but while he reasoned with himself, his feet were carrying him to his
cousin's house, and by the time he reached her door, all his doubt had
vanished.

Mr. Liakos found his kinswoman at work converting a jacket of her elder
son, which had become too small for its owner, into a garment still too
ample for the younger brother. The boys were at school, while their
three sisters--who came between them in age--were studying their lessons
under their mother's eye, and at the same time learning domestic economy
from her example.

Being a woman of tact, she saw at once from the judge's manner that he
wished to speak with her alone, and sent the girls out to play.

"Well, what is it?" she asked as soon as they had left the room. "What's
the news?"

"Why should you think there is any news?"

"Ah, indeed! As if I didn't know you! I could see at a glance that you
had something on your mind."

In truth, her feminine insight was seldom at fault in reading Mr.
Liakos, for she had seen him grow up from a child, and knew him
thoroughly. On his side, the judge flattered himself that he knew her
quite as well, but then he ought to have foreseen that her help would
not be easily enlisted in an affair that she had not been allowed to
manage from the beginning. She enjoyed busying herself with marriages in
general and with those of her friends in particular; but she felt that
she was peculiarly qualified to assume the chief part in planning and