"And what's the rest?"
Herbert hesitated.
"I hardly know, sir," he said at last. "I think it may be more than that. She's no child, and she's got a good hard brain. I think she knows exactly what he is, in the back of her mind anyhow. She mayn't know any details, but she suspects them. Only—they don't make any difference."
"You are talking as though she is in love with the fellow!"
"Don't you think she is, sir? Infatuated, anyhow?"
"I know damned well she's getting out of here if she is."
Shortly after that Henry went up to bed. He was very stiff; his back ached, and into the bargain he was more uneasy than he cared to admit. There was a little stubborn streak in Kay. She was like her grandfather in that. And Herbert was right, she had a good hard brain. Two weeks ago or three, she might have been only romantically interested. But by now she knew the fellow, or ought to; she'd had chances enough.
He grunted, and opened the door into his wife's room. She was reading by the light of a lamp on the end of the wash-stand beside her bed, and when he entered she wiped the cold cream from around her mouth with a handkerchief, preparatory to his good night kiss. But he did not kiss her at once. He sat down on the foot of her bed.
"What about Kay, Katherine? Is she making a fool of herself?"
"I don't know what you mean?"
"With Tom McNair?"
"Oh, Tom!" There was relief in her voice. "She's playing around with him, of course, but that's all. She's accustomed to attention, and he's about all that offers out here."
"There's Herbert," he said sturdily.
"She can always have Herbert, and she knows it. I wouldn't worry, she's only amusing herself. And there's nothing much else for her to do."
He got up. His back was really very troublesome; he must have twisted something in the field that day. Well
"We'd better be getting on anyhow," he said, not entirely convinced. "I'm about through."
