“Please come in.” She extended her hand. The grip was as firm as a man’s. “Goodness, nobody’s called me that in over seventy years. When I received your long-distance call regarding Jake, I was so surprised I almost forgot to take my Geritol.”

Adeline was stout, but she carried her extra pounds easily. Her blue eyes seemed to laugh with every sentence and her face carried a warm, gentle look. She was everyone’s idea of a sweet little old snow-haired lady.

“You don’t strike me as the Geritol type,” he said.

She patted his arm. “If that is meant as flattery, I’ll buy it.” She motioned him to a chair in a tastefully furnished living room. “Come and sit down. You will stay for lunch, won’t you?”

“I’d be honored, if it’s no trouble.”

“Of course not. Bert is off chasing around the golf course, and I appreciate the company.”

Seagram looked up. “Bert?”

“My husband.”

“But I was under the impression-“

“I was still Jake Hobart’s widow,” she finished his sentence, smiling innocently. “The truth of the matter is, I became Mrs. Bertram Austin sixty-two years ago.”

“Does the Army know?”

“Oh heavens, yes. 1 wrote letters to the War Department notifying them of my marital status a long time ago, but they simply sent polite, noncommittal replies and kept mailing the checks.”

“Even though you’d remarried?”

Adeline shrugged. “I’m only human, Mr. Seagram. Why argue with the government. If they insist on sending money, who’s to tell them they’re crazy?”

“A lucrative little arrangement.”

She nodded. “I won’t deny it, particularly when you include the ten thousand dollars I received at Jake’s death.”

Seagram leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “The Army paid you a ten-thousand-dollar indemnity? Wasn’t that a bit steep for 1912?”

“You couldn’t be half as surprised as I was then,” she said. “Yes, that amount of money was a small fortune in those days.”

“Was there any explanation?”

“None,” she replied. “I can still see the check after all these years. All it said was `Widow’s Payment’ and it was made out to me. That’s all there was to it.”

“Perhaps we can start at the beginning.”

“When I met Jake?”

Seagram nodded.