th all manner of cold dishes, supplemented by
others upon the sideboard. There were pots of jam and honey, a silver
teapot and silver spoons and forks of quaint design, strangely cut
glass, and a great Dresden bowl filled with flowers.

"I am afraid," John remarked, "that you are not used to dining at this
hour. My brother and I are very old-fashioned in our customs. If we had
had a little longer notice--"

"I never in my life saw anything that looked so delicious as your cold
chicken," Louise declared. "May I have some--and some ham? I believe
that you must farm some land yourselves. Everything looks as if it were
home-made or home-grown."

"We are certainly farmers," John admitted, with a smile, "and I don't
think there is much here that isn't of our own production."

"Of course, one must have some occupation, living so far out of the
world," Louise murmured. "I really am the most fortunate person," she
continued. "My car comes to grief in what seems to be a wilderness, and
I find myself in a very palace of plenty!"

"I am not sure that your maid agrees," John laughed. "She seemed rather
horrified when she found that there was no woman servant about the
place."

"Aline is spoiled, without a doubt," her mistress declared. "But is that
really the truth?"

"Absolutely."

"But how do you manage?" Louise went on. "Don't you need dairymaids, for
instance?"

"The farm buildings are some distance away from the house," John
explained. "There is quite a little colony at the back, and the woman
who superintends the dairy lives there. It is only in the house that we
are entirely independent of your sex. We manage, somehow or other, with
Jennings here and two boys."

"You are not both woman-haters, I hope?"

Her younger host flashed a warning glance at Louise, but it was too
late. Stephen had laid down his knife and fork and was leaning in her
direction.

"Madam," he intervened, "since you have asked the question, I will
confess that I have never known any good come to a man of our family
from the friendship or service of women. Our family history, if ever you
should come to know it, would amply justify my brother and myself for
our attitude toward your sex."

"Stephen!" John remonstrated, a slight frown upon his face. "Need you
weary our guest with your peculiar views? It is scarcely polite, to say
the least of it."

The older man sat, for a moment, grim and silent.

"Perhaps you are right, brother," he admit