vacation from? What's he do for a livin'?
Anything but run receptions?"

"That's it--sneer! He does a great many things. He is interested in
literary work, so he says. He writes for a living, I suppose that
means."

"Humph! Has he got any answer?"

"Answer? Answer to what?"

"Why, to his writing. Has the livin' sent him word 'twas on the way,
or anything like that? I don't want to be mean, Serena. You know well
enough I ain't stingy. But I can't quite make that young fellow out. Why
did he come here, anyway? that's what sticks in my mind. What sort of
a chap is he? You know what that lawyer man said about him. Nigh as I
could make out from that, he thought he was a kind of high-toned loafer,
sportin' round on his aunt's money. Why does that kind of a fellow come
to live along with us? WE ain't sports."

"Will you EVER remember not to say 'ain't'? He came here because he
isn't that kind of a fellow at all. He explained about that. It seems
that he and that young upstart of a Farwell, the lawyer, had had some
words and Farwell had a grudge against him. He thinks it was largely
owing to those lawyers' influence that Aunt Lavinia treated him as she
did in her will. But he doesn't hold any grudge. I never heard anybody
speak more forgiving or kind than he did about the whole affair. I
declare, it was positively affecting! He told me about his life and
about how he was all alone in the world; how he had never had to earn
much--never having been brought up to it--but that now he was trying to
do his best. I felt so sorry for him, and that was one of the reasons
why I thought we, the only relations he has, ought to be kind and
show him hospitality at least. I never thought you were inhospitable,
Daniel."

"I ain't, Serena. That is, I mean I are--am not. But--but--Well, I'll
tell you. I haven't told you before, although I meant to, but he and I
met once since we've been in Scarford. I told you about the meeting, but
I didn't know then who I met. Now I--"

"I know. He told me about that, too. He was the one you met at the hotel
that afternoon. He said he was ashamed of his behavior that day, that
he was tired, out of sorts, and discouraged. He thought you had been
listening to what he and his friend had been saying, and it made him
cross. He said that he apologized when he first came to the house, and
I remember that he did, and he asked me whether I thought any further
apology was necessary. I said no, of course it wasn