"You're not going to walk!" she answered triumphantly. "You're going to ride—in your very—own—electric—coupé! Here's the catalogue." 44 44 She scrambled about for a book on a table near at hand—and I began to see daylight. "Oh, a player-piano, and an electric coupé—all in one day! I see! My fairy godmother—who was old Aunt Patricia, and she looked exactly like one—has turned the pumpkin into a gold coach! You two plotters have been putting your heads together to have me get rich quick and gracefully!" "We understand that this stroke of fortune is going to make a great change in your life, Grace," Guilford said gravely. He was always grave—and old. The only way you could tell his demeanor from that of a septuagenarian was that he didn't drag his feet as he walked. "'Stroke of fortune?'" I repeated. "The Coburn—" mother began. "Colt—" he re-enforced, then they both hesitated, and looked at me meaningly. I gave a hysterical laugh. "You and mother have counted your Coburn-Colts before they were hatched!" I exclaimed 45 wickedly, sitting down and looking over the music rolls. I did want that player-piano tremendously—although I had about as much use for an electric coupé, under my present conditions in life, as I had for a perambulator. 45 "Grace, you're—indelicate!" mother said, her voice trembling. "Guilford's a man!" "A man's a man—especially a Kentuckian!" I answered. "You're not shocked at my mention of colts and—and things, are you, Guilford?" My betrothed sat down and lifted from the bridge of his nose that badge of civilization—a pair of rimless glasses. He polished them with a dazzling handkerchief, then replaced the handkerchief into the pocket of the most faultless coat ever seen. He smoothed his already well-disciplined hair, and brushed away a speck of dust from the toe of his shoe. From head to foot he fairly bristled with signs of civic improvement. "I am shocked at your reception of your mother's kind thoughtfulness," he said. He waited a little while before saying it, for 46 hesitation was his way of showing disapproval. Yet
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