wspaper
and trickled down the steep slope of her best dress to the bottom of
the chaise. Even yet she had not made up her mind; she had stopped
trying to deal with such an evasive thing as decision, and leaned back
and rested as best she could.

"What an old fool I be!" she rebuked herself from time to time, in so
loud a whisper that her companion ventured a respectful "What, ma'am?"
and was astonished that she made no reply. John was a handsome young
man, but Mrs. Bickford could never cease thinking of him as a boy. He
had always been her favorite among the younger members of the family,
and now returned this affectionate feeling, being possessed of an
instinctive confidence in the sincerities of his prosaic aunt.

As they drove along, there had seemed at first to be something
unsympathetic and garish about the beauty of the summer day. After the
shade and shelter of the house, Mrs. Bickford suffered even more from
a contracted and assailed feeling out of doors. The very trees by the
roadside had a curiously fateful, trying way of standing back to watch
her, as she passed in the acute agony of indecision, and she was
annoyed and startled by a bird that flew too near the chaise in a
moment of surprise. She was conscious of a strange reluctance to the
movement of the Sunday chaise, as if she were being conveyed against
her will; but the companionship of her nephew John grew every moment
to be more and more a reliance. It was very comfortable to sit by his
side, even though he had nothing to say; he was manly and cheerful,
and she began to feel protected.

"Aunt Bickford," he suddenly announced, "I may's well out with it!
I've got a piece o' news to tell you, if you won't let on to nobody. I
expect you'll laugh, but you know I've set everything by Mary Lizzie
Gifford ever since I was a boy. Well, sir!"

"Well, sir!" exclaimed aunt Bickford in her turn, quickly roused into
most comfortable self-forgetfulness. "I am really pleased. She'll make
you a good, smart wife, John. Ain't all the folks pleased, both
sides?"

"Yes, they be," answered John soberly, with a happy, important look
that became him well.

"I guess I can make out to do something for you to help along, when
the right time comes," said aunt Bickford impulsively, after a
moment's reflection. "I've known what it is to be starting out in life
with plenty o' hope. You ain't calculatin' on gettin' married before
fall,--or be ye?"

"'Long in the fall," said