rival.

"Thanks," he said, coolly; "it is a trifle close indoors."

Before the dismayed captain could think of any dignified pretext to stay
him he was out of the room. The doctor followed and the perturbed
captain, left alone, stared blankly at the door and thought of his
daughter's words concerning the thin end of the wedge.

He was a proud man and loth to show discomfiture, so that it was not
until a quarter of an hour later that he followed his guests to the
garden. The four people were in couples, the paths favouring that
formation, although the doctor, to the detriment of the border, had made
two or three determined attempts to march in fours. With a feeling akin
to scorn the captain saw that he was walking with Mrs. Kingdom, while
some distance in the rear Jem Hardy followed with Kate.

He stood at the back door for a little while watching; Hardy, upright and
elate, was listening with profound attention to Miss Nugent; the doctor,
sauntering along beside Mrs. Kingdom, was listening with a languid air to
an account of her celebrated escape from measles some forty-three years
before. As a professional man he would have died rather than have owed
his life to the specific she advocated.

Kate Nugent, catching sight of her father, turned, and as he came slowly
towards them, linked her arm, in his. Her face was slightly flushed and
her eyes sparkled.

"I was just coming in to fetch you," she observed; "it is so pleasant out
here now."