"There will be," she said. "I just caught sight of Gleave among the
trees. He was spying!"
"Why do you think so?"
"Oh, he never walks a yard unless he has to. I thought I saw him eying
me rather queerly at lunch. I've been looking happy lately, and that's
made him suspicious."
"But what can he do?"
"What can't he do! Grandmother's one of the old-fashioned sort who
thinks that a girl must never speak to a man without a chaperon. They
must have been a lively lot of young women in her time! Gleave will
tell her that I've been coming here to meet you, and then there'll be a
pretty considerable row."
Martin was incredulous. He was in America in the twentieth century.
Young people did as they liked, and parents hardly ventured to
remonstrate. He showed his teeth in the silent laugh that was
characteristic of him. "Oh, no! I'll be all right. Your grandfather
knew my father."
"That won't make any difference. I believe that in a sort of way he's
jealous of my having a good time. Queer, isn't it? Are all old people
like that? And as to Grandmother, this will give her one of the finest
chances to let herself go that she's had since I set a curtain on fire
with a candle; and when she does that, well, things fly, I assure you."
"Are you worried about it?"
Joan gave a gesture of the most eloquent impatience. "I have to be,"
she said. "You can't understand it, but I'm treated just as if I were a
little girl in short frocks. It's simply appalling. Everything I say
and do and look is criticized from the point of view of 1850. Can't you
imagine what will be thought of my sneaking out every afternoon to talk
to a dangerous young man who has only just left Yale and lives among
horses?"
That was too much for Martin. His laugh echoed among the trees.
But Joan didn't make it a duet. "It wouldn't be so funny to you if you
stood in my shoes, Martin," she said. "If I had gone to Grandmother and
asked her if I might meet you,--and just think of my having to do
that,--she would have been utterly scandalized. Now, having done this
perfectly dreadful thing without permission, I shall be hauled up on
two charges,--deceit and unbecoming behavior,--and I shall be punished."