CHAPTER V

Of course she must buy the tea in Uncle Benjamin’s grocery-store. To buy it anywhere else was unthinkable. Yet Valancy hated to go to Uncle Benjamin’s store on her twenty-ninth birthday. There was no hope that he would not remember it. “Why,” demanded Uncle Benjamin, leeringly, as he tied up her tea, “are young ladies like bad grammarians?” Valancy, with Uncle Benjamin’s will in the background of her mind, said meekly, “I don’t know. Why?” “Because,” chuckled Uncle Benjamin, “they can’t decline matrimony.” The two …