"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