"I'll tell you what ails you," said her aunt warmly. "It's that you've spread yourself too much; you've given such a lot away everywhere that you've got to just stop and let the tide run backwards into you yourself for a while. It's nature. Nature and the new religion combined."
"I feel overwhelmed by the coming-back tide then," said Jane; "I don't deserve it all."
Her aunt started to reply, but was stopped by a sudden loud bang outside.
"Goodness, what's that?" she exclaimed.
"Auto tire burst, I think. I'll go and see," said Lorenzo, jumping up and going out.
"Jane," said Susan solemnly, "that's a young man in a million. Think of his finding that will. My, but he'll make a good husband!"
"I just can't realize any of it," said her niece. She seemed to be totally unequal to any other view of her present situation.
"Well, you'd better realize it," said her aunt, "because it's coming right along. What will Mrs. Mead say, I wonder! Dear me, how every one will wish they'd tried to get up a plane or two by having old Mrs. Croft to visit them. If that poor old thing could only come back, the whole town would just adore to have her on a visit now, and every one would sit up all night and listen to Captain Jinks so cheerfully. She used to sing Rally round the flag, boys too,—I forgot that. She used to sing it when she heard the roosters begin to crow. But nobody would have minded, whatever she sang now."
"Oh, there's—" Jane hesitated and blushed.
Lorenzo stood in the door. "It wasn't a burst tire," he explained briefly; "it's a new kind of siren they're using. It's friends from out of town, Mr. and Mrs. Beamer."