ow it's the only way any Speed ever did make
out to get married. For instance, there's a cousin of mine married to
Ludovic's brother. I don't say she proposed to him out and out, but,
mind you, Anne, it wasn't far from it. I couldn't do anything like that.
I DID try once. When I realized that I was getting sere and mellow, and
all the girls of my generation were going off on either hand, I tried to
give Ludovic a hint. But it stuck in my throat. And now I don't mind. If
I don't change Dix to Speed until I take the initiative, it will be Dix
to the end of life. Ludovic doesn't realize that we are growing old, you
know. He thinks we are giddy young folks yet, with plenty of time before
us. That's the Speed failing. They never find out they're alive until
they're dead."

"You're fond of Ludovic, aren't you?" asked Anne, detecting a note of
real bitterness among Theodora's paradoxes.

"Laws, yes," said Theodora candidly. She did not think it worth while to
blush over so settled a fact. "I think the world and all of Ludovic. And
he certainly does need somebody to look after HIM. He's neglected--he
looks frayed. You can see that for yourself. That old aunt of his looks
after his house in some fashion, but she doesn't look after him. And
he's coming now to the age when a man needs to be looked after and
coddled a bit. I'm lonesome here, and Ludovic is lonesome up there,
and it does seem ridiculous, doesn't it? I don't wonder that we're the
standing joke of Grafton. Goodness knows, I laugh at it enough myself.
I've sometimes thought that if Ludovic could be made jealous it might
spur him along. But I never could flirt and there's nobody to flirt with
if I could. Everybody hereabouts looks upon me as Ludovic's property and
nobody would dream of interfering with him."

"Theodora," cried Anne, "I have a plan!"

"Now, what are you going to do?" exclaimed Theodora.

Anne told her. At first Theodora laughed and protested. In the end, she
yielded somewhat doubtfully, overborne by Anne's enthusiasm.

"Well, try it, then," she said, resignedly. "If Ludovic gets mad and
leaves me, I'll be worse off than ever. But nothing venture, nothing
win. And there is a fighting chance, I suppose. Besides, I must admit
I'm tired of his dilly-dallying."

Anne went back to Echo Lodge tingling with delight in her plot. She
hunted up Arnold Sherman, and told him what was required of him. Arnold
Sherman listened and laughed. He was an elderly widow