JANET 
 
 AT ODDS 
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY
 
 B. CLARKE CO 
 
 26 8. aSTREMONTST & 
 30 COURT SQ. BOSTON.
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY'S STORIES 
 
 THE SIDNEY BOOKS 
 
 I. SIDNEY : HER SUMMER ON THE ST. LAWRENCE 
 II. JANET : HER WINTER IN QUEBEC 
 
 III. DAY : HER YEAR IN NEW YORK 
 
 IV. SIDNEY AT COLLEGE 
 V. JANET AT ODDS 
 
 THE TEDDY BOOKS 
 I. TEDDY : HER BOOK 
 II. PHEBE : HER PROFESSION 
 
 III. TEDDY: HER DAUGHTER 
 
 IV. NATHALIE'S CHUM 
 V. URSULA'S FRESHMAN 
 
 VI. NATHALIE'S SISTER
 
 "'I'm afraid you're very old-fashioned,' Janet rebuked him." 
 
 FRONTISPIECE. See page 59.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 BY 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY 
 
 AUTHOR or "SIDNEY AT COLLEGE," "JANET: HER WINTER 
 
 QUEBEC," " TEDDY : HER BOOK," ETC. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY 
 HARRIET ROOSEVELT RICHARDS
 
 Copyright, 1909, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Published, September, 1909 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE. U.S.A.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " 'I'm afraid you're very old-fashioned,' Janet 
 
 rebuked him " Frontispiece 
 
 "A clicking of glass and china showed where 
 
 Janet was busy" Page 13 
 
 " All over the city groups of girls were gathered, 
 
 sewing busily " ,, 96 
 
 " They found her on the strip of lawn before her 
 
 house" 272 
 
 2229213
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 " "1VTO; I don't want to go to England," Janet 
 
 i.^1 said flatly. " It will cost money, much 
 money; and, next year, I shall be a senior and 
 have to have many clothes. Instead, you are going, 
 and I shall stay here and try an experiment" 
 
 "Here?" 
 
 " In Canada." 
 
 Mrs. Leslie looked startled. 
 
 " Without me ? " 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " Don't worry, Mummy. I '11 get myself properly 
 chaperoned. That is part of the experiment." 
 
 To Janet's manifest disappointment, her mother 
 delayed her question. Instead, 
 
 " But Ronald wants you," she urged. 
 
 " He can't have me. It would cost quite too much 
 for this year. Besides, you are blessing enough, and 
 he should be thankful accordingly. You are to go, 
 Mummy. You can sail on the twenty-fifth, and I '11 
 start north, the same night." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " To Quebec."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " But where in Quebec ? " 
 
 Janet's eyes flashed, half with fun, half with! 
 determination, as she said demurely, 
 
 " Louis Street, corner of Ursule." 
 
 "Janet!" 
 
 This time, Janet was satisfied with the sensation 
 she had produced. Louis Street, corner of Ursule, 
 was the Leslies' home, owned by them for genera- 
 tions and never leased until the lessening family 
 and the needs of Janet's education moved them south 
 across the frontier. 
 
 " Yes, Mummy," she responded quietly. 
 
 " What are you going to do there ? " 
 
 Janet hesitated for a moment, and caught her 
 breath. Then her chin stiffened and, leaving her 
 place where she had halted just inside the door, she 
 sat down, facing her gentle, dainty little mother. 
 
 " Now, Mummy," she said ; " it 's time to talk 
 things out ; I 've been thinking them long enough. 
 If you don't mind, please listen and give me all my 
 turn first. When you know all about it, I '11 give 
 you leave to object as much as you like." 
 
 " How do you know I shall object, Janet ? " 
 
 " Because you never remember that I am grown 
 up," Janet made direct response. " I am almost a 
 woman, and this is a woman's plan, not a girl's 
 freak. You will believe that from the start; won't 
 you, Mummy ? " The young voice quivered a little. 
 
