Contents Illustrations Chapter One — Introducing Aunt Mary Chapter Two — Jack Chapter Three — Introducing Jack Chapter Four — Married Chapter Five — The Day After Falling in Love Chapter Six — The Other Man Chapter Seven — Developments Chapter Eight — The Resolution He Took Chapter Nine — The Downfall of Hope Chapter Ten — The Woes of the Disinherited.  Chapter Eleven — The Dove of Peace Chapter Twelve — A Trap For Aunt Mary Chapter Thirteen — Aunt Mary Entrapped Chapter Fourteen — Aunt Mary En Fete Chapter Fifteen — Aunt Mary Enthralled Chapter Sixteen — A Reposeful Interval Chapter Seventeen — Aunt Mary’s Night About Town Chapter Eighteen — A Departure And A Return Chapter Nineteen — Aunt Mary’s Return Chapter Twenty — Jack’s Joy Chapter Twenty-One — The Peace and Quiet of the Country Chapter Twenty-Two — “Granite” Chapter Twenty-Three — “Granite” — Continued.  Chapter Twenty-Four — Two Are Company Chapter Twenty-Five — Grand Finale Credits A Word from Project Gutenberg The Full Project Gutenberg License

Illustrations

      “Aunt Mary en fete” (May Robson as “Aunt Mary”) Frontispiece

      “‘Do not let us play any longer,’ she said.  ‘Let us be in earnest’”

      “‘She’s goin’ to the city all alone!’ Lucinda’s voice suddenly
      proclaimed behind him”

      Aunt Mary and Her Escorts

      “The carriage stopped three hundred feet below the level of a
      roof-garden”

      “And now the fun’s all over and the work begins”

      “’Yesterday I played poker until I didn’t know a blue chip from a
      white one’”

      “Aunt Mary had also had her eyes open”

The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary

Chapter One — Introducing Aunt Mary

The first time that Jack was threatened with expulsion from college his Aunt Mary was much surprised and decidedly vexed—­mainly at the college.  His family were less surprised, viewing the young man through a clearer atmosphere than his Aunt Mary ever had, and knowing that he had barely escaped similar experiences earlier in his career by invariably leaving school the day before the board of inquiry convened.

Jack’s preparatory days having been more or less tempestous, his family (Aunt Mary excepted) had expected some sort of after-clap when he entered college.  Nevertheless, they had fervently hoped that it would not be quite as bad as this.

Jack’s sister Arethusa was visiting her aunt when the news came.  Not because she wanted to, for the old lady was dreadfully deaf and fearfully arbitrary, but because Lucinda had said that she must go to her cousin’s wedding, and the family always had to bow to Lucinda’s mandates.  Lucinda was Aunt Mary’s maid, but she had become so indispensable as a sitter at the off-end of the latter’s ear-trumpet that none of the grand-nephews or grand-nieces ever thought for an instant of crossing one of her wishes.  So it was to Arethusa that the explanations due Aunt Mary’s interest in her scapegrace fell, and she bowed her back to the burden with the resignation which the circumstances demanded.