"Happiness," said Hugh to himself, "that is all she needs, and the independence and responsibilities of a home of her own."
The merry lunch progressed; the talk fell upon the author's own books--and other books. Again Hugh was surprised--and delighted--at the lady's discrimination and genuine culture. It was difficult to realize that any one who wrote so atrociously could think and speak so well.
"It's like Kate's bicycle," he said to himself, "a single woman must break out somewhere. The probabilities are, if she had a home of her own, that she would never want to touch a pen again."
Round and round the subject hovered his thoughts; this gentle, quiet companion for the autumn of his life--the thought was singularly attractive--infinitely more so than the thought of Dora or Bee that had always possessed also an element of distraction alarming to a man of staid habits.
She saw the look and drooped and flushed beneath it.
Then down came Kate, panting and puffing, but quite genial.
"A nice way to treat your guests, Sir," she said, "do you know you have been away an hour? I don't know what Dora and Bee can think of you."
"By George," said Hugh, "I had forgotten their very existence!"
"Well," said Kate, sinking comfortably on a seat, "others have not been so forgetful. Two young men have arrived and have been helping us to eat up the picnic. I have forgotten their surnames, but the girls call them Charlie and Graham. Medical students, I find, who decided not to attend lectures, but to take a run up here for the day. Clears the brain, they told me. Heard at the hotel that their friends were at the Falls, so just ran down in the hope of stumbling across them. Stumbled across them in the 'Lovers' Nook.'"
"Ah," said Hugh, "and do the little girls seem pleased to see them?"
"Well," said Kate, "all I can say is one of them, Bee to be exact, has a ring on her finger that she did not start the day with. I discovered this by the painful efforts she made at lunch to hide it. And I expect by this time Dora's finger can keep Bee's company. They are plainly very masterful young men, and I fancy had determined that the mountain trip should settle their hearts as well as clear their brains."