 Mrs. Leslie's quick ear caught the quiver. How- 
 ever, she knew Janet well enough to ignore the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 weakening of which Janet would be the first to feel 
 ashamed. Janet Leslie, aroused, could rage like a 
 small whirlwind; but her girlish code of emotions 
 held no place for tears, save in the rare moments 
 of her extremest distress. Her father's death, her 
 brother's leaving home to take position as secretary 
 to an English lordlet, the missing the one society 
 election on which she had staked her best effort of her 
 student life : these were the things that had brought 
 the tears. On lesser counts, Janet's chin might 
 quiver ; but it stiffened in time to preserve her from 
 the charge of frequent feminine wailings. There 
 was a stubborn streak in Janet Leslie that helped her 
 to keep her feelings to herself. It was the same with 
 her plans. She made them first, discussed them later. 
 Now she braced herself to expound her latest one. 
 
 " As I say, you are going to Ronald, this summer," 
 she began. " That is settled. While you are over 
 there, playing and resting, I 'm going to see life on 
 my own account." 
 
 " What do you mean, Janet ? " Mrs. Leslie was 
 English, so no wonder she looked a little anxious. 
 
 " The Frazer lease runs out, the twentieth of June. 
 I 'm going home, to open the house." 
 
 " Janet ! What do you mean, child ? " 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " That 's the only real question, Mummy. I don't 
 know whether I mean a house-party, or a boarding- 
 house. It 's all in the way you look at it. You 
 know things are going to happen in Quebec, this
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 summer; that is, if the place wakes up in time. 
 Every house up there is worth its weight in 
 gold." 
 
 Mrs. Leslie's answering nod was a bit regretful. 
 
 " I know," she assented. " I 'm glad you feel 
 that way about it, Janet. It will make it easier to 
 get Ronald to understand, and not be disappointed." 
 
 " Ronald is n't a bat," Janet responded, in flat 
 brevity. " However, he is n't going to be disap- 
 pointed, as long as he has you." 
 
 " But, if I stay here, instead ? " 
 
 " You are n't going to stay here." 
 
 " In Quebec, I mean." 
 
 " So do I. Now, Mummy, listen. You are n't 
 playing fair, interrupting like this. You are going 
 to Ronald ; you need the rest. Besides, that 's where 
 my plan comes in. It all developed out of something 
 Mrs. Argyle said, at Easter. She wants to go up for 
 the last of July. Rob and Day are teasing to go 
 up for the whole summer; but they none of them 
 care to go into a regular boarding-house. I want 
 to go up there, open the house, let them come, and 
 one or two others, and try my hand at keeping 
 house." 
 
 " Child ! You can't. Who would do the work ? " 
 
 " Mary Browne", plus Elsie." Janet leaned back 
 to watch the effect of her trump card. Mary Browne, 
 for three years, had been the backbone of the whole 
 Leslie establishment, and the Leslie establishment, 
 in those same three years, had won its reputation as
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the leading colony of freshmen in all Smith Col- 
 lege. As for Elsie, she was chief housemaid, and a 
 host in herself. 
 
 Mrs. Leslie capped the trump card with a joker. 
 
 " Who would chaperon you children ? " 
 
 " Mrs. Argyle." 
 
 " But when she is n't there ? " 
 
 Janet smiled inscrutably, as she played another 
 trump. 
 
 " Mrs. Blanchard. Jack is sure to go up for his 
 vacation, and he would be so glad to have his mother 
 with him." 
 
 The trump took the trick. Mrs. Blanchard was 
 also English. Also, she had seen better days, much 
 better, and her decorum was beyond all question. 
 Nevertheless, Mrs. Leslie interposed a final barrier 
 which, to her mind, seemed insurmountable. 
 
 " But, Janet child, you really don't know the first 
 thing about running a house," she said. 
 
 With a bounce, Janet plunged headlong over the 
 barrier. 
 
 " I can learn, I hope," she said disdainfully, for, 
 notwithstanding her British birth, she was now an 
 American college girl, and, as result, all things on 
 earth now seemed easy to her. " Mummy dearest, 
 you are a prudent old darling; but, when you come 
 to think it over, I believe you '11 decide to let me 
 have my way." 
 
 And she did. 
 
