"I dropped off of that car solely in pursuit of a selfish aim. And I
didn't come out here to-day to be thanked, either. I mean, of course,
I'd enjoy meeting your mother and sister very much, but what I came for
was to get acquainted with you."

He saw her glance wander a little dubiously to the door. "That is," he
concluded, "if you haven't something else to do."

She flushed and smiled. "No, it wasn't that," she said, "I was trying to
make up my mind whether it would be better to ask you to wait here ten
minutes while I went up and made myself a little more presentable.... I
mean, whether you'd rather have me fit to look at, or have me like this
and not be bored by waiting. It's all one to me, you see, because even
if I did come down again presentable, you'd know--well, that I wasn't
that way naturally."

Whereupon he laughed out again, told her that a ten-minute wait would
bore him horribly, and that if she didn't mind, he much preferred her
natural.

"All right," she said, and went on with the conversation where she had
interrupted it.

"Why, I'm nobody much to get acquainted with," she said. "Mother's the
interesting one--mother and Portia. Mother's quite a person. She's Naomi
Rutledge Stanton, you know."

"I know I ought to know," Rodney said, and her quick appreciative smile
over his candor rewarded him for not having pretended.