said it was an ancestral urn, so I said without hesitation that
it was. And because there was a pause and every one was looking
at us, I added that it was a beautiful thing.

Aunt Selina sniffed.

"Hideous!" she said. "It looks like Cousin Jane, shape and
coloring."

Then she looked at it more closely, pounced on it, turned it
upside down and shook it. A card fell out, which Dallas picked up
and gave her with a bow. Jim had come out of the den and was
dancing wildly around and beckoning to me. By the time I had made
out that that was NOT the vase Cousin Jane had sent us as a
wedding present, Aunt Selina had examined the card. Then she
glared across at me and, stooping, put the card in the fire. I
did not understand at all, but I knew I had in some way done the
unforgivable thing. Later, Dal told me it was HER card, and that
she had sent the vase to Jim at Christmas, with a generous check
inside. When she straightened from the fireplace, it was to a new
theme, which she attacked with her usual vigor. The vase incident
was over, but she never forgot it. She proved that she never did
when she sent me two urn-shaped vases with Paul and Virginia on
them, when I--that is, later on.

"The Cause in England has made great strides," she announced from
the fireplace. "Soon the hand that rocks the cradle will be the
hand that actually rules the world." Here she looked at me.

"I'm not up on such things," Max said blandly, having recovered