ooked up quickly, startled. "Oh, I haven't any. Have
you?"

"Yes. I always seek some cool spot. You have an invitation to View
Point, I understand. You could scarcely do better."

"I have reasons, father," impressively, "reasons for declining that."

"Then where are you going?"

"I would just as lief stay here and take care of your house as not,"
declared the lady magnanimously.

"Ha! Without any servants?"

"Why, what do you mean?"

"They are going away for a vacation. I am intending to have the house
wired, and Mrs. Forbes and Zeke will hold sway in the barn. She doesn't
wish to leave him."

Mrs. Evringham was silenced and dismayed. She felt herself being firmly
and inexorably pushed out of this well-lined nest.

Her eyes fell before the impenetrable ones regarding her.

"How did Jewel ever win him?" she thought. The picturesque pony, with
his arched neck and expensive trappings, had outraged her feelings for
days.

"About the View Point plan," continued Mr. Evringham deliberately.
"I think there are influences waiting for you there that will be of
benefit. There is a new philosophy percolating in these days through our
worldly rubbish which you and I would be the better for grasping. Your
chances are better than mine, for you are young still. Your daughter is
expanding like a flower already, in the first rays of her understanding
of it. This young man whom you fancy you can avoid is a help to her. Mr.
Reeves was talking to me about him last night. He says that so far as
his business is concerned, young Bonnell is proving the square peg in
the square hole. I don't know what Eloise's sentiments are toward him,
but I do know that she shall be independent of any one's financial help
but mine."

Mrs. Evringham lifted her eyes hopefully.

"I shall eke out the little income which is left to you with sufficient
for you to live--not as you have done--but comfortably."

The eager light faded from his listener's eyes.

"Eloise and I have arranged that," he continued, "and she is satisfied.
Take my advice, Madge. Go to View Point."

"I suppose Eloise doesn't need horses so long as Jewel has them," said
Mrs. Evringham rising.

Her host followed her example. "She thinks not," he returned concisely;
then he opened the library door, and his daughter-in-law swept from his
presence with all the dignity she could muster.

CHAPTER XXVIII

AT TWILIGHT

It was Sunday, and Mr. Bonnell was dining at Bel-Air Pa