ou, Mrs. Carter?" he asked,
with a twinkle that might have been a spark in his eyes, and just at
that moment another awful thing happened. Aunt Adeline came out on the
front porch and said in the most frozen tone of voice:

"Mary, I wish to speak to you in the house," and then walked back
through the front door without even looking in Judge Wade's direction,
though he had waved his hat with one of his mother's own smiles when he
had seen her before I did. One of my most impossible habits is, when
there is nothing else to do I laugh. I did it then and it saved the day,
for we both laughed into each others eyes a second time, and before we
realized it we were within whispering distance.

"No, I don't--don't--need any dog," I said softly, hardly glancing out
from under my lashes because I was afraid to risk looking straight at
him again so soon. I could fairly feel Aunt Adeline's eyes boring into
my back.

"It would take the hydra-headed monster of--may I bring my mother to
call on you and the--Mrs. Henderson?" he asked and poured the wonder
smile all over me. Again I almost caught my breath.

"I do wish you would, Aunt Adeline is so fond of Mrs. Wade!" I said in a
positive flutter that I hope he didn't see, but I am afraid he did, for
he hesitated as if he wanted to say something to calm me, then bowed
mercifully and went on down the street. He didn't put on the hat he had
held in his hand all the while he stood by the fence until he had looked
back and bowed again. Then I felt still more fluttered as I went into
the house, but I received the third cold plunge of the day when I
reached the front hall.

"Mary," said Aunt Adeline in a voice that sounded as if it had been
buried and never resurrected, "if you are going to continue in such an
unseemly course of conduct I hope you will remove your mourning, which
is an empty mockery and an insult to my own widowhood."

"Yes, Aunt Adeline, I'll go take it off this very minute," I heard
myself answer her airily to my own astonishment. I might have known that
if I ever got one of those smiles it would go to my head! Without
another word I sailed into my room and closed the door softly.

I wonder if God could have realized what a tender thing He was leaving
exposed to life in the garden of the world after He had finished making
a woman? Traditionally, we are created out of rose-leaves and star-dust
and the harmony of the winds, but we need a steel-chain netting to fend
us.