I used to suspect him of being a communist at heart. But, of course, I was very young."

"You had very keen thoughts though," said the girl. "I used to enjoy hearing your essays read because there was always something worthwhile in them. I didn't always agree with them. I was young, too, you know, and had ideas. But your essays were always interesting, and I loved the way you never fenced with an issue, but always faced it and clarified it."

"Say, that's great praise! Did I really ever do that?"

"You certainly did. That time when you were discussing the foreign policies, you made it so simple that the very dumbest of us could understand. And the one on the gold standard. I thought that ought to be published. As I think back to it, I still think it should. You know you were ahead of your times in anticipating some things that I haven't noticed anywhere else."

"But I was only a kid," he mused. "I guess likely I had absorbed some of my father's ideas. You know, I had a wonderful father."

"And a wonderful mother," breathed the girl softly. "Oh, I didn't know her face-to-face, but a girl can't watch a woman from a little distance daily, as I did your mother, and not know what she's like. And I guess my mother helped on my image of her, for she admired her very much, too. She had a lovely face and a charming, gracious way. You could see it in every movement as she walked about the grounds sometimes with her arm across your shoulder, looking down into your face when you were just a child. But there! I'm revealing again what a shameless onlooker I was."

"I think we should be very much honored that anyone had such unbiased interest in us," he said smiling. "I only regret that my mother couldn't have known you as you seem to have known her. I am sure the interest would have been mutual. Do you know what I thought of when I saw you sitting down on the grandstand below me? I wonder if I dare tell you? I thought you looked somehow familiar, and couldn't think who you reminded me of, and then it came over me that you reminded me of my mother. Somehow your expression made me think of her, the light in your eyes. I always felt that my mother was the dearest thing on earth."

"Oh!" said Daphne a little breathlessly. "That is the very nicest compliment I ever received. Of course, I know I aspire to be like her, but I shall treasure that thought at least. For she was very lovely. Mother feels that way, too."

They were almost to the Deane gate now, a white picket affair with an old-fashioned latch, set in the arch of a thick hedge, and Daphne paused and wondered whether she should ask him in. But before she had the opportunity, a flashy yellow sports car, which neither of them had noticed coming toward them, drew up with a flourish at the curb, and a rich, assured voice called out: "Well of all things, if there isn't Keith Morrell! Where have you been keeping yourself, darling? I hadn't heard you were in town."

Chapter 2

The girl in the yellow sports car leaned over and addressed herself to Keith Morrell. "If this isn't the best luck! If anyone was heaven sent, it is you. Do you know what you are going to do? You are going to hop right in with me and go home to my dinner party.