irl in the world who would have thought of doing
that?" asked Jarvis, with amusement.

"Not many, out of those who happened to have devoted cavaliers beside
them, certainly," admitted the other young man, looking after the rapid
transit of the crimson cap across the snowy fields. "But Miss Sally is a
law unto herself--and the unexpected is the thing one may expect from her
every time. Yet she's not capricious purely for the sake of being
capricious, like so many girls. She can be counted on--at the same time
that one doesn't know exactly where to find her." He laughed. "There's a
paradox for you."

"Counted on to do the thing you're glad afterward she has done,"
supplemented Sally's old friend.

If Sally could have heard them, her small ears--burning with the
transition from cold air to warm, as in the kitchen she hurriedly forced
Mary Ann, protesting with feeble giggles, into whatsoever garments could
be adapted to the purpose--would have burned even more fiercely. But it
is quite safe to say that she had no thought whatever of the effect her
impulsive little act might have upon anybody--except Mary Ann herself.

CHAPTER XII

IN THE OLD GARDEN

"Mother, won't you drive out to the farm with us? Jo will tell you I
drive like a veteran, and the roads aren't bad--with chains on the
rear tires."

Jarvis's hand was on the door as he spoke. He wore a motorist's cap,
coat, and leather gauntlets.

Mrs. Burnside shook her head, smiling. "I'll make my first trip into the
country when the chains are not needed, son. Give Sally my love, and tell
her that now spring is at hand I shall come out with you often."

"Let me tell her you'll come out and spend the whole season there.
Furnish the west side of the house, take Joanna, share expenses--and
chaperon her."

"Whom--Joanna?" Josephine Burnside, sheathing herself in veils for the
drive in the chilly early April air, glanced at her brother with a
mischievous air. "She's forty, if she's a day. Surely she doesn't need--"

"I wish you people would take me seriously. Could you find a pleasanter
place to spend the summer? I expect to spend every daylight hour of every
day there, from the fifteenth of April on."

"Then it's you who need the chaperon," declared Josephine. "Uncle Timothy
Rudd is dragon enough for Sally."

"I shall want to be out there for every noon meal. Can't break off work
and rush home three times a day, even with the new car--and she'll make
it