 All this talk went on, one night in late April, after
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the rest of the household was in l>ed. By the end of 
 the first week in May, the matter was practically 
 settled. By Decoration Day, Mrs. Leslie's passage 
 to England was booked, and Janet's plans were tak- 
 ing shape. By mid-June, it seemed doubtful whether 
 the great old stone house in Louis Street could stretch 
 to meet the strain which was bidding fair to be put 
 upon it. 
 
 " But it 's going to be so fearfully sprangling," 
 Sidney Stayre objected suddenly, the night before 
 they all were leaving Northampton. " Do you be- 
 lieve you ever can make it go ? " 
 
 With Mrs. Leslie in their midst, three girls were 
 sitting on the wide veranda of the Leslie house, 
 resting their weary feet after their labours as junior 
 ushers at commencement, while they discussed the 
 details of their summer plans. Their talk was des- 
 ultory and with long pauses, as suited the languor 
 of the summer moonlight, and of their weariness. 
 Moreover, long, long pauses are allowed between old 
 friends, and the trio could look back upon a friend- 
 ship, well-tried and extending over the past five years, 
 a friendship scarred, now and then chipped a little 
 at the edges, but totally unbroken. 
 
 Never were three points of a scalene triangle more 
 totally unlike than those three girls. Janet Leslie, 
 daughter of a rich man who had died poor, Canadian 
 and hence a thing of reservations and of inherent 
 shyness, was a dark, lithe, determined little mortal, 
 quick to take offence, slow to give her love, loyal to
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the point of fighting for that love, once it was given, 
 reticent, self-contained and with more than a dash 
 of genius in her composition, a girl who, though 
 acutely sensitive, generally ended by making the 
 best of her limitations. 
 
 Quite at the other end of the scale was Day 
 Argyle who, at nineteen, had never known a limita- 
 tion in her life. The child of a prominent railway 
 magnate, the only sister of a totally adoring brother, 
 Day had spent her life in surroundings which only 
 lacked an occasional ungratified wish to make them 
 altogether perfect. Strange to say, she had come 
 through it all, unspoiled, thanks to her grand unself- 
 ishness and her still grander sense of humour. Her 
 friends were from out the best of New York homes ; 
 her life among them, instead of limiting her sympa- 
 thies, had made her eager for contact with others 
 whose fortunes had placed them outside her own 
 charmed circle. Next to her brother Rob, Day's 
 closest friendship was with a man whom she had 
 first seen in the uniform of a Pullman conductor. 
 In her college course, she had picked out her friends 
 with a superb unconsciousness of social convention. 
 The Argyles were too sure of their ground to be able 
 to be snobbish; and Day had a curious trick of 
 choosing people for themselves, not for their names, 
 nor their frocks, nor even for their grandfathers. In 
 spite of her father's picture gallery, his private car 
 and his stables, she was as simple as Janet herself, 
 and far less self-conscious. Personally, she was
 
 8 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 plump and pleasing, though without much claim to 
 beauty, save for her mop of fluffy hair and her brave 
 brown eyes that danced and dreamed by turns. 
 
 Midway between the girls stood Sidney Stayre. 
 As outspoken as Janet was reticent, as downright as 
 Day was dreamy, Sidney walked merrily, sturdily 
 along through a life which was singularly free from 
 friction and misunderstandings. In fact, Sidney's 
 greatest talent lay in her trick of understanding 
 people, of putting herself so far into their places 
 that she could know what they were likely to do, 
 and why they were likely to do it. In a sense, she 
 suffered from her own ability. All sorts and kinds 
 of people, feeling her understanding, promptly took 
 it for granted that she was their most devoted friend. 
 They accepted her admonitions in good part, though 
 Sidney was as direct of speech as she was of under- 
 standing. However, they also absorbed her time re- 
 morselessly; and, in her more unregenerate hours 
 and to her closest friends, Sidney bewailed the fact 
 that her acquaintances took so much time confiding 
 in her that she never had a chance to enjoy her 
 friends. Her friends by no means included all the 
 world. Granted the reason, Sidney was a born good 
 hater. And the friends divided themselves into two 
 classes: Some, and the others. Some included the 
 three people beside her, her family, and five others; 
 for them, unflinching, she could have laid down her 
 glad young life. And yet, with the exception of Day 
 Argyle and her cousin Wade, the Some, with one
 
 JANET AT ODDS 9 
 
 consent, would as soon have thought of cuddling a 
 steel ramrod as of petting Sidney Stayre. 
 
