"_John!!_ Do your Municipal occupations knock all past days' doings out of your skull? You _know_ that I own a grand, big patch of land out in our suburbs, half as big as Branton Hills. So this Big Four will just run around, jump, roll, kick, and loaf until doomsday, if I can _wallop_ this mob out of bidding." As Lady Standish was long known as standing first in valuation on Branton Hills' tax list, nobody in that crowd was so foolish as to hang on, in a war of bidding, against _that_ bankroll. So Gadsby shook hands, put an arm about Nancy, walking happily away, as a roar of plaudits shot out from that crowd, for that loud, fast-talking man was announcing:-- "_Sold! All four to Lady Standish!!_" As Gadsby and Nancy ran across Old Bill Simpkins, Gadsby said:-- "Bill, _you_ know that grand old day. Look! A building is burning! A patrolman has put in an alarm! And _now_ look! Coming down Broadway! Two big blacks, and following on, two big roans! What grand, mighty animals! Nostrils dilating; big hoofs pounding; gigantic flanks bulging; mighty lungs snorting; monstrous backs straining; thick, full tails standing straight out. Coming, sir! Coming, sir!! Just as fast as brain and brawn can! And that gong-clanging, air-splitting, whistling, shining, sizzling, smoking four tons of apparatus roars past, grinding and banging on Broadway's paving! _You_ saw all that, Bill." "Uh-huh," said Simpkins, "but a motor don't hurt our paving so much." As Nancy took His Honor's arm again, Gadsby said:-- "Poor, cranky old Bill! Always running things down." But how about Clancy and Dowd? On moving out from that big park, that happy pair, if Knighthood was in bloom today, would bow low, and kiss fair Lady Standish's hand. XVII Oh, hum. Now that Nancy's baby is gurgling or squalling, according to a full tummy, or tooth conditions; and Nancy is looking, as Gadsby says, "as good as a million dollars," I find that that busy young son-of-a-gun, Dan Cupid, is still snooping around Branton Hills. And _now_ who do you think is hit? Try to think of a lot of girls in Gadsby's old Organization of Youth. No, it's not Sarah Young, nor Lucy Donaldson, nor Virginia Adams. It was brought to your historian in this way:-- Lady Gadsby and His Honor sat around his parlor lamp, His Honor noticing that Lady G. was smiling, finally saying:-- "John." "Uh-huh." "Kathlyn and John Smith,----" "What?" "I said that Kathlyn and John Smith want to----" "Oho! Aha!! I'll call up Pastor Brown to start right off dolling up his big church!" "No, no! Not now! Wait about six months. This is only a troth. Folks don't jump into matrimony, that way." "Hm-m-m! I don't know about that," said Gadsby, laughing; and thinking way back to that captivating lasso!