't even looking at them, but they called me, so I had to go.
They only wanted to know if Lousey Hard was private. Of course I told them
it wasn't. It was a very middle-aged man spoke to me. He must be the owner.
As soon as they were tied up he wanted to jump ashore. It was rather
awkward, and I just held out my hand to help him. Father saw me from here.
I might have known he would."

"Why! It's going off!" exclaimed Miss Ingate.

The yacht swung slowly round, held by her stern to the Hard. Then the last
hawser was cast off, and she floated away on the first of the ebb; and as
she moved, her main-sail, unbrailed, spread itself out and became a vast
pinion. Like a dream of happiness she lessened and faded, and Lousey Hard
was as lonely and forlorn as ever.

"But didn't you explain to your father?" Miss Ingate demanded of Audrey.

"Of course I did. But he wouldn't listen. He never does. I might just as
well have explained to the hall-clock. He raged. I think he enjoys losing
his temper. He said I oughtn't to have been there at all, and it was just
like me, and he couldn't understand it in a daughter of his, and it would
be a great shock to my poor mother, and he'd talked enough--he should now
proceed to action. All the usual things. He actually asked me who 'the man'
was."

"And who was it?"

"How can I tell? For goodness' sake don't go imitating father, Winnie! ...
Rather a dull man, I should say. Rather like father, only not so old. He
had a beautiful necktie; I think it must have been made out of a strip of
Joseph's coat."

Miss Ingate giggled at a high pitch, and Audrey responsively smiled.

"Oh dear! Oh dear!" murmured Miss Ingate when her giggling was exhausted.
"How queer it is that a girl like you can't keep your father in a good
temper!"

"Father hates me to say funny things. If I say anything funny he turns as
black as ink--and he takes care to keep gloomy all the rest of the day,
too. He never laughs. Mother laughs now and then, but I never heard father
laugh. Oh yes, I did. He laughed when the cat fell out of the bathroom
window on to the lawn-roller. He went quite red in the face with
laughing.... I say, Miss Ingate, do you think father's mad?"

"I shouldn't think he's what you call mad," replied Miss Ingate judicially,
with admirable sang-froid. "I've known so many peculiar people in my time.
And you must remember, Audrey, this is a peculiar part of the world."

"Well, I believe he's mad, anyway.