 As for Mrs. Leslie, she was a dainty little Anglo- 
 Canadian widow, who had accepted her reversed for- 
 tune with a courage which had surprised her oldest 
 friends. At the first, she had opened her fine old 
 home to stranger boarders who had chanced to be 
 the Argyles. Later, yielding to Janet's wish for 
 four years in Smith College, she had bravely aban- 
 doned her own home city, and taken up her abode 
 in Northampton where, even in that stronghold of 
 New Englandism, the Leslie house had speedily won 
 golden reputation. 
 
 But Sidney's speech had fallen on no such pause 
 as this. Instead, Janet lifted her head, as at a chal- 
 lenge, and asked abruptly, 
 
 " Why should n't I make it go ? " And her tone 
 was a bit pugnacious. 
 
 Sidney laughed. 
 
 " Bless your heart, child, don't put on your war- 
 paint. I merely meant that, apart from all practical 
 matters like meat 'n' tater, and dusting down the 
 front stairs, you will have your hands full with 
 managing your human menagerie. Suppose we don't 
 get on together ? " 
 
 Janet's answer was terse. 
 
 " Then you can get on, apart. If you fight, that 's 
 your lookout." 
 
 " We sha'n't fight," Day said reassuringly. 
 
 " We sha'n't," Sidney echoed, though with a strong
 
 10 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 accent on the pronoun. " I 'm not so sure about the 
 others." 
 
 Janet turned thoughtful. 
 
 " My main anxiety is about Mrs. Blanchard," she 
 observed. 
 
 Both Sidney and Day burst out laughing at her 
 tone. It was Day who answered. 
 
 " She is n't fighty, Janet." 
 
 " Nor skittish," Sidney added. " In fact, I think 
 she 's rather too demure. I 've never been able to 
 see how she could have for a son such a determined 
 creature as Jack." 
 
 " Jack 's no creature," Day protested. 
 
 "He is, too. At least, he didn't happen. Any- 
 how, he is a dear. Still, he is rather a contrast to 
 his mother. She seems to me as decorously futile 
 as one of her own balls of wool. It must have upset 
 her completely, when Jack turned Pullman conductor 
 for a living; that is, if she stopped knitting long 
 enough to be upset" 
 
 Again Day protested. 
 
 " She really is very sweet, and he is devoted to 
 her." 
 
 " That 's just another proof of his bigness," Sid- 
 ney answered swiftly. " A littler man would get 
 fussy at her. He takes care of her as a big brown 
 bear might look out for a sleek little tabby-cat. You 
 need n't begin defending Jack Blanchard to me, Day 
 Argyle. If you do, I '11 proceed to defend your 
 Kob."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 11 
 
 Janet broke in, thoughtfully and with a literal 
 recurrence to Sidney's earlier phrase. 
 
 " How do you mean we sprangle, Sidney ? " 
 
 Swiftly Sidney converted her white muslin lap 
 into a species of social chart. 
 
 " This way. Look. Here are you, and Day, and 
 I. Beyond me, there 's Wade and Irene, and there 's 
 Paul. Nobody knows what he may have turned 
 into, in all this time, and nobody knows what has 
 possessed him to want to come. Behind Day, there 'a 
 Eob " 
 
 " Rob 's in the circle," Day objected suddenly. 
 
 " Well, Jack, then ; and Mrs. Blanchard is be- 
 yond him, out on the hem of things." 
 
 " I thought you were importing her, to have her 
 in the middle," Day objected again. 
 
 Sidney shrugged her shoulders tolerantly. 
 
