aid Beth to Peter.

"About----?"

"Singin' like an angel in Heaven," she said promptly aware of Shad's
bridling glance.

"Oh, well," repeated Peter, "you do--you know."

"It was very nice of you--and you a musician."

"Musician!" growled Shad. "He ain't a musician."

"Oh, yes, he is, and he says I've a voice like an angel. _You_ never
said that, Shad Wells."

"No. Nor I won't," he snapped surlily.

Peter would have been more amused if he hadn't thought that Shad Wells
was unhappy.

He needed the man's allegiance and he had no wish to make an enemy of
him.

"Musician!" Shad growled. "Then it was you the men heard last night."

"I found a piano in the cabin. I was trying it," said Peter. Shad said
nothing in reply but he put every shade of scorn into the way in which
he spat into the road.

"A piano----!" Beth gasped. "Where? What cabin?"

"The playhouse--where I live," said Peter politely.

"Oh."

There was a silence on the part of both of his companions, awkwardly
long.

So Peter made an effort to relieve the tension, commenting on the new
arrivals at Black Rock House.

At the mention of Peggy's name Beth showed fresh excitement.

"Miss McGuire! Here? When----?"

"This morning. Do you know her?"

"No. But I've seen her. I think she's just lovely."

"Why?"

"She wears such beautiful clothes and--and hats and veils."

Peter laughed. "And that's your definition of loveliness."

"Why, yes," she said in wonder. "Last year all the girls were copyin'
her, puttin' little puffs of hair over their ears--I tried it, but it
looked funny. Is she going to be here long? Has she got a 'beau' with
her? She always had. It's a wonder she doesn't run over somebody, the
way she drives."

"She nearly got me this mornin'," growled Shad.

"I wish she would--if you're going to look like a meat-ax, Shad Wells."

There was no reconciling them now, and when Beth's home was reached, all
three of them went different ways. What a rogue she was! And poor Shad
Wells who was to have taken Peter at a gobble, seemed a very poor sort
of a creature in Beth's hands.

She amused Peter greatly, but she annoyed him a little too, ruffled up
the shreds of his princely dignity, not yet entirely inured to the
trials of social regeneration. And Shad's blind adoration was merely a
vehicle for her amusement. It would have been very much better if she
hadn't used Peter's compliment as a bait for Shad. Peter had come to
the point o