Page:Stanwood Pier--The ancient grudge.djvu/214

Rh men; he engaged one after another in Darant's place, but none of them proved, like Durant, fundamentally amenable and patient. The office was in a state of continual flux and change; it was never after Durant left really organized.

One evening when Floyd had come to dinner, Lydia remarked that she had never been inside the Women's Club at New Rome; she said she liked to see the things that Stewart had done, and asked how she might secure permission to visit it.

"Oh, you don't want to see it, Lydia," Stewart said, with an uncomfortable laugh. "That's one of the things that ought to have turned out better than it did."

"Nothing turns out quite as you'd like to have it," replied Lydia. "I know enough of architecture to know that. I want to see it anyway. Do you suppose it could be arranged, Floyd?"

"Of course," he answered. "I have to go out to the works to-morrow morning; if you care to come too, I will get one of the members of the club to show you round."

To Stewart's annoyance the arrangement was made. Floyd drove Lydia out to New Rome the next morning; he took her first to Hugh Farrell's house, of which he was glad to be able to speak handsomely.

"I was hoping he'd build a lot more such houses out here," Floyd said. "But of course he has so many larger things to do."

Letty was at home, and came to the door, with a red-haired infant in her arms and another clinging to her dress. She was delighted to meet the lady whom Floyd introduced as "Your architect's wife, Letty." To show Mrs. Lee over the club-house would be, she declared earnestly, a pleasure; she would just run upstairs and ask her mother to take care of the babies while she was gone.

"Let me keep this little fellow until you come down," Lydia said, patting the head of the older boy.