But at the moment it dawned upon the speaker that the skirker of
responsibilities was appearing in person. There strode towards them,
across the lawn, a young man and two dogs.

"How do you do, Aunt Egeria?" he cried, and he caught her small woman's
hand in a hard brown one and smiled on the little lady.

Bertha Afflint had flung her magazine to the winds and caught his
available left hand. "Oh, Lewie, you wretch! how glad we are to see
you again." Meantime the dogs performed a solemn minuet around her
ladyship's knees.

The young man, when he had escaped from the embraces of his friends,
turned to the others. He seemed to recognize two of them, for he shook
hands cordially with the two spectacled people. "Hullo, Hoddam, how are
you? And Imrie! Who would have thought of finding you here?" And he
poured forth a string of kind questions till the two beamed with
pleasure.

Then Alice heard dimly words of introduction: "Miss Wishart, Mr.
Haystoun," and felt herself bowing automatically. She actually felt
nervous. The disreputable fisher of the day before was in ordinary
riding garments of fair respectability. He recognized her at once, but
he, too, seemed to lose for a moment his flow of greetings. His tone
insensibly changed to a conventional politeness, and he asked her some
of the stereotyped questions with which one greets a stranger. She felt
sharply that she was a stranger to whom the courteous young man assumed
more elaborate manners. The freedom of the day before seemed gone. She
consoled herself with the thought that whereas then she had been warm,
flushed, and untidy, she was now very cool and elegant in her prettiest