and Howard will be able, with his professional knowledge of young men,
to correct the tendency to parental bias which is so hard to eliminate.
I am a fond father--fond, but I hope not foolish--and I trust we shall
be able to arrive at some conclusion."

"Then Jack and Maud can come and lunch with me," said Mrs. Graves; "you
won't want them, I am sure."

"You are a sorceress," said Mr. Sandys, "in the literary sense of
course--you divine my thought!"--but it was evident that he had much
looked forward to using a little diplomacy, and was somewhat
disappointed. He went on, "It will be very kind of you to have Jack,
but I think I shall want Maud's assistance. I have a great belief in
the penetration--in the observation of the feminine mind; more than I
have, if you will excuse my frankness, in their power of dealing with a
practical situation. Woman to interpret events, men to foresee
contingencies. Woman to indicate, man to predicate--perhaps I mean
predict! No matter; the thought, I think, is clear. Well, then, that is
settled! I claim Howard for luncheon--a very simple affair--and for a
walk; and by five o'clock we shall have settled this important matter,
I don't doubt."

"Very well," said Mrs. Graves; "but before you go, I must claim YOU for
a short stroll. I have something to tell you; and as Howard and Jack
are dying to get away to deprive some innocent creatures of the
privilege of life, they had better go and leave us."

That evening Howard had a long, quiet talk to his aunt. She said, "I am
not going to talk business. Our lawyer is coming over on Saturday, and
you had better get all the details from him. You must just go round the
place with him, and see if there is anything you would like to see
altered. It will be an immense comfort to put all that in your hands.
Mind, dear boy," she said, "I want you to begin at once. I shall be
ready to do whatever is necessary." Then she went on in a different
strain. "But there is one other thing I want to say now, and that is
that I should above all things like to see you married--don't, by the
way, fall in love with dear Jane, who worships the ground you tread on!
I have been observing you, and I feel little doubt that marriage is
what you most need. I don't expect it has been in your mind at all!
Perhaps you have not had enough to marry on, but I am not sorry for
that, for a special reason; and I think, too, that men who have the
care of boys and young men have thei