Betty returned to the porch and seating herself on the top step
with her elbows on her knees and her chin sunk in the palms of
her hands, gazed about her miserably enough. She was still
seated there when half an hour later Charley Norton galloped up
the drive from the highroad. Catching sight of her on the porch
he sprang from the saddle, and, throwing his reins to a black
boy, hurried to her side.
"Inspecting your domain, Betty?" he asked, as he took his place
near her on the step.
"Why didn't you tell me, Charley--or at least prepare me for
this?" she asked, almost tearfully.
"How was I to know, Betty? I haven't been here since you went
away, dear--what was there to bring me? Old Tom would make a cow
pasture out of the Garden of Eden, wouldn't he--a beautiful,
practical, sordid soul he is!"
"What am I going to do, Charley?"
"Keep after him until you get what you want, it's the only way to
manage Tom that I know of."
"It's horrid to have to assert one's self!"
"You'll have to with Tom--you must, Betty--he won't understand
anything else." Then he added: "Let's look around and see what's
needed, a season or two of care will remedy the most of this
neglect. Just make Tom put a lot of hands in here with
brush-hooks and axes and soon you'll not know the place!"
Norton spent the day at Belle Plain; and though he was there on
his good behavior as the result of an agreement they had reached
on board The Naiad, he proposed twice.
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