necessary to heir her--er--prejudices," he remarked hopefully. "Bad
lot, Sophronisba. Very bad!"

"Mrs. Scarlett," I reminded him gently, "was my relative only by
marriage."

"Cousin of mine; mother's relative. Not on speaking-, only on
fighting-terms," he interjected.

I remembered what Uncle Adam had told us; and I'm afraid I eyed him
a bit harder than politeness warranted.

"I discern by your eye, Miss Smith," said the doctor, "that you
think a blood relation is more likely to walk in that old demon's
footsteps than an outsider is. My dear lady, under ordinary
circumstances and with _human_ neighbors, I'm as meek as Moses; I am
a lamb, a veritable lamb! As for your aunt, she was a man-eating,
saber-toothed tigress!"

"Not my aunt, Doctor Geddes; your cousin."

"Your aunt-by-marriage. It's just as bad. Anyhow, she preferred you
to any of us, didn't she?"

"Perhaps because she didn't know _me_."

"Have it so. _But_ she did whatever she did because she was an old
devil of a woman, and an old devil of a woman can give points to
Satan. If," cried the doctor, vehemently, "there is one great reason
why a man should be glad he's a man, it is because he will never