"Will you? I think you are riding for a fall. How far will you get if she ever finds out you come from the Stearns family?"
Pete became thoughtful.
"She doesn't like us, does she?"
"She thinks your whole outfit is poison. Understand, Pete; I'm only saying what she thinks. I haven't any of the family prejudice myself."
"That's nice."
"As a matter of fact, I don't know what the trouble is all about, anyhow. It goes away back. It's a sort of an old family feud; I never bothered with it. It's nothing in my life—but it is in Aunt Caroline's. All you've got to do is to mention the name to her and she broadsides. Why, if she knew that I had anything to do with a Stearns I wouldn't last five minutes under this roof."
"I won't tell her, Bill," said Pete, soothingly.
Aunt Caroline's heir presumptive packed a pipe and lighted it. For several minutes he smoked ferociously.
"I'm afraid I've made a mistake in bringing you here at all," he said. "It's bad enough to have you a Stearns, but if she knew you had been expelled from college—well, it can't be expressed. Why did you have to insist on being my valet, anyhow? If you'd just come along as a friend, under any old name, it would have been a lot better."