"A merchant, a Chinaman and a widower," I replied. And then I gave them the information that Big Sam had confided to me. "Well," said Laura decisively, "that’s very interesting about Moon Ying’s family, but I don’t see that it can do her much good. And that widower can come up here, and we’ll look him over. I can tell you right now that he will have to pass a very rigid examination, and he shan’t have Moon Ying unless she wants him." "Hm-m! I suspect he will have to acquire some new ideas on the qualifications of an expectant husband, and I’m afraid he’s rather old to learn." "Well, if the ideas are new to him, it’s time he learned ’em," said Laura, "and if he’s too old to learn, why, so much the worse for him. He can go back where he came from." "Yes," said Mercy quietly, "if it is to be worse for him or worse for her, why, he is the one who must give way." "I’m afraid you are in a fair way to upset the whole scheme of Chinese domesticity," I said. "Well, it’s high time it was upset," returned Laura. "And if I’m not much mistaken, Moon Ying has learned a thing or two since she has been here that will upset it for at least one household. So Mr. No-Name Chinaman had better be preparing his credentials and studying up to pass his examinations." And she thereupon gave such a list of qualifications for a possible husband for Moon Ying that I was disposed to condole with Big Sam’s candidate on his chances of election to the blessed state of matrimony. Mercy Fillmore expressed a somewhat less exalted ideal of the suitor who would fill the measure of Moon Ying’s maiden fancies, though I was certain that it was one that would astonish the celestial widower. And then in sudden concern, lest her patients should be in need of her attention, she excused herself, and Laura and I were left alone. For a little time she was silent, gazing dreamily at the floor, and I was content to watch her without speech. The storm and stress of the past few weeks had given something more of womanliness to the delicately cut features, and, to my eyes at least, there was an added grace to the attitude and movements of the small figure. It seemed as though the woman in her had suddenly bloomed into the strength that the girl had only suggested. At last a little smile dimpled the corners of her mouth, and without raising her eyes she said: "Don’t you know it’s rude to stare at one so?" "I beg your pardon," I returned impenitently, "but it’s impossible to help it." "Oh," she said, with a quick return to her matter-of-fact tone, "that’s ruder yet. And now I want to know how much longer you’re going to keep this pack of men around the house. They’re rather a responsibility for a housekeeper, and it’s something like living in a public square." "I’m going to cut the force in half to-morrow, but the rest of them will stay till Moon Ying is out of the place. I’m taking no more risks."