"How did you know that anything had?" he asked. "Oh, one can tell," she answered. "Besides, I have felt sure that it would, things couldn't go on just as they were----" she paused a moment and then added seriously, "I hope you don't mind my asking? It seems a little impertinent--but that was part of the compact, wasn't it?" "Why, of course," he said. "Because, you know," she went on, "it's really rather absurd. I'm only twenty-six, and you're--oh! I don't know _how_ old!--anyhow an elderly widower with a grown-up son; but I'm every bit as old as you are, really. And I'm sure I shall give you lots of good advice, because you've no idea what a truly practical person I am. Only sometimes lately I've wondered whether you've been a little surprised at my--our flinging ourselves into your arms as we have done. It's like father--he always goes the whole way in the first minute; but it isn't, or at any rate it oughtn't to be, like me!" "You are," he said quietly, "the best friend I have in the world. How much that means to me I will tell you one day." "That's right," she said gaily, settling herself down with her hands folded behind her head. "Now for the situation. I'm all attention." "Well," he answered, "the situation is simple enough--it's the next move that's puzzling me. There was, four days ago, an explosion--it was after breakfast--a family council--and I was in a minority of one. I was accused of a good many things--going down to the Cove, paying no attention to the Miss Ponsonbys, and so on. They attacked me as I thought unfairly, and I lost control--on the whole, I am sure, wisely. I wasn't very rude, but I said quite plainly that I should go my own way in the future and would be dictated to by no one. At any rate they understand that." "And now?" "Ah, now--well--it's as you would expect. We are quite polite but hostile. Robin and I don't speak. The new game--Father and Son; or how to cut your nearest relations with expedition and security." He laughed bitterly. "Oh, I should like to shake him!" she cried, sitting up and flinging her arms wide, as though she were saluting the sea. "He doesn't know, he doesn't understand! Neither himself nor any one else. Oh, I will talk to him some day! But, do you know," she said, turning round to him, "it's been largely your fault from the beginning." "Oh, I know," he answered. "If I had only seen then what I see now. But how could I? How could I tell? But I always have been that kind of man, all my days--finding out things when it's too late and wanting to mend things that are hopelessly broken. And then I have always been impulsive and enthusiastic about people. When I meet them first, I mean, I like them and credit them with all the virtues, and then, of course, there is an awakening. Oh, you don't know," he said, with a little laugh, "how enthusiastic I was when I first came back." "Yes, I do," she answered; "that was one of the reasons I took to you."