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 “And nobody has to keep secrets for me. Nobody.”

“Now, now…. What’s the use setting the house afire?” asked Dave.

“I won’t be shielded. I won’t have him trying to shield me… or anybody else trying it. When I do anything I’m not afraid of the consequences. He needn’t think I’m ashamed of sending for him—or afraid, for I’m not.”

Angus was disconcerted, highly uncomfortable, and a little frightened. He did not know what to make of Lydia’s outburst, nor see wherein his transgression lay.

“I’m sure,” said Dave with mock stateliness, “that I’m under a weight of obligation to you for sending for Angus. It was the wise thing to do.”

“Of course I knew that,” she said. “Anybody with sense would. But I don’t want anybody protecting me—and you just understand that from now on, Angus Burke!” Whereat she flounced out of the room, leaving Angus aghast and Wilkins shaking with laughter. It was Angus’s first encounter with the incomprehensibility of woman’s temper.