"If there is one thing in this world more objectionable than another, it's a managing woman!" he cried emphatically. "Don't you develop into one, Margot, if you wish to keep any influence over me. I've seen danger signals once or twice lately, and I tell you plainly--I won't stand it! Be satisfied with what you have gained, and carry Ron away to your Highland glen, but leave my holiday alone, if you please. I'm quite capable of choosing a companion for myself if I need one." "Yes, dear," said Margot meekly; but her smile showed no sign of contrition. She had heard this terrible indictment times without number, but as yet there had come no waning of her influence. As she felt her way carefully up the dark staircase a few minutes later, she smiled to herself with complacent satisfaction; for not only had the Scotch trip received the parental sanction, but the first step was taken towards securing a holiday for poor tired Jack. Mr Vane might protest, but the idea once suggested would take root in his mind, and by the time that it developed into action he would imagine that it was entirely his own inspiration. What did it matter? For Jack's sake even more than his own it was better that he should be so deluded; and Margot was happily above the littleness of desiring to monopolise the credit for her ideas. So long as a point was gained, she was more than content to remain inconspicuously in the background. CHAPTER SEVEN. PREPARATIONS. Every one said that it would rain. It was most depressing. You had only to mention that you intended to spend your summer holiday in a Highland glen, to set the torrent of warning in full flow. "It will rain all the time.--It always rains in Scotland... You will be soaked... You will be starved... You will feel as if you have gone back to winter. You will miss all the summer in the South... You will get rheumatism... You will be bored to death." On and on it went, each newcomer adding volume to the chorus, until it became quite difficult to remember that one was starting on a pleasure trip, and not on a perilous Arctic exploration. "Take plenty of wraps!" urged the wise ones. "Don't imagine that you will be able to wear pretty white things, as you do at home. Take old things that don't matter, for no one will see you, and you will never want to wear them again. You will shiver round the fire in the evenings. Be sure to take rugs. You won't have half enough blankets on the bed. I was in the Highlands for a month two years ago, and we had one fine day!" "Well!" queried Margot of this last Job's comforter, "and what was _that_ like? Were you glad that you were there for that one day at least?" The speaker paused, and over her face there passed a wave of illuminating recollection. She was a prosaic, middle-aged woman, but for the moment she looked young,--young and ardent.