BY
HELEN R. MARTIN
ILLUSTRATED BY
JOHN NEWTON HOWITT
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY1916
Copyright, 1916, by
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
All rights reserved, including that of
translation into foreign languages,
including the Scandinavian
COPYRIGHT, 1915, 1916, SMITH PUBLISHING HOUSE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"Oh!" her voice rippled with laughter, "this is thetwentieth century A.D., not B.C., Daniel"(see page 180) (missing from book) . . . . . . Frontispiece
"'Benefactor'?" she read, "'a doer of kindlydeeds; a friendly helper.' You see, I'm yourbenefactor, according to the Standard" (missing from book)
The Pennsylvania town of New Munich waselectrified by the sudden and entirely unlooked-forannouncement of the betrothal of Daniel Leitzel,Esquire; but his two maiden sisters with whom he lived,and to whom the news was also wholly unexpected, wereappalled, confounded. That Danny should have takensuch a step independently of them (who did all his thinkingfor him outside of his profession) was a cataclysmalepisode. Of course it never would have happened withouttheir knowledge if Danny had not been temporarily awayfrom his home on business and far removed from theirwatchful care—watchful these twenty years past that nodesigning Jezebel might get a chance at the great fortuneof their petted little brother—though it must be admittedthat Danny was by this time of a marriageable age, beingjust turned forty-five.
"To think he'd leave us learn about it in the newspapersyet, sooner 'n he'd come home and face us with it! Yes,it looks anyhow as if he was ashamed of the girl he's pickedout!" exclaimed Jennie, a stern and uncompromisingspinster of sixty, as she and her sister Sadie, sitting in theelaborately furnished and quite hideous sitting-room oftheir big, fine house on Main Street, stared in consternationat the glaring headlines of the New Munich EveningIntelligencer, which announced, in type that to the sistersseemed letters of flame, the upsetting news of theiridolized brother having been at last matrimonially trapped.Being confronted with his betrothal in print seemed tomake it hopelessly incontrovertible. They might haveschemed to avert the impending catastrophe of hismarriage (in case Danny had been taken in by an Adventuress)did not the Intelligencer unequivocally state (and theIntelligencer's statements were scarcely less authoritativeto Jennie and Sadie Leitzel than the Bible itself) thatDanny would be married to the Unknown inside of a month.If the Intelligencer said so, it seemed useless to try tostop it.
"To think he'll be married to her already before we geta chance, once, to look her over and tell him if she'd suithim!" lamented Sadie who was five years younger thanJennie.
"Well," pronounced Jennie, setting her thin lips in ahard line, "she'll find out when she gets here that she