“But I saw the other was only the wedding announcement, and I left them both in the letter for you to read.”

“And I read them both,” she said.  “Read this.”

Percy took the card and slowly read: 

Mr. and Mrs. Clarance Voit

Announce the marriage of their daughter

Ameila Louise

to

Professor Paul Strongworth Barstow_

She watched his face but saw no sign.  She kissed his forehead and then pointed to the writing, "With Grandma’s Compliments," saying, “I do not know what this means, but I thought my boy might be getting too careless, when he fails to read even the wedding announcement of college professors, sent to him by such a good friend as Grandma West may intend to be.”

Percy looked into his mother’s face as if to read her thoughts.

“I think I understand what you have in mind,” he said.  “Mr. West has mentioned once or twice that Adelaide was teaching school, but I supposed that she was trying to earn enough to buy her own wedding outfit.”

“Perhaps that is true,” replied the mother, “and perhaps she is already married or soon to be married; but I thought you ought to know that she had not married Professor Barstow, lest you might allude to it in your letters to Mr. West.”

CHAPTER XXXIX

HONEY WITHOUT WAX

“WELL, I reckon the cowboy’s gone back to ’tend to his cows,” remarked the grandmother to Adelaide, as she returned from taking Percy to Blue Mound and found the old lady sitting on the lawn bench apparently enjoying the mild late November weather.  “Did you leave him at the station or see him off?”

“Neither,” Adelaide replied, sitting down beside her.  “The train was late, and he insisted on coming back with me to the first turn, and then stood and watched till I came within sight of home at the next turn.  I doubt if he is back to the station yet.”

“He reminds me, Pet, of the Latin definition you gave for sincere,” remarked the grandmother.  “Pure honey without wax, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, no, Grandma.  Not pure honey.  It says nothing about honey.  Sine is the Latin for without, and cera means wax; so that our word sincere, taken literally from the Latin, means without wax."

“Oh, yes, I see now; but let me tell you, Adelaide, I think that professor of yours is right smart wax.”

“Why, Grandma!  I never heard you say such a thing.  You know papa and mamma like Professor Barstow and I think I like him too, and,—­and he has papa’s consent, and mamma’s consent.”

“Well, you never heard me say such a thing before and you won’t ever hear it again, but he hasn’t got my consent.  I think he’s some wax, but I reckon you think he’s some honey, and I know he thinks he’s some punk’ns.  Of course, your father would like an English or Scottish nobleman for a son-in-law, or at least a college professor with a string of ancestry reaching across the water; but the Henry’s prefer to make their own reputations as they go along, and I doubt if Patrick ever saw England or Scotland.  I tell you, Adelaide, a pound of gumption will make a better husband than a shipload of ancestry, and I just hope you will more than like your husband, that’s all.”