I didn't know when I would have a chance to stir Dick up, but
Providence--so Jill said--favoured us. Aunt Tommy didn't expect Dick
down the next night, so she and Father and Mother all went away
somewhere. Dick came after all, and Jill sent me into the parlour to
tell him. He was standing before the mantel looking at Aunt Tommy's
picture. There was such an adoring look in his eyes. I could see it
quite plain in the mirror before him. I practised that look a lot
before my own glass after that--because I thought it might come in
handy some time, you know--but I guess I couldn't have got it just
right because when I tried it on Jill she asked me if I had a pain.

"Well, Jack, old man," said Dick, sitting down on the sofa. I sat down
before him.

"Aunt Tommy is out," I said, to get the worst over. "I guess you like
Aunt Tommy pretty well, don't you, Mr. Richmond?"

"Yes," said Dick softly.

"So do other men," I said--mysterious, as Jill had ordered me.

Dick thumped one of the sofa pillows.

"Yes, I suppose so," he said.

"There's a man in New York who just worships Aunt Tommy," I said. "He
writes her most every day and sends her books and music and elegant
presents. I guess she's pretty fond of him too. She keeps his
photograph on her bedroom table and I've seen her kissing it."

I stopped there, not because I had said all I had to say, but because
Dick's face scared me--honest, it did. It had all gone white, like it
does in the pulpit sometimes when he is tremendously in earnest, only
ten times worse. But all he said was,

"Is your Aunt Bertha engaged to this--this man?"

"Not exactly engaged," I said, "but I guess anybody else who wants to
marry her will have to reckon with him."

Dick got up.

"I think I won't wait this evening," he said.

"I wish you'd stay and have a talk with me," I said. "I haven't had a
talk with you for ages and I have a million things to tell you."

Dick smiled as if it hurt him to smile.

"I can't tonight, Jacky. Some other time we'll have a good powwow, old
chap."

He took his hat and went out. Then Jill came flying in to hear all
about it. I told her as well as I could, but she wasn't satisfied. If
Dick took it so quietly, she declared, I couldn't have made it strong
enough.

"If you had seen Dick's face," I said, "you would have thought I made
it plenty strong. And I'd like to know what Aunt Tommy will say to all
this when she finds out."

"Well, you didn't tell a