"Grace and all the others would have come," Sally said quickly, "but we knew you'd be tired, and then it's homecoming, Martie, and you'll have lots of time to see us all!" She introduced Elizabeth, a lovely, fly-away child with bright loose hair, and Billy, a freckled, ordinary-looking boy, who gave his aunt a beautiful smile from large, dark eyes. The others were left with "Mother"--Joe's mother. "But, Sally, you're so fat!" "And, Mart, you're so thin!" "Never mind; it's becoming to you, Sally. You look still like a little girl. Really, you do! And how's Joe?" "Oh, Joe's lovely. I went down and spent a week with him. I had the choice of that or a spring suit, and I took that!" "Went--but where is he? I suppose he hasn't been sent to San Quentin?" "Oh, Martie, don't! You know Russell Harrison, 'Dutch's' cousin, that used to play with Len, really WAS sent there!" "For Heaven's sake, what for?" "Well, Hugh Wilson had some trouble with Paul King, and--it was about money--and Russell Harrison went to Hughie and told him--" So the conversation was diverted over and over again; and the inessential things were said, and the important ones forgotten. Len had borrowed the firm's motor car, and they all got in. Martie, used to Wallace's careless magnificence, was accustomed enough to this mode of travel, but she saw that it was a cause of great excitement to the children, and even to Sally. "You say the 'firm,' Len--I'll never get used to my little brother with a moustache! What do you mean by the 'firm?'" asked Martie. "My goodness--goodness--goodness, there's the Library and Lacey's!" she added, her eyes eagerly roving the streets. "Miss Fanny is still there; she always speaks so affectionately of you, Martie," said Lydia eagerly and tremulously. Martie perceived that in some mysterious way Lydia was ill at ease. Lydia did not quite know how to deal with a younger sister who was yet a widow, and had lived in New York. "There was an awful lot of talk about getting her out of the Library," contributed Sally; "they said the Streets were at the back of it; they wanted to put a man in! There was the greatest excitement; we all went down to the Town Hall and listened to the speeches--it was terrific! I guess the Streets and their crowd felt pretty small, because they got--what was it, Len?" "Seventeen votes out of one hundred and eleven!" Len said, not moving his eyes from the road before him. "My house is right down there, next door to Uncle Ben's," said Sally, craning her neck suddenly. "You can't see it, but no matter; there's lots of time! Here's the Hawkes's place; remember that?" "I remember everything," Martie said, smiling. "We're nearly home!"