r mythical husband to everybody, as she did to me, I don't
wonder Aunt Patsy thought I was in danger."

"Poor old woman," said Annie, looking down at the floor, "I am so glad
that we helped her to die happy."

"As she was obliged to anticipate the truth," said Lawrence, "in order
to derive any comfort from it, I am glad she did it. But although I am
delighted, more than my words can tell you, to take the place of your
Mr Null, you must not expect me to have any of his attributes."

"Now just listen to me, sir," said Annie. "I don't want you to say one
word against Mr Null. If it had not been for that good Freddy, things
would have been very different from what they are now. If you care for
me at all, you owe me entirely to Freddy Null."

"Entirely?" asked Lawrence.

"Of course I mean in regard to opportunities of finding out things and
saying them. If Aunt Keswick had supposed I was only Annie Peyton, she
would not have allowed Mr Croft to interfere with her plans for Junius
and me. I expected Mr Null to be of service to me, but no one could
have imagined that he would have brought about anything like this."

"Blessed be Null!" exclaimed Lawrence.

Annie asked him to please to be more careful, for how did he know that
one of the servants might not be sweeping the front porch, and of
course, they would look in at the windows.

"But, my dear child," said Lawrence, pushing back his chair to a
prudent distance, "we must seriously consider this Null business. We
shall have to inform your aunt of the present state of affairs, and
before we do that, we must explain what sort of person Frederick Null,
Esquire, really was--I am not willing to admit that he exists, even as
a myth."

"Oh dear! oh dear!" exclaimed Annie. "We shall have a dreadful time!
When Aunt Keswick knows that there never was any Mr Null, and then
hears that you and I are engaged, it will throw her into the most
dreadful state of mind that she has ever been in, in her life; and
father has told me of some of the awful family earthquakes that Aunt
Keswick has brought about, when things went wrong with her."

"We must be very cautious," said Lawrence, "and neither of us must say
a word, or do anything that may arouse her suspicions, until we have
settled upon the best possible method of making the facts known to
her. The case is indeed a complicated one."

"And what makes it more so," said Annie, "is Aunt Keswick's belief
that you are in love with Mis