ACROSS the street, Noble was raking dead leaves. A rope of thick white smoke curled up from a pile in the ditch, Nancy Lou and Sonny Boy dove into tustling heaps and scattered them again. Charlotte's new coupé glittered in autumn sunlight by the mount ing block, and Charlotte herself came down the front steps and crossed to where Kate squatted, planting bulbs in the border.
"Well, Aunt Kate! Busy gardening, I see."
"I'm putting in some new tulips, though I hadn't any business to buy them. Bleu Aimable—the description's heavenly. Can you wait for spring?"
"Well, I guess we'll have to. I don't know what else we can do about it."
"You have a new sweater!"
"Oh, not very new."
"I've never seen it before. I love that jade green. How's Mrs. Driggs's cold? I've been meaning to go over, but I've been so busy. Charlotte! What do you think of that new standard lamp she has in the parlor? I told Joe it looked just like a boa constrictor standing on its tail, twisting round, with an old-rose silk shade hat on. Isn't it awful?"
"Why, I didn't think it was so bad as all that, Aunt
