ght, I'll physic it out of her
and hang her hide on the bushes, inside out, _salted_." He added,
hastily: "In the meantime, I hope you haven't fared too badly in
this mildewed jail?"

"Thank you, no," Alicia said demurely. "We have fared very well."

"Glad to hear it." The big man looked at her with the frank pleasure
all masculinity evinces at sight of Alicia. And then he asked,
abruptly:

"Has Jelnik called yet?--gray house on the other side of you.--No? I
dare say he's off on one of his prowls then. A bit of a lunatic, but
a very charming fellow, Jelnik, though your amiable predecessor,
Miss Smith, chose to consider him a sort of outlawed tom-cat, and
warned him off with a shot-gun." The doctor paused, stroked his
beard, and regarded me earnestly.

"Having heired the old girl's domain, I hope you won't consider it
necessary to heir her--er--prejudices," he remarked hopefully. "Bad
lot, Sophronisba. Very bad!"

"Mrs. Scarlett," I reminded him gently, "was my relative only by
marriage."

"Cousin of mine; mother's relative. Not on speaking-, only on
fighting-terms," he interjected.

I remembered what Uncle Adam had told us; and I'm afraid I eyed him
a bit harder than politeness warranted.

"I discern by your eye, Miss Smith," said the doctor, "that you
think a blood relation is more likely to walk in that old demon's
footsteps than an outsider is. My dear lady, under ordinary
circumstances and with _human_ neighbors, I'm as meek as Moses; I am
a lamb, a veritable lamb! As for your aunt, she was a man-eating,
saber-toothed tigress!"

"Not my aunt, Doctor Geddes; your cousin."

"Your aunt-by-marriage. It's just as bad. Anyhow, she preferred you
to any of us, didn't she?"

"Perhaps because she didn't know _me_."

"Have it so. _But_ she did whatever she did because she was an old
devil of a woman, and an old devil of a woman can give points to
Satan. If," cried the doctor, vehemently, "there is one great reason
why a man should be glad he's a man, it is because he will never
live to be an old woman!"

"That depends upon one's point of view," I told him firmly. "Now,
I'm glad I'm a woman because I shall never live to be an old man.
Old ladies are far, far nicer. Have you ever known an old lady who
thought herself captivating? Have you ever known any old man who
didn't think he could be if he wished?"

"Yes," shouted the doctor, "and no!--in both cases! There is no sex
in fools. There is no age limit, eit