I didn't know why, but the smile with
which Mrs. Sproul whispered and patted my hand made me burn all over
with protest.

"I wouldn't have you for a husband unless we were both convicted
together to a chain gang for at least five years after the ceremony,
Nickols Powers," said Harriet, with a laugh for which Nickols raised her
hand to his lips as he responded.

"You like husbands in safety deposit vaults, don't you, Harriet?" At
which sally they all laughed as they seated themselves around Mrs.
Sproul and me.

"Why will women want husbands to be as stationary as--as hitching posts,
Mrs. Sproul?" demanded Nickols as he leaned against one of the tall
pillars and lighted a cigarette for himself after having lighted one for
her and Jessie. Jessie Litton had always smoked, in secret until the
last year or two, and Mrs. Sproul had frankly taken up the habit as a
comfort for old age, she insisted. I suspect that she had had it for a
long time in advance of the fashion. It was a really delicious sight to
see the old world grace with which she accomplished it.

"Women have the nestling habit and that is why they want to believe men
to be sturdy oaks in whose branches they can safely anchor a family as
well as twine around in their affectionate gourd fashion," answered Mrs.
Sproul, as she daintily puffed a smoke ring at Nickols.

"A lot of times the gourd vine grows so strong that she doesn't realize
she is supporting her family by her own strength long after the oak has
faded away in her coils and sprouted up from an acorn in some other
locality," said Jessie, as she, too, puffed a ring of smoke in Nickols'
direction.

"Is this agriculture, biology or religion we are discussing?" demanded
Harriet with a laugh as we all rose and went to the edge of the porch to
meet Billy and Mark and father, who had with them the beloved
"Minister."

"Congratulations and condolences, Mr. Powers," said Mrs. Sproul as she
laid her hand in father's.

"On what score, my dear madam," he demanded.

"You know I asked for Charlotte on my fifteenth and her tenth birthday,
Judge," Nickols said, with his ready grace in any situation, and he came
and stood beside father and took his hand in his with the gentle
affection a girl might have shown the older man. "You said 'yes' then
and it has taken all these years to make her echo the word," and as he
finished speaking he held out his arm and drew me close to father and
himself.

"Hurrah!" excla