“But won’t that tire you?” Harriet asked.

“I?  Oh, I shall not go.  Ward will chaperon his sister, and Nina, Amy.  Mr. Blondin will see that they get home in time.  It’s quite all right, Miss Field; I am entirely satisfied.  They—­”

“But, Madame Carter!” Harriet interrupted her as she had expected to be interrupted.  “Surely it would be better—­”

“We won’t discuss it, please, Miss Field!”

Harriet’s cheeks reddened; she was silent.

“Your devotion to my son and his family is extremely praiseworthy,” said Madame Carter, coldly.  “But, as Mrs. Tabor, who is of course a woman of the world, and comes of a very fine family—­she was a Kingdon, the Charleston family—­as Mrs. Tabor was saying, Richard is just the sort of chivalrous, splendid man who is perfectly helpless in his own house!”

Harriet smiled, with a touch of scorn.

“When Mr. Carter is dissatisfied with me, Madame Carter, I shall of course consider myself—­dismissed.  But until that time I am very glad to make his own house comfortable for him.”

The hard, angry colour of old age had been rising in Madame Carter’s face during this speech, and now she was quite obviously enraged.

“You are hardly in a position to dictate to me in this matter!” she said, shaking.  Harriet watched her gravely as she rose from her chair, made a few restless turns about the room, opened and shut bureau drawers, dropped and plucked up handkerchiefs and newspapers.  In a dead silence the girl asked: 

“Was that all?”

A sort of sniff was the answer, and, leaving the room, Harriet saw the door of Mrs. Tabor’s room, adjoining, open cautiously.  The ally was creeping back for news of the fray, thought the girl, with a little grin at the thought of the two women’s discomfiture.  But she sighed again as she entered her own suite to find Nina and Amy complacently dressing themselves for the afternoon’s run.

“We’re going to Easthampton, Miss Harriet; Granny said it was all right,” Nina said, in great spirits.  “I know you won’t feel hurt, because the car simply won’t accommodate more than five, and it’s too long a run to sit on laps—­”

“But, dearie child,” Harriet said, in her friendliest manner, “I don’t believe you had better do that!  You’re all pretty young, in case anything occurred—­”

A mutinous line marked Nina’s babyish mouth.  She would not yield to any nursery control before Amy!

“Granny said it was all right, Miss Harriet, so just don’t bother your head about us!” she said, airily.

“Yes, I know, dear.  But Granny’s ideas are old-fashioned—­”

“Old-fashioned people are apt to be even more rigid than we are, aren’t they?” Amy submitted lightly and sweetly.

Harriet, a trifle nonplussed by this determined resistance, stood looking from one to the other, pondering.

“Anyway, I’m going!” Nina muttered, lacing high white buckskin shoes, with some shortening of breath.  “Granny says a girl’s brother—­”