d yet
not bold. She seems simply absolutely without self-consciousness; it is
as if she said and did exactly what she felt like doing, with no thought
as to whether it was--well, customary or not. I am afraid I am rather
conventional, Cousin--I mean Hugh; not in thought, I hope, but--in
temperament, perhaps. This girl strikes me very strangely; that is the
only way I can describe her. Yet she attracted me strongly, the only
time I saw her, which was the very day you came, by the way. I ought to
have gone over to see her before this. I think I will go this evening,
while you and Uncle John are having your after-supper smoke."

"I think I would," said Hugh Montfort.

CHAPTER VI.

ALI BABA

Margaret went over duly that evening, meaning to be very friendly to the
strange young woman; but it happened to be one of Mrs. Peyton's bad
times, and she sent down word that she needed Miss Wolfe, and could not
possibly spare her. Margaret left a civil message, and went home
disappointed, and yet the least bit relieved: she had rather dreaded a
long tete-a-tete with her new neighbor.

"How absurd you are, Margaret Montfort," she said, severely, as she
walked across the park. "Here you have been longing for a girl to talk
to, and the moment one comes, you are seized with what Peggy calls 'the
shyies,' just because she happens to be cut from a different pattern
from your own."

Hugh was on the verandah, waiting for her, and seemed really
disappointed when he heard that she had not seen Miss Wolfe; that
showed how wide and cordial his interest was, and how much thought he
took for others, Margaret told herself. What could he care about the
meeting of a cousin he had just begun to know with a girl whom he never
had seen?

Next day, however, she forgot all about Miss Wolfe, for the time being.
Gerald and Philip Merryweather had accepted Mr. Montfort's invitation
with amazing alacrity, and Jean had telegraphed her rapture of
anticipation from Ohio. Uncle John and Hugh were left to their own
devices, while she plunged, with Elizabeth and Frances and Polly, into
intricacies of hospitable preparation. Stores must be ordered, linen
examined, silver and china looked out. In regard to the silver, Margaret
had an experience that showed her that, even after two years, she did
not know all the resources of Fernley House. Her uncle called her into
his study after breakfast, and handed her a key of curious pattern.
"This is the key o