y forward, laughed and kissed her,
too.

"But why didn't you tell us, Norma, and have a regular wedding, like
mine?" she protested. "I didn't know that you and your cousin were even
engaged!"

"We've worked it out that we were engaged for exactly three hours and
ten minutes," Norma said, as they all settled down in the magnificent,
ugly, comfortable old sitting-room for tea. She could see that both
Leslie and her grandmother were far from displeased. As a matter of
fact, the old lady was secretly delighted. The girl was most suitably
and happily and satisfactorily married; justice had been done her, and
she had solved her own problem splendidly.

"But you knew he liked you," Leslie ventured, diverted and curious.

"Oh, well----" Norma's lips puckered mischievously and she looked down.

"Oh, you _were_ engaged!" Leslie said, incredulously. "He's handsome,
isn't he, Norma?"

"Yes," the wife admitted, as if casually. "He really is--at least I
think so. And I think everyone else thinks so. At least, when I compare
him to the other men--for instance----"

"Oh, Norma, I'll bet you're crazy about him," Leslie said, derisively.

Norma looked appealingly at the old lady, her eyes dancing with fun.

"Well, of _course_ she loves her husband," Mrs. Melrose protested, with
a little cushiony pat of her hand for the visitor.

"I don't see that it's 'of course'," Leslie argued, airily, with a
little bitterness in her tone. Her grandmother looked at her in quick
reproof and anxiety. "The latest," she said, drily, to Norma, "is that
my delightful husband is living at his club."

"Now, Leslie, that is very naughty," the old lady said, warmly. "You
shouldn't talk so of Acton."

"Well," Leslie countered, with elaborate innocence, turning to Norma,
"all I can say is that he walked out one night, and didn't come back
until the next! Of course," she added, with a suppressed yawn that
poorly concealed her sudden inclination to tears, "of course _I_ don't
care. Patsy and I are going up to Glen Cove next week--and he can live
at his club, for all me!"

"Money?" Norma asked. For Leslie's extravagance was usually the cause of
the young Liggetts' domestic strife.

Leslie, who had lighted a cigarette, made an affirmative grimace.

"Now, it's all been settled, and Grandma has straightened it all out,"
old Mrs. Melrose said, soothingly. "Acton was making out their income
tax," she explained, "and some money was mentioned--how was that