id not look back. She was humming
softly to herself as she passed out of sight.

CHAPTER XXI

A SHORT HORSE SOON CURRIED

Sylvia sat beside Bassett at dinner that night, and it was on the whole
a cheerful party. Mrs. Bassett was restored to tranquillity, and before
her aunt she always strove to hide her ills, from a feeling that that
lady, who enjoyed perfect health, and carried on the most prodigious
undertakings, had little patience with her less fortunate sisters whom
the doctors never fully discharge. Mrs. Owen had returned so late that
Bassett was unable to dispose of the lawsuit before dinner; she had
greeted her niece's husband with her usual cordiality. She always called
him Morton, and she was Aunt Sally to him as to many hundreds of her
fellow citizens. She discussed crops, markets, rumors of foreign wars,
prospective changes in the President's Cabinet, the price of ice, and
the automobile invasion. Talk at Sally Owen's table was always likely to
be spirited. Bassett's anxiety as to his relations with her passed; he
had never felt more comfortable in her house.

Only the most temerarious ever ventured to ask a forecast of Mrs. Owen's
plans. Marian, who had found a school friend with an automobile and had
enjoyed a run into the country, did not share the common fear of her
great-aunt. Mrs. Owen liked Marian's straightforward ways even when
they approached rashness. It had occurred to her sometimes that there
was a good deal of Singleton in Marian; she, Sally Owen, was a Singleton
herself, and admired the traits of that side of her family. Marian
amused her now by plunging into a description of a new flat she had
passed that afternoon which would provide admirably a winter home for
the Bassetts. Mrs. Bassett shuddered, expecting her aunt to sound a
warning against the extravagance of maintaining two homes; but Mrs. Owen
rallied promptly to her grandniece's support.

"If you've got tired of my house, you couldn't do better than to take an
apartment in the Verona. I saw the plans before they began it, and it's
first-class and up-to-date. My house is open to you and always has been,
but I notice you go to the hotel about half the time. You'd better try a
flat for a winter, Hallie, and let Marian see how we do things in town."

Instantly Mrs. Bassett was alert. This could only be covert notice that
Sylvia was to be installed in the Delaware Street house. Marian was
engaging her father in debate upon th