"No doubt she fully deserved the name, if I remember rightly," said Eustace drily, putting on his hat, "and she'll remember you for that out of spite." "Well, do what you like, Gartney," replied Otterburn, grasping his friend's hand, "I'm awfully glad to see you safe and sound once more. When will you look me up again?" "I'm not quite sure! I've got to see Aunt Jelly first--my lawyers second--about a dozen tradesmen, to make myself respectable, and then I am going to run down home for a few days." "I didn't know you had a home." "Oh, yes!--the cot where I was born, and all that kind of thing. A tumble-down old place, looking out on to the German Ocean." "Well, don't let me lose sight of you yet," said Macjean, accompanying his guest to the door. "No!--by-the-way, I'll come back and tell you my impressions of Miss Sheldon, and you can shape your course accordingly--in love with the same woman for eighteen months! Good Lord! what constancy! Ah, Johnnie and how are you?" "Brawly! Brawly! thank ye for speiring, sir," replied Mr. Armstrong, who stood holding the door open, "may I tac' the leeberty of obsairving, sir, that ye look a wee bit brown, it's the weather na doot." "Not a bit of it, Johnnie--the sun, my man, the sun." "Hech! Hech! Au thocht it was the dochter," replied Johnnie, laughing at his own wit. Eustace did not take offence, as Johnnie's dour ways rather amused him, so he laughed also and departed, while Angus went back to his dressing-room to get ready for paying a round of visits. CHAPTER XIX. AUNT JELLY DISCUSSES FAMILY AFFAIRS. "You know the marriage service where it says-- 'Whom God hath joined let no man put asunder,' That answers for an interfering third, Who sows dissension in a happy home; But wife and husband can do just the same, Unless there's give and take betwixt the pair, Black looks, neglect, hard words, and other ills, Will put asunder A and B new wed, As surely as if C had played the rogue." Aunt Jelly was a lady whom everyone judged best to leave alone, as she, being of a tart and aggressive nature, was disposed to be exceedingly disagreeable when meddled with. Old Father Time appeared to be of the same opinion, for he never seemed to come near her in any way, and though year after year went by, changing youth to age, dimming bright eyes, whitening heads brown and golden, and turning mellow voices to shrill trebles, Miss Corbin still preserved the same grim appearance, as if she was indeed the granite figure to which so many of her friends likened her. If Time did add another wrinkle in a stealthy way, or make her blood course more slowly through her withered frame, he did it in such a manner that no one, not even the closest observer, could notice it; and Aunt Jelly, straight and defiant as ever, sat grimly silent in her chair, knitting, knitting, knitting, as though she were some immortal hag weaving the destinies of short-lived humanity.