“Well, no; I don’t think she is.  It was a sort of mistake; I’ll tell you about it sometime.  But she likes to imagine that she’s taking care of me; and as it does no harm, I let her.”

“Taking care of you!  Great thunder!  I wouldn’t trust her to take care of a blue-eyed kitten,” observed the irreverent Clarence.  “Well, I’ll ride up and settle with the Hopes, and stop and let you know as I come back.”

Mrs. Hope and the doctor were not hard to persuade.  In Colorado, people keep their lamps of enjoyment filled and trimmed, so to speak, and their travelling energies ready girt about them, and easily adopt any plan which promises pleasure.  The following day was fixed for the start, and Clover packed her valise and Phil’s bag, with a sense of exhilaration and escape.  She was, in truth, getting very tired of the exactions of Mrs. Watson.  Mrs. Watson, on her part, did not at all approve of the excursion.

“I think,” she said, swelling with offended dignity, “that your cousin didn’t know much about politeness when he left me out of his invitation and asked Mrs. Hope instead.  Yes, I know; the doctor had to go up anyway.  That may be true, and it may not; but it doesn’t alter the case.  What am I to do, I should like to know, if the valves of my heart don’t open, or don’t shut—­whichever it is—­while I’m left all alone here among strangers?”

“Send for Dr. Hope,” suggested Phil.  “He’ll only be gone one night.  Clover doesn’t know anything about valves.”

“My cousin lives in a rather rough way, I imagine,” interposed Clover, with a reproving look at Phil.  “He would hardly like to ask a stranger and an invalid to his house, when he might not be able to make her comfortable.  Mrs. Hope has been there before, and she’s an old friend.”

“Oh, I dare say!  There are always reasons.  I don’t say that I should have felt like going, but he ought to have asked me.  Ellen will be surprised, and so will—­He’s from Ashburn too, and he must know the Parmenters, and Mrs. Parmenter’s brother’s son is partner to Henry’s brother-in-law.  It’s of no consequence, of course,—­still, respect—­older people—­Boston—­not used to—­Phillips—­” Mrs. Watson’s voice died away into fragmentary and inaudible lamentings.

Clover attempted no further excuse.  Her good sense told her that she had a perfect right to accept this little pleasure; that Mrs. Watson’s plans for Western travel had been formed quite independently of their own, and that papa would not wish her to sacrifice herself and Phil to such unreasonable humors.  Still, it was not pleasant; and I am sorry to say that from this time dated a change of feeling on Mrs. Watson’s part toward her “young friends.”  She took up a chronic position of grievance toward them, confided her wrongs to all new-comers, and met Clover with an offended air which, though Clover ignored it, did not add to the happiness of her life at Mrs. Marsh’s.