Absorbed in his books, Mr. Stoddard, a bachelor book-lover, is interrupted by his servant, who brings him a small package. Opening it, Stoddard finds that it is a rare edition sent him by one of his nephews. The man-servant turns to dust the room but in doing so knocks down a valuable bust of Shakespeare, breaking it in pieces. Indignant at his carelessness, his master picks up the paper and looks through the “Want Ads,” determined to get a housekeeper whom he can trust. He answers the advertisement of Luella Pears, saying however, that she need not come unless she is forty-five years old. When she gets his letter, Luella, who is only eighteen and who is desperately in need of a situation, decides to make up as an older woman and take the job. She arrives at the house the next morning just as the Professor is trying to glue the pieces of the broken statue together. He gets his hands all covered with the glue and makes an awful mess in the room. When she shakes hands with him their hands stick together and after they have broken apart, much to his disgust, she begins to tidy up his den. Stoddard does not wish to be in the dust of the tidying process and leaves the house to spend a week in Washington. As soon as he has gone, she lets down her hair and he sees her as a young girl, when he returns in search of a forgotten umbrella. He immediately falls in love with her and she makes him help her in putting things straight, making him get down the books from the upper shelves. Forgetting his customary reserve, Stoddard lets convention fly to the winds and takes her in his arms while they are up the ladder. After a lingering kiss, he proposes to her and she accepts him. Stoddard makes an admirable husband and an adoring father to the group of children that soon spring up to fill the home of this happily mated couple.