Captain Asher went home, still in a very bad humor.  He had ceased to be angry with Maria Port, he was done with her; and he let her pass out of his mind.  But he was angry with other people, especially with Olive.  She had allowed herself to have a most contemptuous opinion of him; she had treated him shamefully; and as he thought of her his indignation increased instead of diminishing.  And young Lancaster had believed it!  And old Jane!  It was enough to make a stone slab angry, and the captain was not a stone slab.

CHAPTER XXIV

Mr. Tom arrives at Broadstone.

After the conclusion of the game of tennis in which Olive and three of her lovers participated, Claude Locker, returning from a long walk, entered the grounds of Broadstone.  He had absented himself from that hospitable domain for purposes of reflection, and also to avoid the company of Mr. Du Brant.  Not that he was afraid of the diplomat, but because of the important interview appointed for the latter part of the morning.  He very much wished that no unpleasantness of any kind should occur before the time for that interview.

Having found that he had given himself more time than was necessary for his reflections and his walk, he had rested in the shade of a tree and had written two poems.  One of these was the serenade which he would have roared out on the night air on a very recent occasion if he had had time to prepare it.  It was, in his opinion, far superior to the impromptu verses of which he had been obliged to make use, and it pleased him to think that if things should go well with him after the interview to which he was looking forward, he would read that serenade to its object, and ask her to substitute it in her memory for the inharmonic lines which he had used in order to smother the degenerate melody of a foreign lay.  The other poem was intended for use in case his interview should not be successful.  But on the way home Mr. Locker experienced an entire change of mind.  He came to believe that it would be unwise for him to arrange to use either of those poems on that day.  For all he knew, Miss Asher might like foreign degenerate lays, and she might be annoyed that he had interfered with one.  He remembered that she had told him that if he had insisted on an immediate answer to his proposition it would have been very easy to give it to him.  He realized what that meant; and, for all he knew, she might be quite as ready this morning to act with similar promptness.  That Du Brant business might have settled her mind, and it would therefore be very well for him to be careful about what he did, and what he asked for.

About half an hour before luncheon, when he neared the house and perceived Miss Asher on the lawn, it seemed to him very much as if she were looking for him.  This he did not like, and he hurried toward her.

“Miss Asher,” said he, “I wish to propose an amendment.”

“To what?” asked Olive.  “But first tell me where you have been and what you have been doing?  You are covered with dust, and look as hot as if you had been pulling the boat against the rapids.  I have not seen you the whole morning.”