ge against the heavy
wooden rail of the balcony.

"Well, Romeo! I expect affairs have been marching with you and Juliet
or you wouldn't be hunting me up so promptly."

"See here, Aunt Ocky, I'm just tickled pink and all that, but are you
sure you ought to have done it?"

"Suggested the elopement?"

"N-no, of course not. That's all right. That's lovely. We are going
to take your advice and grab our happiness. What I'm fussing about is
the house business."

"Yes, you'd find something to fuss about, wouldn't you! I didn't
encounter any such obstinacy in Sheila, but women are much more
practical than men in every respect. When I told her I owned that
particular property and proposed to settle it on you jointly as a
wedding-gift, she yelped with joy. It's true that after that she began
to make polite gestures of remonstrance, but the yelp came first by a
good, wide margin! I'm glad one of you has some common-sense."

"I'm just as grateful as I can be, but--"

"Really, Copley, you're a downright nuisance. Let me tell you
something, my child. I've a great deal more money than your mother or
you or any one else around here has any idea of. I've made investments
in my time that would have turned a banker's hair gray, and never one
of them but brought me huge returns. That property is of negligible
value to me--how negligible you don't know--and yet it will be very
valuable to you and Sheila as a haven of security that you can call
your own. As a rich aunt, I have every legal and moral and ethical
right to give it to you--and as a poor but deserving nephew, it is your
cue to say 'Thank you' and accept."

"You're a brick, Aunt Ocky," said the young man soberly, for the second
time that afternoon. "Sheila spoke of a check for a thousand--"

"For your honeymoon. If you don't splurge too hard, there'll be some
of it left for initial expenses."

"You bet there will." He drew a long breath. "Thank you, Aunt Ocky,"
he said obediently. "I accept. But, look here--there'll be a holy row
when my father hears what you've done. He'll want your head on a
charger!"

"Better men than he have wanted that--and it's still neatly articulated
to the end of my spinal column!" She gave a low, reminiscent chuckle.
"There was a Chinese general, once, whom it was my privilege to annoy,
and he went so far as to put quite a flattering price on it. He lost
his own! Shall I tell you the story?"

He eagerly assented, an