said, "are the relation who was 'too high and mighty'!"
Polly shook her head.

"No," she said, "I didn't want to be dependent."

"And you gave up all that," I exclaimed, "and worked at Hatchardson's,
just because you didn't want to be dependent!"

"I like my uncle-in-law very much," explained Polly, "but not my aunt.
So, it was no temptation. No more," she cried, looking at me as though
she were proud of me, "than it was to you."

In guilty haste I changed the subject. In other words, I kissed her. I
knew some day I would have to confess. But until we were safely married
that could wait. Before confessing I would make sure of her first. The
next day we announced our engagement and Polly consented that it should
be a short one. For, as I pointed out, already she had kept me waiting
thirty years. The newspapers dug up the fact that I had once been a
popular novelist, and the pictures they published of Polly proved her so
beautiful that, in congratulation, I received hundreds of telegrams. The
first one to arrive came from Cape May. It read:

My dear boy, your uncle elect sends his heartiest congratulations to
you and love to Polly. Don't make any plans until you hear from me--am
leaving to-night. FLETCHER FARRELL.

In terror Polly fled into my arms. Even when NOT in terror it was a
practice I strongly encouraged.

"We are lost!" she cried. "They will adopt us in spite of ourselves.
They will lock us up for life in Harbor Castle! I don't WANT to be
adopted. I want YOU! I want my little cottage!"

I assured her she should have her little cottage; I had already bought
it. And during the two weeks before the wedding, when I was not sitting
around Boston while Polly bought clothes, we refurnished it. Polly
furnished the library, chiefly with my own books, and "The Log of
the JOLLY POLLY." I furnished the kitchen. For a man cannot live on
honeysuckles alone. My future uncle-in-law was gentle but firm.

"You can't get away from the fact," he said, "that you will be my nephew,
whether you like it or not. So, be kind to an old man and let him give
the bride away and let her be married from Harbor Castle."

In her white and green High Flier car and all of her diamonds, Mrs.
Farrell called on Polly and begged the same boon. We were too happy to
see any one else dissatisfied; so though we had planned the quietest of
weddings, we gave consent. Somehow we survived it. But now we recall
it only as that terrible time when we w