"Well," returned Henrietta slowly--slowly for her, "I suppose I can, although _I_ think that Dick is doing her the _greatest_ favor. As far as her house is concerned, Dick might feel at liberty to rent to any one else, but not to himself. I'm sure I hope he won't rent to anybody else, whatever he does or Patty doesn't do. He ought not to do anything that could be considered dishonorable, of course, but I can't quite see why this would be. But he simply won't." "No," said Sally. "I should expect that of Dick." "There doesn't seem to be anything to do about it," Henrietta continued, "unless--unless," she suggested with hesitation, "you would see Patty, Sally." Sally smiled with amusement. "Of course I will if you want me to, Henrietta. But I'm not the one to make a successful emissary to Patty. I'm not in favor any more than Dick. You'd much better make up to Charlie if you want anything of Patty; much better." "That seems to be a good idea," Henrietta murmured, gazing thoughtfully at Sally the while, "and easy too. I'll do it." CHAPTER XIX Henrietta had no great difficulty in doing it. She made a good beginning before Charlie went back to college, although she had only a little more than a fortnight, and she continued her attentions at frequent intervals thereafter. There was nothing crude about either Henrietta or her methods. She did not let him suspect her object or, indeed, that she had an object, and Charlie did not look for one. His own attractions were enough, goodness knows, to account for any attentions that might be lavished upon him, and he accepted those attentions almost as a matter of course. But as attentions and he had become, to a certain extent, strangers,--always excepting Patty's attentions, which did not count,--Charlie was very grateful in his inmost soul and he made the most of them. He came down to Whitby more often than he had been in the habit of doing and he invariably went to the Torringtons' at the first possible moment and spent as much time there as he could. He even developed a certain shyness which was very becoming. But he avoided Dick. He had a grudge against Dick and he was resolved not to forget it. Dick had done him an injury. He did find himself forgetting that injury, in time. Who, in the face of Dick's leisurely cordiality and general good nature, could remember not to forget it? And in time--not so very long a time either--he perceived that Henrietta had a secret sorrow which gnawed like a worm at her heart. He set himself the task of pursuing this sorrow and plucking it out; and--marvel of marvels!--he succeeded in dragging from the unwilling Henrietta some information as to its nature. We can, perhaps, imagine the reluctance with which this information was given.