"Ron is not twenty-one." "When you were twenty-one, did you want your own way, or were you willing for other people to decide for you?" Mr Vane sighed, and moved his head impatiently. "Here we are back again at the same old argument! It's waste of time, Margot. I can't alter my ideas, but I'll try to keep a tighter rein over myself for the next few months. We mustn't have any more scenes like to-night." "No." Margot spoke as gravely as himself. "We mustn't, daddy, for your sake as well as ours, and therefore I think it wise to remove the cause of your irritation. You said we might go away to the country together, Ron and I, and we have decided on Scotland--on a glen in Perthshire, six miles from the nearest station, where the landlady of a quaint little inn takes in a few boarders. It will be very primitive, I expect, and we shall live on cream and porridge and mountain air, and grow brown and bonnie, and study Nature as we have never had a chance of doing before. Six miles from a station, daddy! There's seclusion, if you like!" Mr Vane knitted his brow, uncertain whether to approve or object. "How did you come to hear of this place, if it is so out of the world?" "Jack heard of some people who like it so much that they have gone back again and again." Margot paused for a moment, and then added resolutely, "They go to fish. Probably they will be there again this summer. They are two brothers--one of them is quite old. I don't know anything about the other. Of course, wherever we stay we shall meet other people--but you don't mind that, do you, dear? You can trust us not to associate with any one who is not what you would approve?" "Oh yes. I am not afraid of you in that way, and Ron is sensible enough where you are concerned. He'll take care of you. I wouldn't allow you to stay at a big hotel without Agnes or some older woman, but you are welcome to your little inn, if it takes your fancy. If it rains all day, in Highland fashion, Ronald may discover that there are compensations even in Regent's Park. How soon are you off?" "The middle of June, if all's well, and we'll stay on as long as we are happy and enjoying ourselves. Then there will be your holiday to consider, dear. I thought it would be such a good idea if you took Jack with you, while I went to the seaside with Edith and the boys. Jack and you agree so well, and have so many tastes in common. You would make splendid _compagnons de voyage_!" Mr Vane drew back in his chair to stare at her beneath frowning brows.