ER XIII

AMBITIONS AND LETTERS

Rosalie had departed; Grandcourt followed suit next day; Sylvia's
brother, Stuyvesant, had at last found a sober moment at his disposal
and had appeared at Roya-Neh and taken his sister away. Duane was all
ready to go to New York to find out whether his father was worrying over
anything, as the tone of his letters indicated.

The day he left, Kathleen and Geraldine started on a round of August
house parties, ranging from Lenox to Long Island, including tiresome
week ends and duty visits to some very unpretentious but highly
intellectual relatives of Mrs. Severn. So Scott remained in solitary
possession of Roya-Neh, with its forests, gardens, pastures, lakes and
streams, and a staggering payroll and all the multiplicity of problems
that such responsibility entails. Which pleased him immensely, except
for the departure of Kathleen.

To play the intellectual country squire had been all he desired on earth
except Kathleen. From the beginning White's "Selborne" had remained his
model for all books, Kathleen for all women. He was satisfied with these
two components of perfect happiness, and with himself, as he was, for
the third ingredient in a contented and symmetrical existence.

He had accepted his answer from her with more philosophy than she quite
expected or was prepared for, saying that if she made a particular
point of it he would go about next winter and give himself a chance to
meet as many desirable young girls as she thought best; that it was
merely wasting time, but if it made her any happier, he'd wait and
endeavour to return to their relations of unsentimental comradeship
until she was satisfied he knew his mind.

Kathleen was, at first, a little dismayed at his complacency. It was
only certainty of himself. At twenty-two there is time for anything, and
the vista of life ahead is endless. And there was one thing more which
Kathleen did not know. Under the covering of this Seagrave complacency
and self-centred sufficiency, all alone by itself was developing the
sprouting germ of consideration for others.

How it started he himself did not know--nor was he even aware that it
had started. But long, solitary rambles and the quiet contemplation of
other things besides himself had awakened first curiosity, then a
dawning suspicion of the rights of others.

In the silence of forests it is difficult to preserve complacency; under
the stars modesty is born.

It began to occur