Miss Calthea did not forget her
intention of treating Lanigan Beam as a person between whom and herself
there could be nothing of a connecting order which could be set up as
something of an obstructing order between herself and any one else. She
therefore took his hand, made a few commonplace remarks about his
return, and then, excusing herself, approached Mrs. Cristie, who was
just about to alight from the phaeton, and gave her the invitation to
drive to Romney. That lady hesitated a few moments, and then,
remembering some shopping she would like to do, accepted; and the
attention of Miss Mayberry having been called to the baby-carriage
behind the tree, the two ladies drove off.

Ida Mayberry gazed for a moment at the parting vehicle, and then,
turning to Mr. Beam, she said:

"She might at least have thanked me for getting her out of that scrape."

"Was that your idea?" said Lanigan.

"Of course it was," said the young woman: "if I hadn't shown her how to
make the horse back, she would have pulled her arms out for nothing. It
is easy to see that she does not know anything about managing horses."

Lanigan laughed outright.

"I would advise you not to say that to her," he said.

"I would as soon say it to her as not," said Ida; "somebody ought to do
it. Why, if that horse had shied towards me instead of away from me when
I jumped from that tree, I might have been very much hurt."

Lanigan laughed again, but this time inwardly.

"Do you like yellow flowers, Miss Mayberry?" said he. "The largest wild
coreopsis I ever saw grows in this region. I noticed some in a field we
just passed. Shall I gather a few for you?"

"I am very fond of that flower," said Ida; and Mr. Beam declaring that
if she would step a little way with him he would show her a whole field
of them, the two walked up the road.

Walter Lodloe had been gazing with some dissatisfaction at the departing
phaeton. His mind was getting into a condition which made it unpleasant
for him to see people take Mrs. Cristie away from him. He now turned
and looked at the baby-carriage, in which the infant Douglas was sitting
up, endeavoring by various noises to attract attention to himself.
Lodloe pulled the vehicle into the road, and, finding that the motion
quieted its occupant, he began slowly to push it towards the Squirrel
Inn. When Walter Lodloe turned into the open space about the inn he met
Mr. Tippengray with a book in his hand.

[Illustration: "HE BE