same. Good-by, Vane, glad you came. Did they
show you through the stables? Did you see the mate to the horse I lost?
Beauty, isn't he? Stir 'em up and get the money. I guess we won't see
much of each other politically. You're anti-railroad. I don't believe
that tack'll work--we can't get along without corporations, you know.
You ought to talk to Flint. I'll give you a letter of introduction to
him. I don't know what I'd have done without that man Tooting in your
father's office. He's a wasted genius in Ripton. What? Good-by, you'll
find your wagon, I guess. Well, Victoria, where have you been keeping
yourself? I've been so busy I haven't had time to look for you. You're
going to stay to dinner, and Hastings, and all the people who have
helped."

"No, I'm not," answered Victoria, with a glance at Austen, before whom
this announcement was so delicately made, "I'm going home."

"But when am I to see you?" cried Mr. Crewe, as near genuine alarm as he
ever got. "You never let me see you. I was going to drive you home in the
motor by moonlight."

"We all know that you're the most original person, Victoria," said Mrs.
Pomfret, "full of whims and strange fancies," she added, with the only
brief look at Austen she had deigned to bestow on him. "It never pays to
count on you for twenty-four hours. I suppose you're off on another wild
expedition."

"I think I've earned the right to it," said Victoria;--"I've poured
lemonade for Humphrey's constituents the whole afternoon. And besides,
I never said I'd stay for dinner. I'm going home. Father's leaving for
California in the morning."

"He'd better stay at home and look after her," Mrs. Pomfret remarked,
when Victoria was out of hearing.

"Since Mrs. Harry Haynes ran off, one can never tell what a woman will
do. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Victoria eloped with a handsome
nobody like that. Of course he's after her money, but he wouldn't get
it, not if I know Augustus Flint."

"Is he handsome?" said Mr. Crewe, as though the idea were a new one.
"Great Scott, I don't believe she gives him a thought. She's only going
as far as the field with him. She insisted on leaving her horse there
instead of putting him in the stable."

"Catch Alice going as far as the field with him," said Mrs. Pomfret,
"but I've done my duty. It's none of my affair."

In the meantime Austen and Victoria had walked on some distance in
silence.

"I have an idea with whom Mr. Crewe is in love," he s