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ibe and I have suffered some undeserved vicissitudes of late." "I'm sorry to hear that. Of course you must have three hundred dollars to begin with." "By the way, am I Mrs. or Miss?" "You must know best as to----" "I mean me in the part of your aunt." "Oh, you're neither Miss nor Mrs." "_Really!_" "I mean, you're married, but you have a title." "That will come more expensive. A person of title should have a diamond guard for her wedding-ring. You _feel_ that, don't you?" "Now you speak of it, I do." "Would you like her to wear a cap for indoors?" "Sounds as if she were a parlormaid----" "Not at all. I'm sure a proper Scotch aunt would wear a cap." "Mine's a proper Scotch aunt, and she doesn't. She's about forty, but she looks twenty-five. Nobody would believe she was anybody's aunt." "But you want everybody to believe I'm yours?" "Oh, have a cap by all means." "It should be real lace." "Buy it." "And another to change with." "Buy that too. Get a dozen if you like." "Thanks, I will. I believe you just said the engagement dates from to-day?" "Rather. I was going to tell you, I must have an aunt by this evening. She arrives from Scotland, you know." "With her dog. _That's_ easy." "I hope the girls like dogs." "They do if they're nice girls." "They're enchanting girls, one English, one American. I adore both: that's why I'm a desperate man where an aunt's concerned. To produce an aunt is my one hope of enjoying their society on the motor-boat trip I wrote you about. I wouldn't do this thing if I weren't desperate, and even desperate as I am, I wouldn't do it if I couldn't have got an all-right kind of aunt, an aunt that--that----" "That an unimpeachable American Consul could vouch for. I assure you, Nephew, you ought to think of a woman like me as of--of a ram caught in the bushes." "I'm willing to think of you in that way, if it's not offensive. The Consul didn't go into particulars----" "That was unnecessary." "Perhaps. Everything's settled, then. I'll count you out five hundred dollars in gulden. Buy what you choose--so long as it's aunt-like. I'll meet your train at--we'll say seven, the Beurs Station." "I understand. I'll be there with Tibe and our luggage. But you haven't told me your name yet. I _signed_ my letter to you, Mary Milton. _You_ cautiously----" "Ronald L. Starr is your nephew's name. Lady MacNairne is my aunt's." I came very near c
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