 " She 's soft ; she '11 pack in anywhere. And then, 
 there 's Amy Browne. She is your contingent, Day. 
 Who 's to room with her, Janet ? You said we all 
 would have to double up." 
 
 Janet rose, crossed the veranda and stepped out 
 into the white moonlight, which brought all sorts of 
 dusky shadows into her dark hair and betrayed the 
 fun in her eyes. 
 
 " I put Amy Pope in with her ; it 's so much 
 easier to have one ' Amy's room ' than two. At 
 present, I am grudging the space I have to give to 
 Paul. It seems a shame to waste an entire room on 
 him."
 
 12 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Sidney planted her elbows on her knees and rested 
 her chin in her palms. 
 
 " If he has grown up along the lines he promised," 
 she said thoughtfully ; " no one room can hold him. 
 He probably will fill all space. Paul Addison him- 
 self is a factor to be reckoned with; and when you 
 add to that his sophomorehood " 
 
 " It is precisely nine hours since we ceased to be 
 juniors," Day interrupted. " I really would n't begin 
 to put on airs too soon, Sidney." 
 
 Heedless of the admonition to her friend, Janet 
 faced about with one of the sudden changes of mood 
 so characteristic of her. 
 
 " Girls," she said abruptly ; " I don't want to be 
 too horrid ; but we can talk, all summer long. This 
 is " she shut her teeth for an instant ; " is my 
 last night with mummy until next fall. I rather 
 think you 'd best go home and go to bed. You must 
 be very tired." 
 
 However, in spite of her advice to the others, it 
 was a long two hours later when, clinging fast to 
 the mother hand, Janet Leslie went slowly up the 
 stairs.
 
 A clicking of glass and china showed where Janet was 
 busy." Page 13.
 
 CHAPTEK TWO 
 
 EXACTLY one week later, the Leslies' great stone 
 house in Louis Street was humming with un- 
 wonted sounds of toil. Mary Browne, huge and 
 hilarious, had abandoned her pots and pans for the 
 sake of the front stairs and hall which she was 
 scrubbing until the fine old oak shone like a mirror. 
 Upstairs, Elsie was polishing the furniture of the 
 bedrooms, hunting out fresh linen and plumping up 
 pillows and mattresses as if the household health 
 depended on her ministrations. The sound of her 
 blows was echoed from the back yard where French 
 John was beating rugs, while a jangling of keys, 
 followed by a clicking of glass and china, showed 
 where Janet was busy, taking out the best dishes and 
 ornaments which had been packed away when the 
 house was leased. 
 
 From cellar to the garret tucked away between the 
 quaint old upper dormers, the whole place stood open 
 to the fresh June air. It had been Mary Browne's 
 doing, this wholesale overturning of the house, for 
 Mary Browne had sniffed disdainfully, as she fol- 
 lowed Janet into the hall, three days before. 
 
 " It smells just for all the world like a tenement, 
 Miss Janet dear," she had averred. " Rented houses 
 has a flavour to themselves ; there 's nothing else
 
 14 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 quite like it. Your mother would have a fit, if she 
 was here. We '11 open the windows quick and get 
 the strangers out, and the Leslies back in." And the 
 bump and clatter of a casement added emphasis to 
 her words. 
 
 That had been three days before. Since that time, 
 Mary Browne had been most active in living up to 
 her theory. She had gone to Canada to cook; but 
 she was a cheery, buxom soul who was ready to turn 
 her hand to whatever need arose, and now her hands 
 were full. She and Elsie had had many a long dis- 
 cussion with Mrs. Leslie, the past few weeks; she 
 and Elsie had talked longer still together, that first 
 night in their room among the dormers, while their 
 young mistress lay asleep below. Warm-hearted, 
 loyal Irishwomen both, they adored Janet, admired 
 her sturdy determination to carry out a summer 
 plan which would have filled with fear the heart 
 of many an older housekeeper with a far larger staff 
 of servants. 
 
