"Don't fear, but know it. I try to be strong in mind and body. I believe
in a woman getting all that's coming to her and working for that end."

Harvey laughed.

"Well, I shan't argue with you."

"Because you agree with me, and you know it," said Ethel quietly. "You
have made yourself amount to something. Look where you were three years
ago. What were your views of life then? A rich marriage. Behold the
change! Now you are a man."

"Thanks," said Harvey, rising and making a low bow.

CHAPTER XVI

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas was near. The Hollisters wrote and invited Mr. Casey to spend
the Christmas holidays with them. They also wrote Tom Harper to see if it
were possible to bring Aunt Susan to be with them during the holidays.
Tom replied he would make it possible. So they were to have a house full.

Nora and Ethel vied in dressing up the rooms tastefully with holly and
mistletoe. Every chandelier and door had a piece of mistletoe fastened
above it.

"What a grand kissing time there'll be," said Archibald. "When do we
begin--on Christmas morning?"

"Now, Papa, don't you get gay," laughed Ethel. "You've led an exemplary
life for fifty years. Please keep on and don't let this mistletoe make of
you a different man."

Well--first came Mr. Casey. Every day he and Nora boarded a taxi and went
shopping, returning with huge boxes and parcels which gradually filled
Nora's closets as well as under her bed.

Then came Tom and Aunt Susan, even looking younger than before.

"Really it's ridiculous, Aunt Susan," said Ethel, "for you to keep
growing so much younger and more stylish. You've got to stop."

And the bell rang so often that Mrs. Hollister was obliged to hire an
extra maid for Christmas week. Everyone was so perfectly happy that it
was a joy to enter the house. Harvey was there as often as his hospital
practice would admit of, and he was the first to kiss Aunt Susan under
the mistletoe; and Aunt Susan, if you please, now appeared in the
daintiest of gowns--up-to-date and rather youthful. Ethel and Grandmother
laughed over it.

"Why, Grandmother, how old is Aunt Susan?"

"She's about sixty-one," said her sister--"why?"

"Nothing, but I've been thinking wouldn't it be funny if she should marry
again? She's mighty attractive in her up-to-date gowns."

"I don't see whom she could marry," said Grandmother with some asperity,
"unless Mr. Casey or Dr. Bigelow." Ethel laughed.

Christmas eve arrived.