Elsley was going to say something in return; but his guest turned the
conversation as fast as he could. "And now, I know you want to be busy,
though you are too civil to confess it; and I must be with that old fool
Tardrew at ten, to settle accounts: he'll scold me if I do not--the
precise old pedant--just as if I was his own child. Good-bye."

"Where are you going, Frederick?" called Lucia, from the window; she had
been watching the interview anxiously enough, and could see that it had
ended well.

"To old Stot-and-kye at the farm: do you want anything?"

"No; only I thought you might be going to the yacht; and Valencia would
have walked down with you. She wants to find Major Campbell."

"I want to scold Major Campbell," said Valencia, tripping out on the
lawn in her walking dress. "Why has he not been here an hour ago? I will
undertake to say that he was up at four this morning."

"He waits to be invited, I suppose," said Scoutbush.

"I suppose I must do it," said Elsley to himself, sighing.

"Just like his primness," said Valencia. "I shall go down and bring him
up myself this minute, and Mr. Vavasour shall come with me. Of course
you will! You do not know what a delightful person he is, when once you
can break the ice."

Elsley, like most vain men, was of a jealous temper; and Valencia's