Gertrude telephoned that she was coming this afternoon. I offered to go to her, but she would drop in, she graciously insisted, now that I was a family man, after lunching with a friend at the Brevoort. Gertrude’s entry is always breezy and cheerful. "Hello, Ranny," she murmured lightly, sinking on the sofa and holding out both hands. I took them, kissed them and held them in mine. I was well aware that for her these were days of tension. "That’s nice," said Gertrude with a laugh. "But what I want is a cigarette, a match and an ash tray." "Of course, how stupid of me!" I mumbled and supplied her with her wants. "Those books, Ranny," she puffed, scanning my laden shelves, "they terrify me afresh every time I see them—when I think you’ve read them all." "They needn’t alarm you," I deprecated quite sincerely. "The more I read them the less I seem to know—as you will agree." And I sat facing her. "No room for the brains to turn round in?" she laughed. "Oh, come, dear boy, it’s not so bad as that. I really think," she added more soberly, "you have a very wise old bean on your shoulders." "What sudden and startling discovery leads you to words so rash?" I inquired. "I’ve made the discovery all right," she nodded with emphasis. "Anybody who can handle a situation like this the way you’re handling it is no piker." Gertrude often affects the slang of the day as a humorous protest against what she terms my purism. But the truth is, I like the vernacular myself. "Impart it," I urged her, whereat she smiled. "Regular street Arab you are," she declared with arch satire, "but what I mean is this. I am always one for quick action—and I don’t know much about children. I urged you to send them away at once. But I realize now that so soon after poor Laura’s passing away that would have been cruel—and it wouldn’t have looked well, besides. Now I see it more your way, Ranny." "You do!" I could not help exclaiming. "Yes," she continued firmly. "I see your way is best. I see that we can be quietly married and have our little trip just the same. Then, when we come back, in the natural course of events and rearrangement, we can look up places for them and settle it all right as rain. That’s what you had in your clever old head, Ranny, I’m quite sure—and I admire you for it."