I was immensely relieved to get rid of the bear and to leave him in such good quarters, for it now appeared to me quite reasonable that I might have had difficulty in lodging him anywhere on the premises of the Cheltenham, and under any circumstances I very much preferred appearing at that hotel without an ursine companion.  As soon as we reached the house I told Mr. Larramie that it was now necessary for me to hurry on, and asked if there were not some way to the hotel which would not make it necessary for me to go back to the main road.

The good gentleman fairly shouted at me.  “You aren’t going to any hotel!” he declared.  “Do you suppose we are heathens, to let you start off at this late hour in the afternoon for a hotel?  You have nothing to do with hotels—­you spend the night with us, sir!  If you are thinking about your clothes, pray dismiss the subject from your mind.  If it will make you feel better satisfied, we will all put on golf suits.  In the morning we will get your machine from the Holly Sprig, and when you want to go on we will send you and it to Waterton in a wagon.  It is not a long drive, and it is much the pleasanter way to manage your business.”

The family showed themselves delighted when they heard that I was to spend the night with them, and I did not object to the plan, for I had not the slightest desire to go to a summer hotel.  Just before I went up to my room to get ready for supper, the young Genevieve came to me upon the porch.

“Would you mind,” she said, “letting me feel your muscle?”

Very much surprised, I reached out my arm for her inspection, and she clasped her long thin fingers around my biceps flexor cubiti. Apparently, the inspection was very satisfactory to her.

“I would give anything,” she said, “if I had muscle like that!”

I laughed heartily.  “My dear little girl,” said I, “you would be sorry, indeed, if you had anything of the sort.  When you grow up and go to parties, how would you like to show bare arms shaped like mine?  You would be a spectacle, indeed.”

“Well,” said she, “perhaps you are right.  I might not care to have them bulge, but I would like to have them hard.”

It was a lively supper and an interesting evening.  Miss Edith sat opposite to me at table—­I gave her this title because I was informed that there was an elder sister who was away on a visit.  I could see that she regarded me as her especial charge.  She did not ask me what I would have, but she saw that every possible want was attended to.  As the table was lighted by a large hanging-lamp, I had a better view of her features than I had yet obtained.  She was not handsome.  Her eyes were too wide apart, her nose needed perhaps an eighth of an inch in length, and her well-shaped mouth would not have suffered by a slight reduction.  But there was a cheerful honesty in her expression and in her words which gave me the idea that she was a girl to believe in.