Mrs. Blake gave him her hand. "You look so strong and hearty!" she remarked. "It speaks well for the fare Miss Knowles provides."
"Oh, that credit is due our Jap chef," laughed the girl. "I can cut out a cow from the herd better than I can bone a chop. But the butter and eggs and cream that are awaiting you--Which reminds me that we've yet to see It."
"Oh, you dear girl!" cooed Mrs. Blake. "Come in and see him."
Isobel followed her into the car. Blake nodded to Ashton. But the younger man shrank away from the door.
"If you'll kindly excuse me," he muttered. "It would remind me too much of--the time when--No, I'd rather not."
"Of course," assented Blake with ready understanding. "How do you like this country? I went through here once on a railway survey. It's rare good luck--this chance to visit Miss Knowles. Jenny is a little run down, as you see."
"I shall trust that her visit to this locality will soon quite restore her," remarked Ashton.
"It will. The doctors said Maine; I said Colorado. It has done you no end of good. You are looking particularly fine and fit."
"It has helped me--in more ways than one," murmured Ashton.
"Glad to hear you say it!" responded Blake in hearty approval.
Ashton turned from him as Isobel appeared in the doorway, cuddling a lusty, rosy-cheeked baby. The mother hovered close behind her.
"Look at him!" jeered Blake with heavily feigned derision. "Did you ever see such a big, fat, lubberly--"
"Yes, look at him, Lafe," said the girl, stepping out into the vestibule. "He is only a yearling, but isn't he just the perfect image of his father?"
Ashton burst into a ringing laugh, but abruptly checked himself at sight of the sober face of the young mother. "I--I beg pardon!" he stammered. "I--she--Miss Knowles--that is what she told me to tell you about him."
"And you didn't play up worth a little bit, Lafe!" complained the girl.
It was Blake's turn to laugh. "You--!" he accused. "Schemed to frame up a case on us did you!"
His wife smiled faintly, not altogether certain that an aspersion had not been cast upon her chuckling son.
"But it's partly true, really," remarked Ashton, peering at the baby's big pale-blue eyes.
Blake burst into a hilarious roar. But Mrs. Blake now beamed upon Ashton. "Then you, too, see the resemblance, Lafayette! Isn't it wonderful, and he so young? His name is Thomas Herbert Vincent Leslie Blake.--Now, my dear, if you please, I shall take him in. We must be preparing to start, if it is so long a drive."