"Do tell! I want to know if that ain't just like some folks! Them things are so hombly I'd want to hide 'em or put 'em all in the fire if I had 'em in my house. Some real pretty chromo pictures would look so much better in place of them. If you want vases, why you can get pretty glass ones almost anywhere from fifteen to thirty cents each, and land knows they'd look better than them things! Then there's that great stuffed tiger. Goodness! It scared me awful when I saw it standing there in the corner of the room. I thought it was living, and was shooing at it when Inza ran over and put her hand right on it. Whatever in the world can induce you to have such a thing in your room?"
"At first I found it difficult to induce Aunt Abby to remain in this room," laughed Inza. "She wanted to go outside and wait for you. I am afraid she has obtained an unfavorable impression of you by coming here."
"I sincerely trust not," said Frank, who had worked hard when he first met Miss Gale in Santa Barbara to win her good esteem, a task at which he had been most successful. "I should regret it very much if I thought such was the case."
Miss Abigail's hard face did not soften, but she immediately said:
"I suppose we all must have some weak point, and it seems to be Mr. Merriwell's weakness to gather such hideous truck. I'm sure he's a gentleman, and I think just as much of him as I ever did."
Frank bowed gracefully and expressed his thanks.
"Can't help looking at the stuff," said the spinster, readjusting her spectacles and turning her back squarely on Frank and Inza. "I like to see what crazy notions they do get up."
She appeared to be very busy examining the collection of bric-a-brac and curiosities.
Frank and Inza looked at each other a moment, and then their hands met. He drew her to a seat on the sofa.
For some time they chatted of various matters that interested them alone, Miss Gale being strangely taken up with the trinkets in the meantime.
"Is this the way she usually chaperones you, Inza?" asked Frank, after a while, smiling.
"Goodness, no!" replied the girl. "If you were any one but Frank Merriwell she would be sitting stiff and straight on a chair, never taking her eyes off us for a moment. But you--she thinks you are the finest young man in the world. You have completely won her withered old heart, Frank. You should hear her praise you to papa."