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If she wanted Jeff Bucknor, Mrs. Buck reckoned it was all right. He seemed a likely enough young man, but she hoped he knew how to save, because Judith did not. The old men of Ryeville were satisfied when Jeff Bucknor told them he would run for the office of county attorney if they so wished it. At the same time he broke to them the news of his engagement.
For years she had been held in the subjection of politeness by this unwelcome guest by the attitude of her white people to his mistress, but now the barriers were down and Mrs. Bucknor had openly expressed her impatience at this too-frequent visitor and had been persuaded by her daughters to give Miss Ann the hall room, no longer need she assume cordiality to the old servant.
"Of course!" "Well, after dinner all of you ride out to Buck Hill and there wait on the poor old thing and together we can break the news to her. It's going to make me feel awfully bad," declared Mr. Bob Bucknor. "I reckon we'll all feel bad, but none of us must weaken," blustered Big Josh.
"Of course we must speak to those ridiculous old men, but after that we can just stay together. It will be lots more fun." "Here comes Miss Ann Peyton!" the whisper went around the hall. "Well, if it isn't Cousin Ann!" Big Josh Bucknor boomed to his daughters. "For goodness sake don't ask her to go home with us," begged those ladies. Big Josh slapped his leg and laughed aloud.
For many years she had been leaving one relation's home and arriving at another's, and the comings and goings of Cousin Ann had created but a small ripple in family affairs. She had never deigned to say where next she intended to visit, so why now should the cousins be so disturbed over her whereabouts? "I am so afraid something has happened to her," said Mr. Bob Bucknor.
"And I also hear tell that the Bucknor men were gettin' ready to let poor ol' Miss Ann know that she was due to settle herself in an ol' ladies' home. They were cookin' it up that day they all had dinner here last week." "Yes, and what's more, I hear our Judy gal knocked that Tom Harbison down the hill with a milk bucket," laughed Pete. "I got it straight from Big Josh himself."
"I'm just a private person," she said, "and it would flustrate me so I'd be sure to have one of my attacks." Everybody went up and shook hands with the guest of honor even Mildred Bucknor, although she did not enjoy it at all. "It is the silliest thing I ever saw in my life," she declared.
His Miss Ann had so willed it and far be it from him to object to her commands. Even going without breakfast was no hardship, if it so pleased his beloved mistress. The meal he had declared to Mrs. Bucknor they had eaten at a hotel on the way was purely imaginary.
"And while we are discussing family matters, how about this talk about that pretty Miss Judith Buck being a cousin?" "The women folk have settled that. At least mine have; and since we are the closest neighbors there at Buck Hill " began Bob Bucknor. "You may be the closest neighbors, but you are not the closest kin. I'm for taking her into the clan.
He needn't even know where we put Cousin Ann." "What do you think about it, Aunt Em'ly?" Mrs. Bucknor asked the lean old colored woman who appeared in the doorway. "Here comes Miss Ann Peyton, and the young ladies want to put her in the little hall bedroom because they have planned to put their company in the guest chamber?" "Think!
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