Aunt Crete’s Emancipation

This story is a Grace Livingston Hill rarity, in which the main character does not find a husband/wife at the end of the story. Lucretia “Crete” Ward is a nice old lady who lives with her sister Carrie and niece Luella, both of whom are very selfish and treat her like a slave. Upon learning that Donald, the son of their now-deceased older sister, is coming to visit from out west, Luella fears what others will think of them if they are seen with a “backwoods cousin,” so she and her mother hurry away to a fancy resort where Luella is anxious to pursue a young man she is convinced is interested in her, which proves to be all in her head. Donald is well-educated and rich, and loves Aunt Crete like a mother, taking her shopping for fancy clothes and paying for French maids to fix up her hair, and then to the very resort where Luella and Carrie are staying.