re
preparing the dinner and the men were away at work. No strange faces
peered from inhospitable doorways; there was nothing to-day that could
give the stranger a sense of outlawry, of almost savage avoidance of
ordinary customs and manners. Harry's heart beat wildly as he walked
down the street; there was no change here; it was as he had left it.
He was at home here as he could never be in that new, strident
Pendragon with its utter disregard of tradition and beauty.

He saw that it was late and hurried back. He had discovered a great
deal during the morning.

At lunch he spoke of the changes that he had seen. Clare smiled.
"Why, of course," she said. "Twenty years is a long time, and
Pendragon has made great strides. For my part, I am very glad. It
brings money to the shopkeepers, and the place will be quite
fashionable in a few years' time. We're all on the side of progress up
here," she added, laughing.

"But the Cove?" said Harry. "Barbour tells me that they are thinking
of pulling it down to make way for lodging-houses or something."

"Well, why not?" said Clare. "It is really very much in the way where
it is, and is, I am told, extremely insanitary. We must be practical
nowadays or we are nothing; you have to pay heavily for being romantic."

Harry felt again that sensation of personal affront as though some
close friend, bound to him by many ties, had been attacked violently in
his presence. It was unreasonable, he knew, but it was very strong.

"And you, Robin," he said, "what do you think of it?"

"I agree with Aunt Clare," answered Robin lightly, as though it were a
matter that interested him very little. "If the place is in the way,
it ought to go. He's a sensible man, Barbour."

"The fact is, Harry," said Garrett, "you haven't changed quite as fast
as the place has. You'll see the point of view in a few weeks' time."

He felt unreasonably, ridiculously angry. They were all treating him
as a child, as some one who would grow up one day perhaps, but was, at
present at any rate, immature in thought and word; even with Robin
there was a half-implied superiority.

"But the Cove!" he cried vehemently. "Is it nothing to any of you?
After all that it has been to us all our lives, to our people, to the
whole place, are you going to root it out and destroy it simply because
the town isn't quite big enough to put up all the trippers that burden
it in the summer? Don't you see what you will