“Any one besides Paul?” inquired Aunt Pattie, elevating her eyebrows.

“Lots of people,” returned Constance with a gaiety she had not exhibited for many days.  “Mr. Gamble for one.”

Aunt Pattie’s countenance underwent an instant change, and it was not a change for the better.

“Mr. Gamble!” she exclaimed, quite properly shocked.  “I shouldn’t think he’d feel in the humor for social calls just now.  He’s lost all his money.”

“You wouldn’t believe it if you had heard him laugh over the ’phone just now when I told him to bring his straw hat,” declared Polly.

“Who told you the news?” asked Constance, feeling sure of the answer.

“Mr. Gresham,” hesitated Aunt Pattie.

“I bet he couldn’t keep his face straight,” Polly vindictively charged.

“You do Mr. Gresham an injustice, Polly,” protested Aunt Pattie severely.

“It isn’t possible,” insisted Polly.  “If it were not giving him too much credit for brains I’d swear he’d helped break Johnny.”

“I’m afraid you don’t give him quite enough credit for brains,” said Constance, and giving her roses a deft parting turn she went down-stairs to meet Paul Gresham.

If Aunt Pattie had been pleased by the change in Constance, Gresham was delighted.  This was the first time she had really beamed on him since she had met Johnny Gamble.

“You are always charming,” he observed, taking pleasure in his own gallantry, “but to-day you seem unusually so.”

“That’s pretty,” dimpled Constance.  “I wanted to look nice to-day.”

Mr. Gresham’s self-esteem arose several degrees.  He smiled his thanks of her compliment to the appointment he had made with her.

“My call to-day is rather a formal one,” he told her, smiling, and approaching the important subject-matter in hand directly but quite easily, he thought.  “It is in relation to the will of your Aunt Gertrude, which has been the cause of some embarrassment to us both, and to you particularly, I fear.”

“Naturally,” she assented, still smiling, however.

This was easy sailing.  Gresham walked over and took the chair nearest her.

“It is, of course, unnecessary to discuss the provisions made by your Aunt Gertrude,” he stated.  “Even had such a will never been written, I am quite sure that the result would have been the same, and that to-day, after the long friendship which I have enjoyed with you, I should be asking you, as I am now, to become my wife,” and taking her hand in his, he very gracefully kissed it.

Constance as gracefully drew it away.

“You have done your duty very nicely, Mr. Gresham,” she said.  “It must have been as awkward for you to be compelled to make this proposal as it is for me to be compelled to refuse it.  It would be wicked for us to marry.”

“You are very harsh,” he managed to protest.  “I am sure that I should not feel wicked in marrying you.”