They paused and looked down at the[Pg 77] brook. Stanley sprawled panting in the dust and watched them. Hawker leaned against a hemlock. He sighed and frowned, and then finally coughed with great resolution. "I suppose, of course, that I am unjust to him. I care for you myself, you understand, and so it becomes——" [Pg 77] He paused for a moment because he heard a rustling of her skirts as if she had moved suddenly. Then he continued: "And so it becomes difficult for me to be fair to him. I am not able to see him with a true eye." He bitterly addressed the trees on the opposite side of the glen. "Oh, I care for you, of course. You might have expected it." He turned from the trees and strode toward the roadway. The uninformed and disreputable Stanley arose and wagged his tail. As if the girl had cried out at a calamity, Hawker said again, "Well, you might have expected it."[Pg 78] [Pg 78] CHAPTER XIV. At the lake, Hollanden went pickerel fishing, lost his hook in a gaunt, gray stump, and earned much distinction by his skill in discovering words to express his emotion without resorting to the list ordinarily used in such cases. The younger Miss Worcester ruined a new pair of boots, and Stanley sat on the bank and howled the song of the forsaken. At the conclusion of the festivities Hollanden said, "Billie, you ought to take the boat back." "Why had I? You borrowed it." "Well, I borrowed it and it was a lot of trouble, and now you ought to take it back." Ultimately Hawker said, "Oh, let's both go!" On this journey Hawker made a long speech to his friend, and at the end of it he exclaimed: "And now do you think she cares so much for Oglethorpe? Why, she as good[Pg 79] as told me that he was only a very great friend." [Pg 79] Hollanden wagged his head dubiously. "What a woman says doesn't amount to shucks. It's the way she says it—that's what counts. Besides," he cried in a brilliant afterthought, "she wouldn't tell you, anyhow, you fool!" "You're an encouraging brute," said Hawker, with a rueful grin. Later the Worcester girls seized upon Hollanden and piled him high with ferns and mosses. They
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