Everything, do you hear? I give them all to you. Of what use
could they be to me? They are yours. Take everything,--hats, boots,
linen,--"

"Thank you, ma'am. That is very handsome of you. I wasn't quite sure that
perhaps Mr. Braden wouldn't find some use for the overcoat. It is a very
elegant coat. It cost--"

"Wade, you are either very stupid or very insolent," she interrupted
coldly. "We need not discuss the matter any farther. How soon do you
expect to leave?"

"I should say that a week would be sufficient notice, under the
circumstances," said he, and chuckled, much to their amazement. "I may as
well make a clean breast of it, ma'am. I am going to be married on the
seventeenth of next month. That's just six weeks off and--"

"Married! You?"

"Ah, madam, I trust you will not forget that I have lived a very lonely
and you might say profitless life," he said, rubbing his hands together,
and allowing his smile to broaden into a pleased grin. "As you may know in
the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,--and so
on. A man is as old as he feels. I can't say that I ever felt younger in
my life than I have felt during the past month."

"I wish you joy and happiness, Wade," said Anne dumbly. She was staring at
his smirking, seamed old face as if fascinated. "I hope she is a good
woman and that you will find--"

"She is little more than a girl," said he, straightening his figure still
a little more, remembering that he had just spoken of his own youthful
feelings. There may have been something of the pride of conquest as well.
"Just twenty-one last December."

Lutie laughed out loud. He bent his head quickly and they saw that his
lips were compressed.

"I beg your pardon, Wade," cried George's wife. "It--it really isn't
anything to laugh at, and I'm sorry."

"That's all right, Mrs. George," he muttered.

"Only twenty-one," murmured Anne, her gaze running over the shabby old
figure in front of her. "My God, Wade, is she--what can she be thinking
of?"

He looked straight into her eyes, and spoke. "Is it so horrible for a
young girl to marry an old man, ma'am?" he asked sorrowfully, and so
respectfully that she was deceived into believing that he intended no
affront to her.

"They usually know what they are doing when they marry very old men," she
replied deliberately. "You must not overlook that fact, Wade. But perhaps
it isn't necessary for me to remind you that young girls do not marr