lirted with till the lady was sick and tired of them.
After that they were very sorry for themselves. I never heard anything
else against Mrs. Ballantree MacDonald, and I don't believe there's
anything worse to hear, than that she's a spoiled, flattered, selfish,
and self-centred beauty, who expects every man to fall down before her,
and generally gets what she expects.

None of us talked much to Barrie about her mother, though at first she
was continually bringing up the subject. We knew she thought of it
constantly: that beneath all her joy in escape from bondage, in
motoring, and in her adventures in beautiful, historic scenes, there was
always that undertone--"When I meet my mother." And we too felt the
strain of suspense, though in a different way--at least, Somerled and I
felt it. I could see it often in the peculiar darkening of his face when
anything happened to suggest the idea of the mother in the background.
As for Aline, I suppose it was but natural her only interest in Mrs. Bal
should be, "How will her reception of the girl affect me, if at all?"

Aline's arranging to pick up the Vannecks at Dumfries gave her the
excuse she's been longing for ever since the quarrel, to get me into
Somerled's car, though she didn't wish to seem as if she were forcing
herself upon him. Perhaps he might have found some way of shuffling out
of it, but in St. Michael's churchyard at Dumfries she asked if he
didn't think the "little romance a very pretty one?" He inquired what
she meant. She appeared amused at his denseness--"so like a man!"--and
said, "Why, what could I mean except dear Basil and little Barrie? I
didn't know _any one_ could help seeing! But don't say anything, please.
It might nip the orange-blossoms in the bud."

She told me this afterward, because I had to know if I were to "live up
to it." And I'm afraid by that time I was ready to live up to it,
whatever the consequences might be. That is enough to explain why
Somerled without hesitation invited me to migrate into his car when
Aline had filled up Blunderbore with a party of three guests. He might
even then have kept Barrie in her place beside him, or have appointed me
to it; but that wouldn't have been Somerled as I see him, saying to
himself, "Let them have each other's society, since that's what they
want. I don't know what _I_ want, or whether it's best for her or me
that I should want anything."

Right or wrong about his state of mind as I may be what