"Fifteen last spring," Sally replied. "Had you forgotten, Uncle John?" "No, oh, no, I suppose not, but it is hard to realize that you are growing up so fast. Why, you are nearly as tall as I am. And how long have you been with us?" "Almost four years, Uncle John." "Bless me! So you have, Sally. It seems only last week that you came; and yet, you have always been with us. Well, my dear, I don't find myself quite ready to send you off again, and so I advise you to dismiss the puzzling question from your mind for a day or two. Better let me bother over it awhile. Fox can wait for a few days. He won't mind, will he?" "No," she said, smiling, "Fox won't mind. He has been waiting four years already." "Fox is an excellent young man," Mr. Hazen murmured. "I must see what Patty has to say." Patty had a good deal to say. She came to her father in a hurry and in some agitation that same evening, after Sally had gone to bed. It saved him the trouble of introducing the subject and put the burden of proof on the other side. Not that it mattered particularly to Mr. Hazen where the burden of proof lay. He was accustomed to have his own quiet way. In fact, consultation with Patty was rather an empty formality; but it was a form which he always observed scrupulously. "Oh, father," she began, rather flurried, "what do you suppose Sally has just told me? Her mother--" "I know. I was meaning to speak to you about it." "I am all upset. I can't bear to think of sending Charlie away now." There were tears in poor Miss Patty's eyes. Mr. Hazen could not quite repress a smile. "True," he said; "I had forgotten him." "Oh, father!" Miss Patty exclaimed reproachfully. "How could you?" "It is incomprehensible, but I was thinking of Sally. Never mind, Patty, it comes to the same thing in the end. Would it be quite convenient to ask Sarah Ladue to come here?" "Ask Cousin Sarah to come here to _live_?" Miss Patty echoed, in some consternation. "Why, yes, Patty. I understand that she is likely to live and--" "Oh, father!" Miss Patty cried again. "You know I didn't mean--" "I don't pretend," Mr. Hazen resumed, smiling, "to any particular love for Sarah, whom I never saw more than once or twice in my life. Even that must have been many years ago. But, as I recollect, she was a pretty, unassuming young woman whom I thought, at the time, altogether too good for Charles." Miss Patty looked shocked. "Oh, there is nothing gained by pretending to be blind to Charles's weakness. He was a gambler before he left college. I knew it very well. There was nothing to be done. Meddling with other people's children is a vice, Patty. It never does any good. I have some misgivings--" Mr. Hazen paused abruptly. There seemed to him nothing to be gained by following out that line of thought either. "Some misgivings about what, father?" Patty prompted.