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Rh both Clara's hands and looking into her face. "They say you are so good and patient. Nobody ever calls me good. I am like a cat, well enough if rubbed the right way, but rubbed the wrong, all grip and claws. It is our opposites that charm us, so I am sure you will like me, Clara. Ollie has spoken to me about you. He says you have always been so good to him. I tell him you have spoiled him. I don't spoil him. Were you ever engaged, Clara?"

Clara had blushed all colors during this speech. "That is a very singular question," she faltered, withdrawing herself from Ethel's firm clasp.

"I was only asking in a general way, to know if you had had any experience. I'll give you mine. Never pamper a man. Never make things easy for him. Either you rule him or he rules you."

"If I loved a man, I should expect to honor and obey," said Clara with admirable sweetness and candor.

"I think it is the man who ought to obey," Ethel retorted. "Here he comes. Doesn't he look like an angel with his dear little frizzles and his red necktie, as if he ought to have wings growing under his chin?"

She ran towards him. They saw her switch him playfully with her cane. They actually heard her say, "Now, you dear old goose, run and get the camera, and we'll take some more pictures."

"Now, I should have said," observed Mr. Beekman in his slow, cautious way, "that Miss Fairlie was rather a pleasing girl. Plenty of spirit, of course, but if there is a touch of temper here it is atoned for by a touch of tenderness there."

Mr. Beekman, who was again staying in the neighborhood, had come over to pay his respects to Mrs. Van Voorst and her daughters, and possibly also with a desire to pick up some crumbs of knowledge of the present situation, for it is not to be supposed that the sun stood still to watch the drama now in progress. Ethel's line of conduct had stirred no little feeling, roused no little apprehension. It may be that some wish of Basil Thorpe's was behind this visit of Mr. Beekman's. The lawyer had walked over a little before noon, perhaps counting on the hospitable ways of the house and an invitation to luncheon. He had found Mrs. Van Voorst and the other ladies sitting on the piazza. They had told him that the young people had gone up to take snap-shots from the hills.

"In spite of all the heat. And it was our dear boy who had to carry the camera!" said Miss Sabrina in a voice choked with feeling. "He has become a perfect beast of burden."

"Do him good, do him good," said Mr. Beekman. "It is well for a man to bear the yoke in his youth."