But for all his avoidance of Betty, he in reality kept the
closest kind of a watch on her movements, and when he learned
that she had visited Charley Norton--George, the groom, was the
channel through which this information reached him--he was both
scandalized and disturbed. He felt the situation demanded some
sort of a protest.

"Isn't it just hell the way a woman can worry you?" he lamented,
as he hurried up the path from the barns to the house. He found
Betty at supper.

"I thought I'd have a cup of tea with you, Bet--what else have
you that's good?" he inquired genially, as he dropped into a
chair.

"That was nice of you; we don't see very much of each other, do
we, Tom?" said Betty pleasantly.

Mr. Ware twisted his features, on which middle age had rested an
untender hand, into a smile.

"When a man undertakes to manage a place like Belle Plain his
work's laid out for him, Betty, and an old fellow like me is
pretty apt to go one of two ways; either he takes to hard living
to keep himself in trim, or he pampers himself soft."

"But you aren't old, Tom!"

"I wish I were sure of seeing forty-five or even forty-eight