inued the old gentleman.
'I knew her; I had studied her carefully. Like most boys of my age, I
was a deep-minded student of human nature, and could see through and
through people.'

"'Of course,' laughed Mildred. 'I have known boys just like that.'

"'But I was about right in regard to Rebecca,' said her grandfather. 'I
kept on talking to her, and it was not long before she agreed to let me
bring Mr. Bridges to see her--they were not acquainted. I had no trouble
with him, for he was always glad to know pretty girls, and he had seen
Rebecca. There never was a piece of match-making which succeeded better
than that, and it delighted me to act as prompter of the play, while
those two were the actors, and I was also the author of the piece.'

"'Grandpa,' said Mildred, 'don't you think all that was rather wrong?'

"'I did not think so then,' he answered, 'and I am not sure I think so
now; for really they were very well suited to each other, and there did
seem to be danger that the man might marry my Aunt Amanda, and that, as
it seemed to me then, and seems to me now, would have been a deplorable
thing.' ('If you had known a little more, you scheming youngster,' said
Miss Amanda, 'you would have understood that there was not the least
danger of anything of the kind--that is to say, I am not _sure_ there
was any danger.') 'It was not long after these two people became
acquainted before I had additional cause for congratulating myself that
I had done a wise and prudent thing. Bridges came to see my Aunt Amanda
every afternoon, just the same as he had been in the habit of doing, and
yet he spent nearly every evening with Rebecca; and that proved to me he
was not a fit lover for my Aunt Amanda, no matter how you looked at it.'

"'But the young girl,' said Mildred. 'Didn't you think he was also too
fickle for her?'

"'Oh, no,' said the old gentleman; 'I was quite positive that Rebecca
could manage him when she got him. She would make him walk straight. I
knew her; she was a great girl. Every morning I went to see her to
inquire how things were coming on, and she told me one day that
Mr. Bridges had proposed to her, and that she had accepted him, and
that it was of no use to say anything about it to her father, because
he would be sure to be dead set against it. Her mother was not living,
and she kept house for her father, who was a doctor, and he had often
said he would not let her marry anybody who would not come there and
l