* * * *

Huntington dared not extend his visit beyond a few blissful days, but
into these he crowded the full expression of his long-delayed romance.
The wonder of it never left him, the joy of it filled him with quiet
content.

The lovers watched Cosden's departure next morning, and by virtue of the
priority of their engagement, considered themselves entitled to tease
Edith who was not to leave until the following day.

"Well," Huntington remarked, as they turned back into the hallway, "as
Connie says, he usually gets what he goes after."

"Don't you think he's earned me?" Edith retaliated.

"And you him," Huntington retorted. "Everything is as it should be. You
are just the girl for him, and he will make you a husband in a thousand.
I need not tell you how cordially I have congratulated him."

"I don't think our Society proved very effective," she remarked dryly.

"On the contrary, it demonstrated its efficiency by the present most
satisfactory exceptions.--But you are giving me a great many mysteries
to explain to Merry!"

The evening before Huntington felt it necessary to return to his patient
he touched upon a subject which had been avoided.

"Mamma," he said to Mrs. Thatcher, "I think--"

"Don't you dare to call me that, Monty Huntington!" Marian exclaimed
vehemently. "If I am to go through life with a son-in-law older than I
am, at least I won't be called 'mamma'!"

"I'm trying to be respectful," Huntington explained mischievously.

"Never you mind that,--call me 'Marian.' That at least will give me the
benefit of the doubt."

"I'm sorry to mark my entrance into the family by causing
mortification," Huntington continued in mock-seriousness. "It never
occurred to me, if my prospective wife made no objections, that my age
would be offensive to her parents. But the case isn't so serious as Ned
Fordham's, is it?"

"He married Mrs. Eustis, didn't he?"

"Yes; and you remember that she has a married daughter and a small
grandchild. Ned said the idea of a ready-made family was fine, but he
thought it immoral for him to become a grandfather before he became a
father."

"Rather late for him to come to that conclusion, wasn't it?" Thatcher
laughed.

"Yes; but he found two other men in the same predicament, so the three
of them have formed a 'Society of Illegitimate Grandparents,' and now
they're looking for more members."

"Ned would joke at his own funeral!" chuckled Thatche