"Oh, I know it! They all get that way if they're let; think they own everything in sight. They get worse, too, as they get older. You do what I said an' set your foot down about that house," her mother replied, and turned to put a pan of bread in the oven. CHAPTER VII ERASING HER BLACKBOARD John's attention centred about the new house and each day found him more impatient to see it finished. The creature comforts of life were his main ideals and he wanted to get settled. Sunday afternoon found him early at Nathan's to consult with Elizabeth about the kitchen windows. Susan Hornby's surprised recognition of his annoyance, when he was told that she had gone home, added to the unpleasantness of the eight-mile drive. What business had that woman studying him or his moods? he asked himself as he drove away. He would not get out of the wagon when he reached Elizabeth's home, though the sun was hot and Mrs. Farnshaw urged him to do so. He was irritated, he did not know at what, but he was. He hurried Elizabeth away without ceremony. As soon as they were beyond earshot he began to voice his grievances. The point he discussed had nothing whatever to do with the real ground for his irritability, but served as an outlet for his acrid frame of mind. "If you want to go anywhere, let me know it so that I can take you. I can't have you running around the country in this fashion," he began. Elizabeth, who had felt his manner, looked up in puzzled surprise. She could see nothing in that to be fretted about. It was so good to see him, to have him with her again after a night spent in her father's house, that she was ready to concede any point her lover might raise, but this seemed so trivial that she laughed a happy laugh as she answered caressingly: "I have always walked whenever and wherever I chose around here. I like it, dear." "That don't make any difference; it ain't good for any woman to walk eight miles at one time," John answered shortly. Unable to see the reason for laying stress upon the danger in doing a thing she had done for years without harm to herself, Elizabeth was surprised into continuing the argument without at all caring whether she ever walked again or not. "I've walked that much a hundred times in my life, and I'll probably walk it a hundred times more," she replied with a laugh. "Not if you live with me," John Hunter announced, standing as solid as a rock on the issue now that he had raised it. "But why not?" the girl inquired, still but little concerned, and looking her betrothed over with a girl's eye for correct combinations of collar, tie, and driving gloves. Those gloves had been the chief objection Elizabeth's brothers had been able to raise against the Eastern man, and gave colour to the spiteful "dude" with which John Hunter was mentioned by the envious. "Why not?" John repeated after her. "Because it don't look well."