know
she is very fond of you, and she will like you to come as often as
possible, you and your brother."

"Con," Johnny said as he drove her home that evening, "don't you think
we might run to a little car, just a cheap two-seater? It would be so
useful. Look, we could run over to Starden in less than half an hour. We
can be there and back in an hour if we wanted to, and Helen would be so
jolly glad, don't you think?"

Constance smiled to herself.

"We haven't much money now, Johnny," she said. "Last year's hops
were--awful!"

"They are going to be ripping this year. I've got that blight down all
right," he said cheerily.

"Yes, dear; well, if you think--" She hesitated.

"Oh, we can manage it somehow," he said hopefully.

Constance looked at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"It will be useful for you to run over to Starden to see Helen--won't
it?"

"Yes, to see Helen. She's a good sort, one of the best, dear old Helen!
Isn't it ripping to have her near us again?"

"She could always have come to Buddesby if she had wanted to."

"Oh, there isn't much room there!"

"But always room enough for Helen, Johnny. You haven't told me what you
think of Joan Meredyth."

She watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He stared straight ahead
between the ears of the old horse.

"Joan Meredyth," he repeated, and she saw a deep flush come stealing
under the tan of his cheeks. "Oh, she's handsome, Con. She almost took
my breath away. I think she is the loveliest girl I ever saw."

"Yes, and do you--"

"And do I admire her? Yes, I do, but I could wish she was just a little
less cold, a little less stately, Con."

"Perhaps it is shyness. Remember, we are strangers to her; she was not
cold and stately to me, Johnny."

"Ah!" Johnny said, and went on staring straight ahead down the road.

"Did Helen say much to you, Con?"

"Oh, a good deal!"

"About"--Johnny hesitated--"her?"

"Yes, a little; she thinks a great deal of her. She says that at first
Joan seemed to hold her at arm's length. Now they understand one another
better, and she says Joan has the best heart in the world."

"Yet she seems cold to me," said Johnny with a sigh.

Still, in spite of Joan's coldness, he found his way over to Starden
very often during the days that followed. He had picked up a small
secondhand car, which he strenuously learned to drive, and thereafter
the little car might have been seen plugging almost daily along the six