u up," said Annie, "you must be tired."

"I am not tired," said Roberta, "for every particle of fatigue has flown
away." And with this she made Annie sit down beside her on the lounge.
"Now you must tell me what this means," she said. "Can it be that your
aunt does not know about it?"

"Indeed, she does not," said Annie. "I married Freddy Null in New York,
for reasons which we need not talk of now, for that matter is all past
and gone; but when I came here, I found almost immediately, that he
would be more necessary to me in this house than anywhere else."

"I cannot imagine," said Roberta, "why a gaseous husband should be
necessary to you here."

"It is not a very easy thing to explain," said the other, "that is, it
is easy enough, but--"

"Oh," said Roberta, catching the reason of her companion's hesitation,
"I don't think you ought to object to tell me your reason. Does it
relate to your cousin Junius?"

"Well," said Annie, "not altogether, and not so much to him as to my
aunt." "I think I see," said Roberta. "A marriage between you two would
suit her very well. Are you afraid that she would try to force him on
you?"

"Oh, no;" said Annie, "that would be bad enough, but it would not be so
embarrassing, and so dreadfully unpleasant, as forcing me on him, and
that is what aunt wants to do. And you can easily see that, in that
case, I could not stay in this house at all. I scarcely know my cousin
as a man, my strongest recollection of him being that of a big and very
nice boy, who used to climb up in the apple-trees to get me apples, and
then come down to the very lowest branch where he could drop the ripest
ones right into my apron, and not bruise them. But, even if I had been
acquainted with him all these years, and liked him ever so much, I
couldn't stay here and have aunt make him take me, whether he wanted
to, or not. And, unless you knew my aunt very well, you could not
conceive how unscrupulously straightforward she is in carrying out her
plans."

"And so," said Roberta, "you have quite baffled her by this little ruse
of a marriage."

"Not altogether," said Annie with a smile, "for she vows she is going to
get me divorced from Mr Null."

"That is funnier than the rest of it," said Roberta, laughing. And they
both laughed together, but in a subdued way, so as not to attract the
attention of the old lady below stairs. "And now, you see," said Annie,
"why I must be Mrs Null while I stay here. And you wi