med to you--?" prompted Lavendar encouragingly.

"That she wasn't so awfully cut up, after all," said Carnaby. "She
seemed putting it on, if you know what I mean." Lavendar pricked up
his ears. Mrs. de Tracy's intense reluctance to sell the land recurred
to him in a flash. To get her consent had been like drawing a tooth,
like taking her life-blood drop by drop. Could it be that she was not
very sorry after all that the scheme had fallen through, secretly
glad, indeed? It was conceivable that this was Mrs. de Tracy's view,
but her grandson's motive was still obscure.

"Why did you do it, Carnaby?" Lavendar asked with kindness and gravity
both in his voice. "You have committed a very mischievous action, you
know, one that would have borne a harsher name had the transfers been
signed and had the plum tree changed hands."

"But then I shouldn't have done it--you--you juggins, Mark!" cried the
boy. "I've no earthly grudge against Waller R. A. If he'd actually
bought the tree, it would have been too late, and his beastly
money--"

"You need the money, you know," remarked Lavendar. "Remember that, my
young friend!"

"It would have been dirty money!" said Carnaby, with a sudden
flash that lit up his rather heavy face with a new expression.
"You and Cousin Robin have been jolly polite when you thought I was
listening, but _I_ know what you really thought, and the kind of
things you were saying to one another about this business! You
thought it beastly mean to take the cottage away from old Lizzie
in the way it was being done, and sheer robbery to deprive her of
the plum tree without paying her for it. I quite agreed with you
there, and if I felt like that, do you think I could sit still and
let the money come in to Stoke Revel--money that had been got in
such a way? What do you take me for?" Lavendar was silent, looking
at the boy in surprise. "Oh," continued Carnaby, "how I wish I were
of age! Then I could show Cousin Robin, perhaps, what an English
landlord can be! I mean that he can be a friend to his tenants, and
kind and generous as well as just. As it is, Cousin Robin will go
back to America and tell her friends what selfish brutes we are
over here, and how jolly glad she was to get away!"

"Mrs. Loring will carry no tales, I am sure," said Lavendar. "But tell
me, my dear fellow, did you imagine that Mrs. Prettyman would be a
gainer by your action?"

"Well, why not?" answered the boy. "Didn't you tell me yourself