If Hermione and her lover were Nereid and Triton when we saw them down there by the sea, here, then, they were of the forest. A Diana in hunter's green was the girl; a little green felt hat with a partridge feather, green flannel blouse, short skirt, gaitered as to her shapely limbs, bright of cheek and eye, and the red ribbon in her glossy hair. Applebo, for his part, smacked more of the Engadine than of the North Woods, being, as was usual with him, slightly overdressed. He had arrived at the camp but two hours before, driving a badly treated motor-car, of which the Finn was the inefficient mechanician. Nor did it appear to the occupants of the camp, watching them arrive, that there existed between the fabric and its crew that perfect sympathy to be found when they were aboard the _Daffodil_. The name of this voiturette was the "Cowslip," but as Wood, standing with his arm around Paula, whispered in her coral ear, a better name would have been the "Side-slip." "Just what did papa say," enquired Hermione, "when you told him that you wanted to marry me?" "He said: 'The...' Well, you can imagine what he said ... hand me the pepper; these trout are just _au point_!" "What did you say?" "I did not say anything. I should have known better than to have tackled him when he was cooking. But, as he seems to do nothing but cook, that would mean to hang about indefinitely, and I've got to start back in two hours." "Well ... what did he say, finally?" demanded Hermione, with impatience.. Applebo gave her his laziest and most maddening look. Hermione reached for her stick, and he proceeded more briskly. "He said, after the trout were finished, 'Huh ... h'm ... so you want to marry Cécile, do you?" "'No, sir,' said I; 'Hermione.' "'Why,' said he, 'Hermione! What are you talkin' about? Why, you cradle-robber, Hermione's only a kid!" Hermione snorted. "I told him," continued Applebo, with maddening languor, "that I quite agreed with him; that you were a simple, untutored child, quite too young to know your own mind, impulsive, undisciplined..." _Thwack!_ "Ow...!" "What else?" demanded Hermione, ominously. "I explained to him that, while in the majority of cases it was a very undesirable thing for a girl to be married as young as nineteen, yet in our case there might be certain advantages...." "Such as..." "Well..." Applebo regarded her warily, edging a little away. "I pointed out the fact that, if a man ever expected to live in peace with a lady of such violent disposition as his youngest daughter's, it was of inestimable advantage to catch her young and then train her...." _Thwack!!_ "Ouch! Do you think that is a nice way to treat your fiancé?" "What did papa say to that?"