Gadsby, folding his "Post" into a narrow column, and handing it to that waiting lady, said nothing. As that good woman saw that paragraph, Gadsby saw first a gasp, following that, a grin, and finally:-- "_Why!_ Of all things! So _that's_ Nina--" That row of print said, simply:-- "By Pastor Brown, on Saturday night, in Pastor's study, Nina Adams and Councilman Simpkins." "Why!" said Lady Gadsby, laughing, "Nina sat on this porch only last month, talking about Old Bill, but saying nothing about this! I'm going right around to hug that darling woman; for _that_ is what I call _tact_." So, as Nina and our Lady sat talking, Nina said: "You know that Bill and I, growing up from kids in school, always got along grandly; no childhood spats; but, still it was no 'crush' such as Youth falls into. As Bill got out of high school, I still had two rooms to go through. You also know that I wasn't a 'Miss' for long from graduation day. But Irving Adams was lost in that awful 'Titanic' calamity, and I brought up my baby in my widowhood. Bill was always sympathizing and patronizing, though all Branton Hills thought him a cast-iron grouch. But a public man is not always stiff and hard in his off hours; and Bill and I, slowly but gradually finding many a happy hour could-- "All right, you grand, luscious thing!!" and Lady Gadsby and Nina sat laughing on a couch, as in old, old school days. "And," said Nina, happily; "poor Bill's upstairs, now, putting his things around to suit him. Living for so long in a small lodging all his things staid in a trunk. A lodging-room always has various folks around, you know, and a man don't lay his things out as in his _own_ room. So--" "Nina," said Lady Gadsby; "do you know what brought him out of his old shut-in way of looking at things?" "From just a word or two Bill drops, occasionally, I think that a child is--" And Lady Gadsby, said; "You know our Good Book's saying about: 'And a tiny child shall----'" XL Six months from that day upon which old Mars, God of War, had angrily thrown down his cannons, tanks, gas-bombs and so on, fuming at Man's inability to "stand up to it," Gadsby's mansion was dark again. Not totally dark; just his parlor lamp, and a light or two in halls and on stairways. And so this history found Nancy and Kathlyn out on that moon-lit porch; Nancy sobbing, fighting it off, and sobbing again. Tall, studious, loving Kathlyn, sitting fondly by Nancy's tiny form, said;-- "Now, sis; I wouldn't cry so much, for I don't think that conditions, just now, call for it." "B-b-b-but I'd stop if I could, wouldn't I?" and poor Nancy was sobbing again. "Now, _wait!_" and Kathlyn, uncommonly cross, vigorously shook Nancy's arm. "You can't gain a _thing_ this way. Mama is probably all right. Oh, is that you, Daddy?"