"'Auntie,'" says Uncle Doctor, 'would you mind marrying Father?' "'Bless my soul, Nathaniel!' says Aunt Elizabeth. So he told her what Delia said, and they talked it over. She was a sensible woman and fond of Grandpa. By and by, back he goes to Grandpa. 'Father,' he says, 'I want you to put on your hat and go down street and ask Aunt Elizabeth to marry you.' "'_Bless my soul!_' says Grandpa. 'She wouldn't have me, Nathaniel!' "'I think she would,' says Uncle Doctor. "'And what would Katharine say?' says Grandpa. "'She would say, "Put on your hat, and _don't forget your muffler_."' "So Uncle Doctor put on the hat and muffler for him and saw him out of the door, headed down street; and he and Aunt Elizabeth were married next day, and had ten happy years together. So there is _that_." Miss Johanna rolled up her knitting briskly, and rose from her seat. "But one swallow doesn't make a summer, Kitty, and one pair of old f-- of dear old things doesn't make folly the less foolish. I am going upstairs, my dear. If you are watering the plants, you might just change the water for those violets: they are drooping a little." "Dear things! so they are!" Kitty rose, too, and bent lovingly over the bowl. "The new ones are due to-morrow, aren't they, Auntie?" "I don't know anything about the new ones!" Miss Johanna spoke rather snappishly from the door. "We may all be dead to-morrow, and very likely the best thing for us. They would be nice for our funerals!" she added rather enigmatically from the stairs: and the door of the Red Indian Room closed shortly behind her. Judge Peters seemed to have a good deal of business to transact with Miss Johanna. He came regularly once a week, almost always during the hour of Madam Flynt's drive. This puzzled Kitty, used all her life to being the Judge's pet and playmate. He could not be vexed with her, for his smile and greeting when they met was as affectionate as ever, even more so perhaps. He pressed her hand very tenderly on the steps one day, and said, "God bless you, my dear child!" in a way that brought the tears to Kitty's eyes. Yet he never came to see _her_ nowadays! "I do hope Aunt Johanna's business is all right!" she said to Madam Flynt one day, when that lady had brought her in after the drive for a little visit. "I hope so!" said Madam Flynt. "Why shouldn't it be? Johanna is an excellent woman of business, I have always heard." "Oh, it's only--well, Judge Peters comes pretty often, and--it may be all my imagination, but she seems rather troubled sometimes after he is gone. I ought not to speak of this, perhaps, but--Mother always used to come to you, didn't she, Madam Flynt?" Madam Flynt took off her gold spectacles to wipe her eyes.