“Of course he never would have thought of coming, if you hadn’t told him so,” said Kate dryly.

“Now there you are in error,” said the literal Agatha, as she smoothed down Little Poll’s skirts and twisted her ringlets into formal corkscrews.  “Right there, you are in error, my dear.  The reason I told Robert to marry you was because he said to me, when he suggested going after you to stay the night with me, that he had seen you in the field when he passed, and that you were the most glorious specimen of womanhood that he ever had seen.  He said you were the one to stay with me, in case there should be any trouble, because your head was always level, and your heart was big as a barrel.”

“Yes, that’s the reason I can’t always have it with me,” said Kate, looking glorified instead of glorious.  “Agatha, it just happens to mean very much to me.  Will you just kindly begin at the beginning, and tell me every single word Robert said to you, and you said to him, that day?”

“Why, I have informed you explicitly,” said Agatha, using her handkerchief on the toe of Poll’s blue shoe.  “He mentioned going after you, and said what I told you, and I told him to go.  He praised you so highly that when I spoke to him about the Southey woman I remembered it, so I suggested to him, as he seemed to think so well of you.  It just that minute flashed into my mind; but he made me think of it, calling you ‘glorious,’ and ’level headed,’ and ‘big hearted.’  Heavens!  Katherine Eleanor, what more could you ask?”

“I guess that should be enough,” said Kate.

“One certainly would presume so,” said Agatha.

Then Adam came, and handed Kate her mail as she stood beside his car talking to him a minute, while Agatha settled herself.  As Kate closed the gate behind her, she saw a big, square white envelope among the newspapers, advertisements, and letters.  She slipped it out and looked at it intently.  Then she ran her finger under the flap and read the contents.  She stood studying the few lines it contained, frowning deeply.  “Doesn’t it beat the band?” she asked of the surrounding atmosphere.  She went up the walk, entered the living room, slipped the letter under the lid of the big family Bible, and walking to the telephone she called Dr. Gray’s office.  He answered the call in person.

“Robert, this is Kate,” she said.  “Would you have any deeply rooted objections to marrying me at six o’clock this evening?”

“Well, I should say not!” boomed Robert’s voice, the “not” coming so forcibly Kate dodged.

“Have you got the information necessary for a license?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Then bring one, and your minister, and come at six,” she said.  “And Oh, yes, Robert, will it be all right with you if I stay here and keep house for Adam until he and Milly can be married and move in?  Then I’ll come to your house just as it is.  I don’t mind coming to Nancy Ellen’s home, as I would another woman’s.”