temperament!"

We looked at the judge, open-mouthed. "Who would have thought the
old man to have had so much blood in him?"

"There have been times," admitted the judge, subsiding, "when I
radically disagreed with my late client; when I opposed her
strongly. But when she willed her whole estate to you, Miss Smith,
instead of to Nicholas Jelnik, I heartily approved. Understand, I
have no personal bias, no animosity against this young man; but he
is, I am told, more or less of an artist, and one might as well
leave an estate to an anarchist at once. I have expressed this
opinion to the town at large, and I seldom express my opinion
publicly," finished the old jurist stiffly.

I heard that opinion with mingled emotions.

"But we like Mr. Jelnik," I said at last. "The injunction against
him doesn't hold water. Personally, I feel like apologizing to him."

"Oh, no! One can't afford to cuddle an old vendetta, as Abishag
dry-nursed old King David. I always _hated_ Abishag!" Alicia said
naively.

"My late client," said the judge enigmatically, "hadn't counted on
_you_." He almost succeeded in looking human when he said it, and
his eyes upon Alicia weren't at all frosty. Then he folded his
papers, replaced them in his wallet, wiped his glasses, shot his
cuffs, hoped we'd find Hynds House all we'd hoped, hoped the town
would be to our liking, hoped he could be of further service to us,
bowed creakily, and took his departure.

"Sophy," said Alicia, after a long pause, "if ever I had to
rechristen this house, I'd call it Hornets' Nest."

* * * * *

We had not attended church on our first Sunday, because we were too
tired. But on our second Sunday we plucked up heart of grace and
went to St. Polycarp's.

The old town wore an air of Sabbath peace and quietness infinitely
soothing to the spirit. People passed and repassed us. We knew they
knew who we were. The old gentlemen, indeed, bowed to us with
stately uncoverings of the head; the rest regarded us with the sort
of impersonal and perfunctory interest one bestows upon
uninteresting passing strangers. Nobody spoke to us, though the eyes
of the young men were not unaware of Alicia's fairness.

In a great city, of course, one takes that sort of thing for
granted; but in this small town, where everybody knew and spoke to
everybody else, the effect was chilling.

"Talk about the sunny South!" murmured Alicia. "Why, my teeth want
to chatter