too,
is extenuation. There's so much a woman can't talk of with men, they
have such different ways of seeing things, and let her love her men
folk never so dearly, if there's none of her own sex around, a woman's
lonesome, Alexina."

"Yes," said Alexina, "she is." But she said it absently, for she was
conscious of King William's gaze being upon her. She looked up
laughing, yet a little confused, for his look was warm.

He slipped along the railing, leaving Mrs. Garnier and the minister
chatting. In this blue serge suit and straw hat he looked very like
the King William of long ago, dark, keen and impatient.

"What do you think of it, Aden?" he asked.

"I like it," said Alexina. "Somehow as soon as you are in a thing the
scene changes to out of doors. It used to be Indians on the common, or
Crusoe in the yard, back there in Louisville."

"You began by saying you liked it," he reminded her. Did he think to
tease? His eyes were naughty. Here was a zest; this was no Georgy.

"And I do," she said, standing to it. "I do like it."

Was he always laughing at people, this William Leroy?

"They are coming to spend a day with us this week, Alexina and her
mother," Mrs. Leroy here told her son, at which, for all the
imperturbability of his countenance, Alexina was conscious of
something a little less happy about the son.

"They're very good to come," he responded. The tone might be called
guarded.

Certain recollections were crowding upon Alexina. Mrs. Leroy's
management, her housekeeping, even to a child's comprehension, had
been palpably erratic and unexpected.

The girl understood his masculine helplessness. Hers were the eyes
that laughed now.

"I've set the table in your house before," she informed him, "while
you made toast."

His countenance cleared. He met her gaze solemnly. "It's a bargain,"
he said. "What day, mother?"

That night Alexina was chatting with Mr. Jonas. She liked him. "You
said this morning," she reminded him, "that Mrs. Leroy was the wisest,
foolishest mother--what did you mean?"

"Just that," said Mr. Jonas. "Hasn't her very incompetency made the
boy?"

CHAPTER THREE

For the next three days Mr. Henderson avoided them. He spoke in the
hall or dining-room, to be sure, but joined them no more in plans or
on the gallery.

And Molly turned petulant. Why had they ever come to Aden, she moaned.
"Can't you propose something, Malise?" she besought.

Alexina, endeavouring to write