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She liked him, he knew; but if he could read women at all, and he thought he could, she liked him only as a friend, and had not a particle of sentiment about him. He was easy, then, as to the point Mrs. Nailor had raised; but had he the right to subject Lois to gossip? This was the main thing that troubled him. He was half angry with himself that it kept rising in his mind.
"Oh, but you must go! We must get you an invitation, mustn't we, Alice?" Mrs. Nailor was always ready to promise anything, provided she could make her engagement in partnership and then slip out and leave the performance to her friend. "Why, yes; there is not the least trouble about getting an invitation. Mrs. Nailor can get you one easily." Keith looked acquiescent.
He tried retiring to his old home, as he had done in the Summer; but it was even worse than it had been then. Rumor came to him that Lois Huntington was engaged. It came through Mrs. Nailor, and he could not verify it; but, at least, she was lost to him. He cursed himself for a fool. The picture of Mrs.
Nailor was staggered; but she was in for it, and she had to fight her way through. "I was scared to death, my dear," she said when she repeated this part of the conversation, "for I never know just how he is going to take anything; but he was so quiet, I went on."
My wife and Mary and Susan had one after the other appeared at the companion hatch, and with pale faces, as they saw the state of things, had gone below again. I hadn't the heart even to tell them my fears. Bob Hunt and Dick Nailor took matters very coolly.
"I wanted to see some roses that I knew bloomed in an old garden about here." "He, perhaps, thought that, as Brookford is growing so fashionable now, he might find a mutual friend of ours here?" Mrs. Nailor said. "As whom, for instance?" queried Keith, unwilling to commit himself. "You know, Alice Lancaster has been talking of coming here? Now, don't pretend that you don't know.
His friends congratulated him, and his acquaintances greeted him with a warmth that, a few years before, would have cheered his heart and have made him their friend for life. Mrs. Nailor, when she met him, almost fell on his neck. She actually called him her "dear boy." "Oh, I have been hearing about you!" she said archly. "You must come and dine with us at once and tell us all about it."
Yorke said he was of a very old and distinguished family. She gave him a pedigree that would have done honor to a Derby-winner. "I am so glad," declared Mrs. Nailor. "I knew he must be, of course. I am sure you would never encourage such an intimacy unless he were?" She smiled herself off, leaving Mrs. Yorke fuming. "That woman is always sticking pins into people," she said to herself.
"I want you to show me about these grounds," he said, speaking so that both ladies could hear him. He rose, and both walked out of the parlor. When Mrs. Nailor came out, Keith and his guide were nowhere to be found, so she had to wait; but a half-hour afterwards he and Miss Huntington came back from the stables.
Keith wondered if it were a fancy of his that they were holding a little aloof from her. Presently Mrs. Nailor came up and spoke to her. Keith backed away a little, and found himself mixed up with the train of a lady behind him, a dainty thing of white muslin. He apologized in some confusion, and turning, found himself looking into Lois Huntington's eyes.
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