“We could be married so quietly and prettily if it were not for Aunt Elizabeth,” pouted Miss Vernon.  “She insists on the church wedding, the teas and receptions and—­”

“All that sort of rot,” he interjected, as if fearing she might not express herself adequately.  “I like your Aunt Elizabeth, Grace, but she’s—­she’s an awful—­”

“Don’t say it, Hugh.  I know what you mean, but she can’t help it.  She lives for society.  She’s perfectly crazy on the subject.  Aunt Elizabeth made up her mind we should be married in church.  I have talked myself black in the face—­for your sake, dear—­but it was like trying to convert a stone wall.  She is determined.  You know what that means.”

“No wonder she’s a widow,” growled Hugh Ridgeway sourly.  “Your father served you a mighty mean trick, dear, when he gave you over to her training.  She might have spoiled you beyond redemption.”

“Poor father!  He loathed display, too.  I’ve no doubt that is why he left me in her care until I reached the age of discretion.  She was not always like this.  Father’s money has wrought the change.  Aunty was as poor as a church mouse until father’s death put her at the head of my household—­it was mine, Hugh, even if I was only six years old.  You know we could live pretty well on forty thousand a year.”

“You’ll have a million or so when you’re twenty-three, dear, and I’ll venture to say your aunt has saved something in all these years.”

“Oh, she had at least two hundred thousand dollars by the will.  It has cost her nothing to live all these years as my guardian and trustee.  We just had to do something with my income, you know.”

“I don’t see why you should let this fortune stand in the way, Grace,” growled he.  “Haven’t I enough of my own to take its place?” Hugh Ridgeway had a million in his own right and he could well afford to be unreasonable.  “The will says you are not to have your father’s money until you are twenty-three years old.  He evidently thought that was a discreet age.  You are not to marry before you have reached that age.  I’ve been waiting for two years, Grace, and there still remains two months—­”

“One month and twenty-eight days, Hugh,” she corrected.

“And in the meantime we have to stay here and face all this ante-nuptial wretchedness.  It’s sickening, Grace.  We hate it, both of us.  Don’t we?  I knew you’d nod your head.  That’s why I can’t help loving you.  You’ve got so much real good hard sense about things.  If your confounded Aunt Lizzie—­Elizabeth, I should say—­would let us get married as we want—­Hang it all, Grace, it’s our affair anyhow, isn’t it?  Why should we permit her to dictate?  It’s not her wedding.  She’s been married twice; why can’t she let well enough alone?”

“She loves me, Hugh, after all,” gently.

“Well, so do I. I’m willing—­not perfectly willing, of course—­but reasonably so, that we should wait until the twenty-third of May, but I don’t see why we should have the whole town waiting with us.  Why don’t you assert yourself, dear, before it is too late?  Once she pulls off this announcement party, it’s all off with peace of mind and contentment so far as we are concerned.  Of course, she’ll be enjoying it, but what of us?  Are you afraid of her?”