heard, Howat--Mrs. Winscombe will be here perhaps a month. It's a wonder
you haven't gone away, you are so frightfully annoyed by people. Last
night you were with her over an hour on the lawn. I could see that
father thought it queer; but I explained to him that court women never
thought of little things like, well, husbands."

Howat gazed at her coldly, for the first time conscious that he actually
disliked Myrtle. He made up his mind, definitely, to assist Caroline as
far as possible. She was absurd, criticizing Mrs. Winscombe. "Where," he
demanded, "did you get all that about courts? And your sudden, tender
interest in husbands? That's new, too. You're not thinking of one for
yourself, are you? He'd never see you down in the morning."

A bright, angry colour flooded her cheeks. "You are as coarse as
possible," she declared. "I'm sure I wish you'd stay away altogether
from Myrtle Forge; you've never been anything but a bother." She left
abruptly. "Sweet disposition." Howat grinned. "You are seeing family
life as it's actually lived." Later his thoughts returned to what she
had said about Ludowika Winscombe; he recalled the latter's speech,
seated on the doorstep; some stuff about a premonition. Myrtle had
suggested that he was interested in her. What ridiculous nonsense! If
his father said anything on that score the other would discover that he
was no longer a boy. Besides, such insinuations were a breach of
hospitality. How Mrs. Winscombe would laugh at them if she suspected
Myrtle's cheap folly.

She had asked him to call her Ludowika. He decided that he would; really
he couldn't get out of it now. It would do no harm. Ludowika! It was a
nice name; undoubtedly Polish. He thought again about what she had said
of Polish forests, the dissatisfaction that had followed her for so many