Reginald grew very pale and then very red as he said, “Do you think it is she?” Mr. McPherson knew it was, for after Reginald’s first conversation with him he had received a letter from Mrs. Graham, making some inquiries concerning Reginald. “The old lady is after him, if the girl isn’t,” Colin had thought, and had at once replied that the young man was spending the summer with him, and she’d better come out and see him for herself. When he heard she had written for board for her niece at Mrs. Parks’, he had wondered a little that she, too, did not come as chaperone, but reflected that it was none of his business and he would let Providence run it as Reginald was doing. In reply to Reginald’s question, “Do you think it is she?” he told of his correspondence with Mrs. Graham, and added, “I am sure of it, and shall be glad to see her.” After this Reginald grew very nervous and began to think of writing a second time to Tom, asking why he neither came nor answered his letter. He began, too, to wonder when Irene would arrive at Mrs. Parks’, and when he saw me in church his first thought was, “she’s come, and she’s old enough to be my mother,” and this accounted for the expression of his face when he first caught sight of me. Mrs. Parks’ introduction reassured him, and his temperature went down a little. Still he was very anxious for Tom, who, he felt, would somehow be a help and a safeguard. “He’ll know just what to say to her,” he thought. “He’ll talk to her, while I look on and draw my own conclusions.” The next day he received a letter from Tom, very short and to the point. “Old chap,” Tom wrote, “Providence permitting and nothing happening to prevent, I’ll pack my grip and be in Oakfield Tuesday. “Tom.” There was a comfort in this, and Reginald began to feel better, never dreaming of the state of Tom’s mind. Knowing Reginald, Tom did not believe Rena would fancy him, and there was hope in that. Of Reginald, he had no doubt. He could not help being interested in Rena, and what the outcome would be he could not guess. Irene, he was sure, would leave nothing undone to attract Reginald and might possibly succeed. “Well, let her,” he thought for a moment. “That will leave Rena for me.” Then his better nature and his great liking for Reginald came to the surface, and he continued: “It is unworthy of Rena to deceive Rex even for a few weeks. Let her go to Oakfield, if she goes at all, as herself and not as another. I shall try to persuade her to give up her experiment.” That day he wrote to her: