e of
her. It is true that he could have seen more if he had tried, but Peter
was not used to practice finesse to win minutes and hours with a girl,
and did not feel called upon, bluntly, to take such opportunities. His
stay was not so pleasant as he had expected. He had thought a week in
the same house with Miss De Voe, Dorothy and Lispenard, without much
regard to other possible guests, could not but be a continual pleasure.
But he was conscious that something was amiss with his three friends.
Nor was Peter the only one who felt it. Dorothy said to her family when
she went home:

"I can't imagine what is the matter with Cousin Anneke. All last spring
she was nicer to me than she has ever been before, but from the moment I
arrived at Newport, and before I could possibly have said or done
anything to offend her, she treated me in the snippiest way. After two
days I asked her what the matter was, but she insisted there was
nothing, and really lost her temper at my suggesting the idea. There was
something, I know, for when I said I was coming home sooner than I had
at first intended, she didn't try to make me stay."

"Perhaps," said Mrs. Ogden, "she was disappointed in something, and so
vented her feeling on you."

"But she wasn't cross--except when I asked her what the matter was. She
was just--just snippy."

"Was Mr. Stirling there?"

"Yes. And a lot of other people. I don't think anybody had a good time,
unless it was Cousin Lispenard. And he wasn't a bit nice. He had some
joke to himself, and kept making remarks that nobody could understand,
and chuckling over them. I told him once that he was rude, but he said
that 'when people went to a play they should laugh at the right points.'
That's the nice thing about Mr. Stirling. You know that what he says is
the real truth."

"Lispenard's always trying to be clever."

"Yes. What do you suppose he said to me as I came away!"

"What?"

"He shook my hand, laughing, and said, 'Exit villain. It is to be a
comedy, not a tragedy.' What could he mean?"

Lispenard stayed on to see the "comedy," and seemed to enjoy it, if the
amused expression on his face when he occasionally gave himself up to
meditation was any criterion. Peter had been pressed to stay beyond the
original week, and had so far yielded as to add three days to his visit.
These last three days were much pleasanter than those which had gone
before, although Dorothy had departed and Peter liked Dorothy. But