be realistic for an aunt, I said what a shame
it was about that will of your father's. She pricked up her ears then,
and wanted to know what I meant. 'Hasn't he _told_ you?' I asked. And I
was shocked to hear you hadn't, because, I said, it would be more honest
to let people know how one stood, the position being so peculiar. Your
father had left every _red cent_ away from you, I said, in case you
married a foreigner; and it was such a blow that she didn't even notice
that I'd committed an Americanism. She couldn't speak for a whole
minute, and then she asked if you hadn't tried to dispute the will. That
would have been no use, said I. It wasn't the kind you could dispute.
You often fell in love with girls, not Americans, but you were bound to
marry a compatriot in the end, unless you could find a foreigner with
enough money to support you. Even after all that she held on to you by
the ragged edge. Couldn't you make a lot of money, she asked, with your
pictures, which are so famous? They weren't _popular_, I said, and
though the critics always praise them, you could hardly ever sell.
'Besides,' said I, 'he's so lazy, he doesn't paint a decent-sized
picture once in three years.'"

"Good heavens!" I exclaimed. "What a character you gave me. It's a
wonder she didn't rush to Robert van Buren's door, and cry to him that
she'd reconsidered."

"I saved him, too, for Phyllis's sake. It was too late for her to go to
him at that hour, or even send a note, as I saw by her eye she thought
of doing. I stayed with her till after twelve, on purpose. And the last
thing I said was, that I thought her decision not to accept Mr. van
Buren so wise, as such an intelligent woman as she might marry any one.
It showed, said I, how undeserving he was, that the minute she took
herself from him, he asked another girl to be his wife. 'Has he?' she
almost screamed. 'Yes,' said I. 'Didn't you know? He is now engaged to
Miss Rivers, with the approval of his sisters, and a telegram has been
sent to his mother, telling her _all_.'"

This was news worth hearing, and I forgave the L.C.P. the
inopportuneness of her interruption with Nell.

"Who told you about van Buren's engagement to Phyllis?" I asked.

"No one. But I thought they ought to be engaged, if they weren't, and
knew they never would be if Menela weren't got rid of.

"But about the telegram to Mrs. van Buren----"

"The minute I went to my room, I sent for a waiter, and wrote one,
withou