"I suppose so. Mr. Gayne seems to think that farm might get away if he didn't see it for twenty-four hours." "I wonder if he will not be wishing to purchase it one of these days," said Diana. "I'd buy some clothes for Bert first if I was in his place. Everything the boy has seems to have been bought for his little brother." "Did you ever read 'Nicholas Nickleby,' Veronica?" "Yes, I have." The younger girl looked around brightly. "I know who you're thinking of--Smike. I've thought of Smike ever since they came." Diana received her look with a smile. One touch of nature made them kin for the moment, and Diana, all unconscious of her companion's mental reservations, did not know that at this moment she was nearer than she had ever been to being forgiven for her various perfections. "All my childhood," said Diana, "I used to wish I could have done something for Smike." "I've wished that, too," said Veronica. "Now we have an opportunity," returned Diana. "You are young and sportive and you made a good beginning." "Oh, I did--_not_," returned Veronica. "You might as well try to sport with a hearse. Everything you say to him he turns his eyes on you all darkened up with those lashes, regular mourning, and you don't know where to look, yourself, nor what to say. Yes, I did want to help Smike, but so long as the law won't let us string Mr. Gayne up somewhere, lots of times I wish they'd gone to some other island. Isn't it a pity he hasn't got spunk enough to run away? Even Smike ran away." "I am glad this boy is not inclined to do that," returned Diana, "for I feel that he has friends here and that something good should come of his summer." "Not if Mr. Gayne can help it," declared Veronica. "He was afraid Mrs. Lowell was giving Bert too good a time with these walks and talks." She nodded her head. "Believe me, that is the reason--" "Well, we have found you," said a voice behind them. It was a voice which made color steal up into Diana's cheeks. The girls both looked around quickly. Philip Barrison was approaching, and with him a shorter man. Both were bareheaded. "The blarney stone!" thought Veronica. She had been wondering when Mr. Barrison would bring him, and now she gave him what she herself would have described as the "once-over" as he smiled at Diana and lifted his hand to his tightly waved hair in salute. What Veronica saw caused her to lift her hand to the bridge of her nose and cover its small proportions with two fingers, from both sides of which her round eyes gazed seriously. CHAPTER X NICHOLAS GAYNE CONFIDES "Are you interested in the horse-mackerel, too?" asked Diana. The two men sat down on the grass near the girls as Barney Kelly answered: "Moderately, Miss Wilbur. Moderately interested. Being allowed to witness anything from _terra firma_ invests it with a certain charm. Barrison has been merciless, I assure you, simply merciless."