e was the matter
with him anyway!

III

However on the last afternoon of his stay at Bishopsthorpe, he told
himself with a rather rueful grin, that his manners must have improved a
little, for they took him to tea at the rectory.

He was particularly glad to go there because, from certain jokes of
Withers's, who had known the Sherwoods since boyhood, he gathered that
Chev and the rector's daughter were engaged. And just as he would have
liked Chev to meet Sally Berkeley, so he wanted to meet Miss Sybil
Gaylord.

He had little hope of having a tete-a-tete with her, but as it fell out
he did. They were all in the rectory garden together, Gerald and the
rector a little behind Miss Gaylord and himself, as they strolled down a
long walk with high hedges bordering it. On the other side of the hedge
Lady Sherwood and her hostess still sat at the tea-table, and then it
was that Cary heard Mrs. Gaylord say distinctly, "I'm afraid the strain
has been too much for you--you should have let us have him."

To which Lady Sherwood returned quickly. "Oh, no, that would have been
impossible with--"

"Come--come this way--I must show you the view from the arbor," Miss
Gaylord broke in breathlessly; and laying a hand on his arm, she turned
abruptly into a side path.

Glancing down at her the Southerner could not but note the panic and
distress in her fair face. It was so obvious that the overheard words
referred to him, and he was so bewildered by the whole situation that
he burst out impulsively, "I say, what _is_ the matter with me? Why do
they find me so hard to put up with? Is it something I do--or don't they
like Americans? Honestly, I wish you'd tell me."

She stood still at that, looking at him, her blue eyes full of distress
and concern.

"Oh, I am so sorry," she cried. "They would be so sorry to have you
think anything like that."

"But what is it?" her persisted. "Don't they like Americans?"

"Oh, no, it isn't like that--Oh, quite the contrary!" she returned
eagerly.

"Then it's something about me they don't like?"

"Oh, no, no! Least of all, that--_don't_ think that!" she begged.

"But what am I to think then?"

"Don't think anything just yet," she pleaded. "Wait a little, and you
will understand."

She was so evidently distressed that he could not press her further; and
fearing she might think him unappreciative, he said, "Well, whatever it
is, it hasn't prevented me from having a ripping good time. They