"Where did you go this afternoon, Andrew, when you wouldn't come with us to the Warringtons'?" Hilda asked. Andrew would have preferred to evade the question, but that seemed impossible. "I went to see Mrs. Olcott." "Again!" exclaimed Hilda, who prided herself on being blunt. Wannop chuckled softly, but Florence claimed Andrew's attention. "Don't you think you have been there often enough?" "It hasn't struck me in that light." "Then," replied Florence, "I feel it's time it did." "Come now!" Wannop broke in. "Three to one is hardly fair. Don't be bullied, Andrew; a bachelor can be independent." "How do you make it three?" Hilda asked. "Only Florence and I mentioned the matter." "I am, of course, acquainted with Gertrude's views," Wannop explained. Hilda laughed. Antony, with his characteristic maladroitness, had somehow made things worse, and Andrew's face hardened. His sisters were generally candid with him, but they had gone too far. With a thoughtlessness he sometimes showed, he had told them nothing about his acquaintance with Clare Olcott's husband. "You're not much of an ally," he said with a dry smile. "Anyway, as there's no reason why I shouldn't go to The Firs, I'm not likely to be deterred. I may as well mention that I met Ethel Hillyard and begged her to call." "On Mrs. Olcott?" Florence cried. "What did she say?" "She promised." The astonishment of the others was obvious, but Hilda was the only one who ventured to express it. "Andrew, you're a wonder! You haven't the least idea of scheming, and you'd spoil the best plot you took a hand in, and yet you have a funny, blundering way of getting hard things done." "You have hinted that I was a bit of a fool," said Andrew; "but I don't see why this should be hard." As an explanation was undesirable, Hilda let his remark pass and addressed the others. "He has beaten us and we may as well give in gracefully. If Ethel goes, all the people who count will follow her." "There's more in Andrew than his friends suspect," Wannop observed, laughing. They let the subject drop, and Florence went in search of her husband. "What's your opinion of Allinson's new policy, Andrew?" Wannop asked. "I don't know what to think. One can be too conservative nowadays, but I'll confess that I liked the firm's old-fashioned staidness better. Even the old dingy offices somehow made you feel that the Allinsons were sober, responsible people. The new place with its brass-work, plate-glass and gilding was somewhat of a shock to me; but the business is flourishing. Mining speculation was quite out of my father's line, but Leonard makes it pay." "I've a few thousands in the African concern," Wannop remarked with complacent satisfaction. "As it looks as if I'd get my money back in about seven years, I wish I'd put in twice as much." Hilda let her eyes rest on the fading outline of the grim old peel.