 " It 's a big old house for the two of us to run, 
 Elsie," was Mary Browne's ultimatum ; " and, if the 
 child keeps on, she '11 have it stuffin' full, with all 
 her people. Still, we '11 make it do, between the 
 two of us. We 've worked before ; and there '11 be 
 the fun now and then, with all these new sights to 
 see. Let the child have her way, if she wants it, 
 and turn a pretty penny, while she 's having it. 
 Next year, if we live it through, we '11 all spend the 
 summer in a rolling chair at Atlantic City on the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 15 
 
 profits." And, six minutes later, she was snoring, 
 her open mouth still creased with the smile she had 
 accorded to her own prediction. 
 
 For the next three days, Mary Browne and Elsie 
 appeared to be doing their best to make their rolling 
 chairs a necessity. Long before Janet was awake in 
 the morning, they were hard at work, scrubbing, 
 airing, sorting, settling down. Three sketchy meals 
 interrupted the day, and the day's work ended long 
 past the late June twilight. There was much to 
 be done, for Janet's plan was now an established 
 fact, and the first instalment of Janet's house-party 
 was scheduled to arrive, that Saturday afternoon. 
 
 It was Day Argyle who ordained that it was to 
 be called a house-party. 
 
 " Is n't it your house, I 'd like to know ? " she 
 demanded. " And are n't you inviting us ? " 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " Some of you," she conceded. " Still, I was under 
 the impression that you and Rob invited yourselves, 
 and then invited Jack." 
 
 Day disdained the concession. 
 
 " Besides, what if we do well, cooperate in the 
 financing ? " she demanded again. " We might as 
 well do that as bankrupt ourselves in tipping a whole 
 row of greedy servants. It amounts to the same 
 thing in the end. No; it's just a regular house- 
 party, Janet, with you as hostess. If only Mother 
 Leslie could have been there, too! " 
 
 Janet's sigh was a little bit forlorn.
 
 16 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 "Yes, but " 
 
 Day interrupted. 
 
 " You '11 lose your grip, if you sigh like that, 
 Janet," she admonished her friend. " Your mother 
 is tired, after three years of girls. Moreover, Ronald 
 wants her, and he deserves his turn. Imagine the 
 poor fellow without a soul to wink at, when Lord 
 Axmuthy gets too preposterous ! It would have been 
 lovely to have had your mother; but we can amuse 
 each other, till my mother gets there, and Mrs. 
 Blanchard will do for decorum's sake." 
 
 " Yes, if I 'd ever seen her." Janet's assent was 
 rather grudging. 
 
 Day continued her reassuring chatter. 
 
 " But the rest of us have. She is a nice little 
 thing, a good deal like a fresh marshmallow, sweet 
 and soft. And she '11 sit in a corner, all day long, 
 knitting and purring away about her godmamma who 
 was third daughter of the Earl of Something. 
 Poor dear little lady ! She is such reduced gentility, 
 and it does so go against the grain ! " 
 
 Janet was sensible, but very tired. For that last 
 reason, she flushed hotly. 
 
 " It does with all of us, Day." 
 
 There was an instant's pause. Then Day rose, 
 crossed the room and laid her two hands on Janet's 
 shoulders. 
 
 " You know I did n't aim that at you, dearie," 
 she said directly. " You are n't reduced. You Les- 
 lies are ten times as splendid as you would have
 
 JANET AT ODDS 17 
 
 been, if everything had gone on in the old way. I 
 hate to say it out, for it seems like slandering Mrs. 
 Blanchard; but you must see the difference. She 
 will wear Bonnet silk and cluny lace, and then she 
 sits down, and gets plaintive, while Jack supports 
 her. You are up and busy, every one of you, doing 
 things to support yourselves. As result, you are 
 getting stiff backbones, and she is turning to a 
 jellyfish." 
 
 " Poor Jack ! " Janet said thoughtfully. 
 
 Again Day opposed her, and quickly. 
 
 " Not a bit. It 's made him grow strong enough 
 to do for the two of them. But," her mood changed 
 swiftly ; " is n't it good he 's to have so long a vaca- 
 tion? Rob settled it, wheedled daddy into saying 
 that Jack has been overworking and needs at least 
 six weeks to pull himself together." 
 
 "Has he?" 
 
