s according to new ideas which means happiness for all.
Father-in-law and the whiskered friend are born for each other. They are
affinities, and soul-mates, and everything. I saw it at the first glance.
We'll get them a little cottage off somewhere beyond the odor of onions,
and they can revel in liver and pipes to their hearts' content."

"Impossible! Whiskers has a wife of his own."

"What?" Eveley was much disconcerted. "Well, maybe she will get a divorce
so her husband can marry your father--I mean--maybe it won't stick, you
know."

"It's been sticking for forty years, and I suppose it will go on forever.
You see she doesn't have him around much and so she probably forgets how
he is. He is always out with father, and she is asleep when he gets
home."

"Well, don't worry about it. He had no business being married, for it was
a lovely plan--but it can't be helped now. Never mind."

"Listen," said Mrs. Severs suddenly. "Hear the sizzling. That's onions.
Didn't I tell you? I was going to have chicken croquettes and creamed
peas, with lettuce salad and fruit jello. But how can Dody and I sit down
to a decent meal with the whole house reeking with tobacco and onions?"

"Never mind, dear. We'll find the adjustment in time. Just try to be
patient."

For another night, and another day, Eveley puzzled and pondered--during
intervals of studying motor folders and reading advertisements. And the
next evening she found Mrs. Severs wringing her hands on the front porch.

"What is it?" she asked anxiously. "Did he kill himself?"

"No such luck," wailed Mrs. Severs. "He won't sleep in the bedroom
because he says it is too shady under all those vines, and he has moved
himself out into the living-room on the couch. He says there is no sense
having a house all cluttered up with rooms anyhow, he doesn't believe in
it. He says two rooms are enough for anybody. You can cook and eat in the
kitchen, and sit and sleep in the other room, and anything more is just
plain tony."

"I tell you what," suggested Eveley brightly. "Be mean to him. Be real
snippy and bossy. Don't let him have his own way. You just fire him right
back into the bedroom. Tell him you are head of this house, and he's got
to mind. Then he'll be only too glad to move out and then you'll have
some peace."

"I can't," moaned Mrs. Severs. "He's really kind of nice if he wasn't so
awful. I couldn't be mean to Dody's father. And Dody would not let me if
I wanted to."