[Strolls off through the grove.]

PIKE [watching him go, thoughtfully].  Yes, sir!

ETHEL [haughtily, yet with the air of confessing a humiliating truth, her eyes cast down].  I am Miss Granger-Simpson.

[As she speaks he turns and lifts his hand toward her as if suddenly startled.  He has not seen her until now.  He stands for a moment in silence, looking at her with great tenderness and pride.]

PIKE [with both wonder and pathos in his voice].  Why, I knew your pa from the time I was a little boy till he died, and I looked up to him more’n I ever looked up to anybody in my life, but I never thought he’d have a girl like you!

[She turns from him; he takes a short step nearer her.]

He’d ‘a’ been mighty proud if he could see you now.

ETHEL [quickly, and with controlled agitation].  Perhaps it will be as well if we avoid personal allusions.

PIKE [mildly].  I don’t see how that’s possible.

ETHEL [sitting].  Will you please sit down?

PIKE.  Yes, ma’am!

[ETHEL shivers at the “ma’am.”]

[He sits in the chair which HORACE has occupied, still holding his hat in his hand.]

ETHEL [tremulously, her eyes cast down].  As you know, I—­I—­

[She stops, as if afraid of breaking down; then, turning toward him, cries sharply.]

Oh, are you really my guardian?

PIKE [smiling].  Well, I’ve got the papers in my grip.  I expect—­

ETHEL.  Oh, I KNOW it!  It is only that we didn’t fancy, we didn’t expect—­

PIKE.  I expect you thought I’d be considerable older.

ETHEL.  Not only that—­

PIKE [interrupting gently].  I expect you thought I’d neglected you a good deal [remorsefully], and it did LOOK like it—­never comin’ to see you; but I couldn’t hardly manage the time to get away.  You see, bein’ trustee of your share of the estate, I don’t hardly have a fair show at my law practice.  But when I got your letter, eleven days ago, I says to myself:  “Here, Daniel Voorhees Pike, you old shellback, you’ve just got to take time.  John Simpson trusted you with his property, and he’s done more [his voice rises, but his tone is affectionate and shows deep feeling]—­he’s trusted you to look out for her, and now she’s come to a kind of jumpin’-off place in her life—­she’s thinking of gettin’ married; and you just pack your grip-sack and hike out over there and stand by her!”

ETHEL [frigidly].  I quite fail to understand your point of view.  Perhaps I had best make it at once clear to you that I am no longer thinking of marrying.

PIKE [leaning back in his chair and smiling on her].  Well, Lord-a-Mercy!

ETHEL.  I mean I have decided upon it.  The ceremony is to take place within a fortnight.

PIKE.  Well, I declare!

ETHEL.  We shall dispense with all delays.