It was Peaches, and behind her, smiling sweet approval, stood Aunt
Martha.

Heart failure for mine as I stumbled to my feet and caught the interested expressions on the faces of Skinski and Dodo.

“Aunt Martha and I have been shopping, and we dropped in here for luncheon,” my wife rattled on, while I was slowly recovering.

“Of course we don’t wish to be de trop,” she added, glancing curiously at the famous Skinski and his assistant in the mind-reading tests.

“No, no, Peaches; certainly not!” I spluttered; “hadn’t the faintest idea you were coming in town to-day.  Let me present Bunch’s Uncle Cornelius McGowan and his Aunt Flora from Springfield—­my wife and my mother-in-law!”

Skinski and Dodo were wise in a minute, and they never batted an eye, but Bunch took the full count.

Of course he couldn’t deny the relationship without giving himself away, so he simply stood there and looked foolish.

“Have you been in the city very long?” my wife said most pleasantly to Signor Petroskinski,

“No, Madam,” he answered, with a most courtier-like bow; “we only broke away from the cars this morning, and we bumped into nephew quite by chance, didn’t we, nephew?”

Bunch growled something that wouldn’t sound well on the graphophone.

“Do you like New York?” Aunt Martha asked the other half of the sketch in an effort to be pleasant.

“You betcher sweet!” said Dodo, whereupon Aunt Martha fell back two paces to the rear and looked pityingly at Bunch.

“If you’ll excuse us, Uncle Cornelius and Aunt Flora, I’ll take my wife and her mother to the train,” I said nervously.

“Not at all, not at all,” piped Skinski.  “Dodey—­I mean Flo—­and I don’t mind a bit, do we, Flo?”

“You betcher sweet!” she answered, and I saw Peaches glance questioningly at Bunch, who was giving a brilliant imitation of the last rose of summer.

“But, John, I’m so hungry,” Peaches pleaded.

“I know, my dear, but you see Bunch has an awful lot of family happenings to discuss with his relatives,” I said; “and we must give him a chance to get acquainted with Uncle Cornelius and Aunt Flora.”

Whereupon I grabbed my hat and ducked for another eat shop without ever glancing at Bunch.

CHAPTER V.

JOHN HENRY GETS EXCITED.

The next day being Sunday, I determined to forget all my troubles and take Peaches out buggy riding.

I felt sure that Bunch was rid of his grouch by this time, and that he wouldn’t have a rock in his hat for me for pulling that “Uncle Cornelius” gag.

I rather expected he’d show up at Ruraldene some time Sunday evening.  At any rate, I was sure Skinski and the Dodo bird had conned him back to real life, and that by Monday morning he’d be ripe for work again.

Peaches and Aunt Martha said very little about Bunch’s new relatives.  They decided that “Uncle Cornelius” was eccentric and rather interesting, but when they thought of “Aunt Flora” they both got nervous and changed the subject.