I told her then quietly, and with dignity, and with no temper (showing), that Mr. Livingstone was not a foreign Japanese, but was a very nice gentleman; and that I had not picked him up. He came to her own door himself, almost every day. "My own door!" exclaimed Aunt Jane. And she looked absolutely frightened. "You mean to tell me that that creature has been coming here to see you, and I not know it?" I told her then--again quietly and with dignity, and without temper (showing)--that he had been coming, not to see me, but in the natural pursuance of his profession of delivering groceries. And I said that he was not a creature. On the contrary, he was, I was sure, an estimable young man. He went to her own church and Sunday-School. Besides, I could vouch for him myself, as I knew him well, having seen and talked with him almost every day for a long while, when he came to the house. But nothing I could say seemed to have the least effect upon her at all, only to make her angrier and angrier, if anything. In fact _I_ think she showed a great deal of temper for a Christian woman about a fellow Christian in her own church. But she wouldn't let me go to the picnic; and not only that, but I think she changed grocers, for Mr. Livingstone hasn't been here for a long time, and when I asked Susie where he was she looked funny, and said we weren't getting our groceries where Mr. Livingstone worked any longer. Well, of course, that ended that. And there hasn't been any other since. That's why I say _my_ love story doesn't seem to be getting along very well. Naturally, when it gets noised around town that your Aunt Jane won't let you go anywhere with a young man, or let a young man come to see you, or even walk home with you after the first time--why, the young men aren't going to do very much toward making your daily life into a love story. * * * * * _Two weeks later._ A queer thing happened last night. It was like this: I think I said before what an awfully stupid time Mary is having of it, and how I couldn't play now, or make any noise, 'cause Father has taken to hanging around the house so much. Well, listen what happened. Yesterday Aunt Jane went to spend the day with her best friend. She said for me not to leave the house, as some member of the family should be there. She told me to sew an hour, weed an hour, dust the house downstairs and upstairs, and read some improving book an hour. The rest of the time I might amuse myself. Amuse myself! A jolly time I could have all by myself! Even Father wasn't to be home for dinner, so I wouldn't have _that_ excitement. He was out of town, and was not to come home till six o'clock.