ks and bonds. He
doesn't know he's going to marry Alice. It almost makes one a Calvinist,
doesn't it. He's predestined, but perfectly happy."

"Who is he in love with?" demanded Austen, ungrammatically.

"I'm going to say good-by to him. I'll meet you in the field, if you
don't care to come. It's only manners, after all, although the lemonade's
all gone and I haven't had a drop."

"I'll go along too," he said.

"Aren't you afraid of Mrs. Pomfret?"

"Not a bit!"

"I am," said Victoria, "but I think you'd better come just the same."

Around the corner of the house they found them,--Mr. Crewe urging the
departing guests to remain, and not to be bashful in the future about
calling.

"We don't always have lemonade and cake," he was saying, "but you can be
sure of a welcome, just the same. Good-by, Vane, glad you came. Did they
show you through the stables? Did you see the mate to the horse I lost?
Beauty, isn't he? Stir 'em up and get the money. I guess we won't see
much of each other politically. You're anti-railroad. I don't believe
that tack'll work--we can't get along without corporations, you know. You
ought to talk to Flint. I'll give you a letter of introduction to him. I
don't know what I'd have done without that man Tooting in your father's
office. He's a wasted genius in Ripton. What? Good-by, you'll find your
wagon, I guess. Well, Victoria, where have you been keeping yourself?
I've been so busy I haven't had time to look for you. You're going to
stay to dinner, and Hastings, and all the people who have helped."

"No, I'm not," answered Victoria, with a glance at Austen, before whom
this announcement was so delicately made, "I'm going home."

"But when am I to see you?" cried Mr. Crewe, as near genuine alarm as he
ever got. You never let me see you. I was going to drive you home in the
motor by moonlight."

"We all know that you're the most original person, Victoria," said Mrs.
Pomfret, "full of whims and strange fancies," she added, with the only
brief look at Austen she had deigned to bestow on him. "It never pays to
count on you for twenty-four hours. I suppose you're off on another wild
expedition."

"I think I've earned the right to it," said Victoria;--I've poured
lemonade for Humphrey's constituents the whole afternoon. And besides, I
never said I'd stay for dinner. I'm going home. Father's leaving for
California in the morning."

"He'd better stay at home and look after her," Mrs. Pomfret