As she finished speaking, Mr. Farnshaw came into the kitchen.

"Well, pa, how do you do?" Elizabeth said, turning toward him pleasantly.
She wanted to tell him of her engagement, now that she had told her
mother, and she wanted to be at peace with him.

Mr. Farnshaw mumbled a curt reply and, picking up the empty basket
standing beside the stove, went out of the house, slamming the door behind
him significantly.

"I wanted to tell him myself," Elizabeth said with a half-shamed look in
her mother's direction. "I'm glad all men aren't like that."

"Well, he remembers that awful thing you said about partin'----" Mrs.
Farnshaw began.

"But this isn't any new thing in him, ma. He's always been that way,"
Elizabeth objected, determined not to let her mother start on that subject
to-day.

"Oh, I know it! They all get that way if they're let; think they own
everything in sight. They get worse, too, as they get older. You do what I
said an' set your foot down about that house," her mother replied, and
turned to put a pan of bread in the oven.

CHAPTER VII

ERASING HER BLACKBOARD

John's attention centred about the new house and each day found him more
impatient to see it finished. The creature comforts of life were his main
ideals and he wanted to get settled. Sunday afternoon found him early at
Nathan's to consult with Elizabeth about the kitchen windows. Susan
Hornby's surprised recognition of his annoyance, when he was told that she
had gone home, added to the unpleasantness of the eight-mile drive. What
business had that woman studying him or his moods? he asked himself as he
drove away. He would not get out of the wagon when he reached Elizabeth's
home, though the sun was hot and Mrs. Farnshaw urged him to do so. He was
irritated, he did not know at what, but he was. He hurried Elizabeth away
without ceremony. As soon as they were beyond earshot he began to voice
his grievances. The point he discussed had nothing whatever to do with the
real ground for his irritability, but served as an outlet for his acrid
frame of mind.

"If you want to go anywhere, let me know it so that I can take you. I
can't have you running around the country in this fashion," he began.

Elizabeth, who had felt his manner, looked up in puzzled surprise. She
could see nothing in that to be fretted about. It was so good to see him,
to have him with her again after a night spent in her father's house, that
she was ready to conced