in the
house was labelled by Dan, indexed by Dan, embellished with ornamental
flourishes and headlines, which Dan's big fingers alone had the power to
produce. Now he leaned an elbow on the desk, turned round on his chair,
and tilted that eloquent chin in scorn.

"Picnic? Not much. Hate 'em like poison! You don't want me!"

"We _do_ want you! We shouldn't have asked you if we didn't. Don't be
unsociable, Dan. It's an extra special occasion, and it would be so
much jollier to be complete. The boys will behave better if you're
there."

Dan's chin tilted still an inch higher. That was of course, but--

"I hate a family crowd!" he pronounced tersely. "If there were only one
or two, it wouldn't be so bad. Usual programme, I suppose--pick flowers
and eat biscuits? Not much in my line--thank you all the same. Hope
you'll have a good time!"

"We're going to have a _real_ lunch--chickens and all sorts of good
things, and walk to Oxholm across the fields. It will be much more
exciting than the old picnics have been."

"It might easily be that! No, thank you, I'm off. Some other day--"

"But we want you, Dan! _I_ want you to come."

"But _I_ don't, you see. There's the difference. Sorry to disoblige."

Darsie regarded him silently, considered the point whether wrath or
pathos would be the most powerful weapon, decided rapidly in favour of
pathos, and sank with a sigh on to an opposite chair.

"Very well. I _quite_ understand. We wanted you especially because
this may be the last, the very last time that one of us girls has any
fun this summer, so of course it feels important. But you are so much
older--it's natural that you shouldn't care. I think you've been very
nice to be as much with us as you have been... Dan!"

"Yes!"

"Hannah says it will be _me_! That Aunt Maria is sure to choose me when
she comes. Do you think she will?"

"Ten to one, I should say."

"Oh, but why? _Why_? How can you be so sure?"

Dan's dark eyes surveyed the alert little head, poised on the stem of
the graceful throat, his thin lips lengthened in the long, straight line
which showed that he was trying not to smile.

"Because--er, you appear to me the sort of girl that an erratic old
fossil would naturally prefer!"

"Ah-h!"--Darsie's dejection was deep--"Daniel, how cruel!" It was a
comforting retaliation to address her tormentor by the name he so
cordially disliked, but she remembered her role, and looked