of the love-story? What would Howard
Snelling know of the delicate situation 'twixt himself and Mr.
Galbraith's daughter? And even though no rumors of the affair reached
Cynthia at all, Robert Morton was old enough to sense the hazard of
introducing one woman to another.

Well, the risk must be taken; there was no escape from it now. Even as
these disquieting imaginings chased themselves through his mind, the
car stopped before the door and Roger Galbraith, who had come to meet
the guests, entered at the gate. No courtesy that would add to their
comfort had been omitted. There were rugs and extra wraps, and a drive
along the shore road had been planned as an added pleasure.

Willie, his back actually turned on his beloved workshop, was in the
seventh heaven.

"What you settin' on the peaked edge of the seat for, Celestina?" he
asked when once they were in the automobile. "The thing ain't goin' to
blow up or break down. Let your whole heft sink into the cushions an'
enjoy yourself. 'Tain't often you get the chance to go a-ridin'."

His joy in the novel experience was as unalloyed and as transparent as
a child's.

"My soul!" he ejaculated as the vehicle turned at last into the broad
avenue leading to the Galbraith estate. "Ain't this a big place!
Big's a hotel an' some to spare."

Even after the introductions had been performed and he had sunk into a
wicker chair beside his host, with a great pillow behind him to keep
him from being swallowed up and lost entirely, he abated not a whit of
his gladness, admiring the flowers, the smoothly cut lawns, and the
ocean view until he radiated good humor on all sides. But it was when
the tea wagon was rolled out and placed before Madam Lee that his
interest was not to be curbed.

"Ain't that cute now?" he commented, his eyes following the
unaccustomed sight with alertness. "The feller that got a-holt of that
idee found a good one. Trundles along like a little baby carriage,
don't it?"

Nothing would satisfy him until he had examined every part of the
invention, and Celestina trembled lest then and there his brain be
stimulated to action and he make a bolt for home to complete without
delay some sudden scheme the novelty had engendered. However, no such
calamity occurred. He drank his tea with satisfaction and was
presently borne off by Mr. Galbraith to inspect a recently purchased
barometer. After he had gone the company broke up into little groups.
Mrs. Ga