might have forgotten some day how wonderfully my very pliant, feminine
attitude rubbed in my masculine intentions as to my life on the blind
side of all the forces brought to bear on me to put me back into my
predestined place in the scheme of the existence.

"Your Cousin James's home is the place for you, Evelina, and until he
explained to me how you felt last night I was deeply hurt that you
hadn't come straight, with Sallie, to me and to him," said Cousin
Martha, in as severe a voice as was possible for such a placid
individual to produce. Cousin Martha is completely lovely, and the
Mossback gets his beauty from her. She is also such a perfect dear that
her influence is something terrific, even if negatively expressed.

"I have come to help you get your things together, so you can move over
before dinner," she continued with gentle force. "Now, what shall we put
in the portmanteau first? I see you have unpacked very little, and I am
glad that it confirms me in my feeling that your coming over here for
the night was just a dutiful sentiment for your lost loved ones, and not
any unmaidenly sense of independence in the matter of choice where it is
best for you to live. Of course, such a question as that must be left to
your guardian, and of course James will put you under my care."

"I--I really thought that perhaps Cousin James did not have room for me,
Cousin Martha," I answered meekly. "How many families has he with him
now?" I asked with a still further meekness that was the depths of
wiliness.

"There are three of us widows, whom he sustains and comforts for the
loss of our husbands, and also the three Norton girls, cousins on his
father's side of the house, you remember. It is impossible for them to