rl knew absolutely nothing, though it came
very near entering her heart at that instant when the shrewd,
penetrating gaze of her kinsman forced her to answer his question.

"Why--nothing, I'm afraid. Only to love her."

"Hmm. Well, you'll have to add a bit of practical aid to the loving, I
guess, if you want to keep her with you. She looks as if the wind might
blow her away if she got caught out in it. Now, good night. You and your
brother can go. I'll sit here till that saucy Irishwoman gets my room
ready. Take care! If you don't mind where you're going, you'll drop
sperm on the rug, tipping that candlestick so!"

[Illustration: "TAKE CARE! YOU'LL DROP SPERM ON THE RUG, TIPPING THAT
CANDLESTICK SO!"]

Hallam had been standing, leaning against the newel post, with his own
too ready temper flaming within him. But there was one tenet in the Kaye
household which had been held to rigidly by all its members: the guest
within the house was sacred from any discourteous word or deed. Else the
boy felt he should have given his new-found relative what Cleena called
"a good pie-shaped piece of his mind."

He had to wait a moment before he could say "good night" in a decent
tone of voice, then swung up the staircase in the direction of his
mother's room.

Amy was too much astonished to say even thus much. She righted the
candlestick, amazed at the interest in rugs which Mr. Wingate displayed,
and followed her brother very slowly, like one entering a dark passage
wherein she might go astray.

She stopped where Hallam had, before their mother's door, which was so
rarely closed against them. Even now, as she heard her children
whispering behind the panel, Mrs. Kaye came out and gave them each their
accustomed caress; then bade them get straight to bed, for she would be
having a long talk with them in the morning, and she wanted them to be
"as bright as daisies," to understand it.

"Mother, that man! He--he's so dreadful! He scolded me about the
candlestick, and--and you--and he made me feel like a great baby."

"I wish he might have waited; but, no matter. Good night."

It was a very confused and troubled Amy who crept into bed a little
while afterward, and she meant to lie awake and think everything out
straight, but she was too sound and healthy to give up slumber for any
such purpose, and in a few minutes she was asleep.

CHAPTER VI.

SETTLEMENTS.

On the following morning the guest was the first person asti