n't always necessary; it must bother Mrs. Loring too; he's
quite off his head about her if she only knew it. However, it's my
last day very likely, and if I have to outwit Machiavelli I'll manage
it somehow! Surely one lame old woman, and a torpid machine for
knitting and writing notes like Miss Smeardon, can't want to be out of
doors all day. Hang that boy, though! He'll come anywhere." Here he
stopped and sat down suddenly at the dressing-table, covering his face
with his hands in comic despair. "Mrs. Loring can't like it! She must
be doing it on purpose, avoiding being alone with me because she sees
I admire her," he sighed. "After all why should I ever suppose that I
interest her as much as she does me?"

No one could have told from Lavendar's face, when he appeared fresh
and smiling at the breakfast table half an hour later, that he was
hatching any deep-laid schemes.

Robinette entered the dining room five minutes late, as usual, pretty
as a pink, breathless with hurrying. She wore a white dress again,
with one rose stuck at her waistband, "A little tribute from the
gardener," she said, as she noticed Lavendar glance at it. She went
rapidly around the table shaking hands, and gave Carnaby's red cheeks
a pinch in passing that made Lavendar long to tweak the boy's ear.

"Good morning, all!" she said cheerily, "and how is my first cousin
once removed? Is he going to Weston with me this morning to buy
hairpins?"

"He is!" Carnaby answered joyfully, between mouthfuls of bacon and
eggs. "He has been out of hairpins for a week."

"Does he need tapes and buttons also?" asked Robinette, taking the
piece of muffin from his hand and buttering it for herself; an act
highly disapproved of by Mrs. de Tracy, who hurriedly requested Bates
to pass the bread.

"He needs everything you need," Carnaby said with heightened colour.

"My hair is giving me a good deal of trouble, lately," remarked
Lavendar, passing his hand over a thickly thatched head.

"I have an excellent American tonic that I will give you after
breakfast," said Robinette roguishly. "You need to apply it with a
brush at ten, eleven, and twelve o'clock, sitting in the sun
continuously between those hours so that the scalp may be well
invigorated. Carnaby, will you buy me butter scotch and lemonade and
oranges in Weston?"

"I will, if Grandmother'll increase my allowance," said Carnaby
malevolently, "for I need every penny I've got in hand for the
hairpins.