constantly afraid he'd marry some unsuitable young woman, and the only
safety was that he would see a new one before it became too serious. She
said it really told upon her health. Dear me, I should think it might."

Mrs. Dale tossed her head, and her knitting-needles clicked viciously;
then she told Lois that this was the rubber, and she had better see to
the tray. The young girl must have heard every word they said, though
she had not lifted her bright eyes from her book, but she did not seem
disturbed by the charge of fickleness on the part of Mr. Forsythe. He had
not confided to her his reasons for not going abroad; all she knew was
that the summer was the merriest one she had ever spent. "I feel so
young," little Lois said; and indeed she had caught a certain careless
gayety from her almost daily companion, which did not belong to Ashurst.
But she gave no thought to his reason for staying, though her father and
Mrs. Dale did, and with great satisfaction.

"What do you hear from Helen, brother?" Mrs. Dale asked, as Lois rose to
do her bidding. Mrs. Dale was determined to leave the subject of Dick
Forsythe, "for Henry has so little sense," she thought, "there is no
knowing what he'll say next, or Deborah Woodhouse either. But then, one
couldn't expect anything else of her."

"Ah,--she's all right," said Dr. Howe, frowning at Miss Ruth's hand, and
then glancing at Mr. Dale's, and thrusting out his lower lip, while his
bushy eyebrows gathered in a frown.

"What is Ward?" asked Mr. Dale, sorting his cards. "Old or new school?"

"I'm sure I don't know the difference," said Dr. Howe; "he's a blue
Presbyterian, though, through and through. He didn't have much to say