, I ain't had the chance. I've been at home,
lookin' after the boys and--and Doris. I saw she was gettin' spoiled;
but I didn't have the heart to bring her home and stop it. She's young,
though. She'll get over it. You'll help her. Oh, I know about you. Quite
a young swell, you are; but I guess you're all right. And I'm glad for
Doris. Maybe too, she'll find out some day that her rough old mother,
who got left so far behind, thinks a lot of her still. You--you'll tell
her as much some time perhaps. Won't you?"

Say, take it from me, I was so misty in the eyes about then, and so
choky under my collar, that I couldn't have done it myself. But Westy
did. There's a heap more to him than shows on the outside.

"Mrs. Ull," says he, "I shall tell Doris all of that, and much more. And
I'm sure that both of us are going to be very fond of you. And if you
don't mind, I'm going to begin now to call you Mother."

Yes, I was gettin' a little uneasy at that stage. I hadn't counted on
bein' let in for quite such a close fam'ly scene. And when the two girls
showed up with their arms locked about each other, and Vee leads Doris
up to Mother Ull, and they goes to a three-cornered clinch, sobbin' on
one another's shoulder--well, I faded.

On the way home I was struck by a sudden thought that trickled all the
way down my spine like a splinter of ice. "If I ever had the luck to get
that far," thinks I, "would I have to go through any such an act with
Aunty? Hel-lup, Hubert! Hel-lup!"

CHAPTER VIII

SOME GUESSES ON RUBY

Well, I'm shocked at Ruby, that's all. Also I'm beginnin' to suspicion I
ain't such a human-nature dope artist as I thought, for I've made at
least three fruity forecasts on Ruby, and the returns are still comin'
in.

My first frame-up was natural enough. When this goose-necked young
female with the far-away look in her eyes appeared as No. 7 in our
batt'ry of lady typists, and I heard Mr. Robert havin' a seance tryin'
to