“Now, that Confederate monument ought to have been built long ago out of that boulder from the river instead of hauling in a slicked-up granite slab that would er made the Glendale volunteers of ’61 feel uncomfortable like they would do in the beds in the city hotels.  Great idea of mine and that Yankee girl’s—­great idea—­hey?” sputtered Uncle Peter, after Jane had spent the evening down with him and Aunt Augusta.

“It is a fine idea, Uncle Peter,” I agreed with a concealed giggle.

“I’ve subscribed the first five dollars of the fifty for hauling, setting up and inscribing it, and we are going to let the women give half of it out of the egg-money they have got in that Equality Quilting Society—­some kind of horse sense epidemic has broken out in this town, horse sense, Evelina, hey?” And he went on down the street perfectly delighted at having at last accomplished his pet scheme.  He thought of it as exclusively his own by now, of course.

And the monument is just the beginning of what is going to begin in Glendale.  Jane says so.

“There could be no better place than this rural community to try out a number of theories I have had in political economy as related to the activities of women, Evelina,” she said to me to-day, looking at me in a benign and slightly confused way from behind her glasses.  “Mr. Hayes and I were just talking some of them over to-night, and he seems so interested in seeing me institute some of the most important ones.  How could you have ever thought such a man as he is lacking in seriousness of purpose, dear?”

“I feel sure that it was just my own frivolous streak that called out the frivolous in Polk, Jane dear,” I answered with trepidation, hoping and praying that the inquisition would not go much further, and trying to remember just what I had written her about Polk.

“It may have been that,” Jane answered, in a most naively relieved tone of voice.  “But you don’t know how happy I am, dear, to see that that streak is only an occasional charming vein that shows in you, but that you are now settling down steadily to your profession.  I feel sure that when these garden drawings are done, you and Mr. Hall will have found your correct places in each other’s lives and it will be just a glorious example of how superbly a man and woman can work together at the same profession.  Mr. Hardin and I were talking about it just last night out on the side porch, and though he said very little I could see how gratified he was at the honors that had come to you and how much he likes Mr. Hall.”

That settled it, and I made up my mind that when the Harvest Lady left us to-night to sink behind Old Harpeth, she wasn’t going to leave me weakly lonesome.  She doesn’t set until two o’clock, and I’m going to take all the time I need.

And as serious and solemn as I feel over taking such a step for two as I am deciding on, I can’t help looking forward to scribbling a terse and impersonal account of my having proposed to the man of my choice in this strong-minded book, adding a few words of sage advice for the Five, locking it and handing it, key and all, to Jane with a dramatic demand that she put her hundred thousand dollars in the Trust Company and begin to choose the Five from those she has had in mind.