iss Deborah did not reply immediately. "Well, I don't know; perhaps
not," she conceded. "I do like a man to be of an age to know his own
mind. That is why I am so surprised at Adele Dale's anxiety to bring
about a match between young Forsythe and Lois, they are neither of them
old enough to know their own minds. And it is scarcely delicate in Adele,
I must say."

"He's a very superior young man," objected Miss Ruth.

"Yes," Miss Deborah acknowledged; "and yet"--she hesitated a little--"I
think he has not quite the--the modesty one expects in a young person."

"Yes, but think how he has seen the world, sister!" cried Miss Ruth. "You
cannot expect him to be just like other young people."

"True," said Miss Deborah, nodding her head; "and yet"--it was evident
from her persistence that Miss Deborah had a grievance of some kind--"yet
he seems to have more than a proper conceit. I heard him talk about
whist, one evening at the rectory; he said something about a person,--a
Pole, I believe,--and his rules in regard to 'signaling.' I asked him if
he played," Miss Deborah continued, her hands showing a little angry
nervousness; "and he said, 'Oh, yes, I learned to play one winter in
Florida!' Learned to play in a winter, indeed! To achieve whist"--Miss
Deborah held her head very straight--"to achieve whist is the work
of a lifetime! I've no patience with a young person who says a thing like
that."

Miss Ruth was silenced for a moment; she had no excuse to offer.

"Adele Dale says the Forsythes are coming back in April," she said, at
last.

"Yes, I know it," answered Miss Deborah. "I suppose it will all be
arranged then. I asked Adele if Lois was engaged to him;--she said, 'Not
formally.' But I've no doubt there's an understanding."

Miss Deborah was so sure of this that she had even mentioned it casually
to Gifford, of course under the same seal of confidence with which it had
been told her.

It was quite true that Dick and his mother were to return to Ashurst.
After storming out of the rectory library the night of the Misses
Woodhouse's dinner party, Dick had had a period of hatred of everything
connected with Ashurst; but that did not last more than a month, and was
followed by an imploring letter to Lois. Her answer brought the anger
back again, and then its reaction of love; this see-saw was kept up,
until his last letter had announced that he and his mother were coming
to take the house they had had before, and spe