 Day's eyes showed her worry. 
 
 " Honestly, Janet, I 'm afraid he has. When I 
 was home, last time, I was shocked to see how thin 
 and tired he looked. Mother spoke of it, too. My 
 father does n't mean to put too much on him ; but 
 Jack is so useful and so willing that it is almost 
 impossible not to let him overwork. I wrote to 
 Rob, and Rob went right to the point and struck 
 for a long vacation. Jack rebelled ; but there 's a 
 substitute hired to take his place, and he can't do 
 anything now but give in." 
 
 " Then he '11 be up ? " Janet's pause was one 
 of question. 
 
 2
 
 18 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " The sixth. The rest of us : Rob and I, Sidney, 
 Irene and the two Amys will be up, the twenty-ninth. 
 When does Sidney's cousin come ? " 
 
 "Paul? The third." 
 
 " I wonder how he will fit in with the rest of 
 us," Day said thoughtfully. 
 
 " We used to be great chums, four years ago. Still, 
 that 's a good while, and none of us have seen him 
 since. Strange that he wanted to come! But I 
 don't worry about him." 
 
 " What is the worry, dearie ? " Day inquired. 
 
 And Janet answered briefly, 
 
 " Mrs. Blanchard." 
 
 However Mrs. Blanchard, arriving in Quebec the 
 same night of Janet's advent, proved to be impossible 
 as a source of worry. She was as sleek and gentle 
 and contented as a Persian kitten; she was as de- 
 corous as Beacon Hill and as placid as Westminster 
 Abbey. Moreover and most important of all, she won 
 the heart of Mary Browne completely by her whole- 
 hearted approbation of Mary Browne's creamed pota- 
 toes and the spotless state of Mary Browne's kitchen 
 floor. Young as she was in the ways and lore of 
 the housekeeper, Janet already realized that, in a 
 party like her own, it was much more important 
 that the guests should have the approval of the 
 kitchen than the liking of the parlour. And Mary 
 Browne, albeit with certain attributes of the angels, 
 yet had her own dislikes. 
 
 Nevertheless, it would have been impossible to feel
 
 JANET AT ODDS 19 
 
 dislike of Mrs. Blanchard. She was far too colour- 
 less for that; but Janet, daily more tired, more 
 homesick for her own absent mother, forgot the colour- 
 lessness in the comfort and found herself submitting 
 to the coddling, coaxing ways of Mrs. Blanchard with 
 an enjoyment that surprised herself. By bedtime on 
 the third evening, when the house was all in order 
 and Janet could give herself time to sit down and 
 contemplate her rough, red hands and frayed finger- 
 nails, she was ready to admit that Mrs. Blanchard, 
 knitting by the droplight, was a most comfortable 
 centrepiece for their prospective group. 
 
 Meanwhile, the prospective group was having ad- 
 ventures on its own account. 
 
 Jack had seen them off at ISTew York: an infinite 
 number of bags, umbrellas, magazines and boxes of 
 candy, five girls and Rob Argyle. 
 
 " Rather like a Mormon colony," he had observed, 
 as he followed Day into the car. " However, Rob, 
 I must say you look equal to your responsibility." 
 
 Rob, helping the porter to stow away the luggage, 
 faced about, with a laugh. In truth, Rob Argyle did 
 look equal to most things, his approaching senior 
 dignity at Harvard among them. He was a big, 
 broad-shouldered, jovial fellow with a thatch of yel- 
 low hair, the jolliest, truest blue eyes conceivable, 
 and a little limp w r hich he would always carry as 
 souvenir of the day he had gained great glory on 
 the football field. In reality, he was a singularly 
 handsome boy; but he was such an all-round good
 
 20 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 fellow that no one ever stopped to think much about 
 his looks. 
 
 " I 'm not responsible for this crowd," he averred ; 
 " excepting Day, that is. I suppose a fellow is al- 
 ways bound to be responsible for his little sister." 
 
 Jack shook his head at the bag in his hand. 
 
 " Not on your life, Rob. It 's generally the other 
 way about, as far as you and Day are concerned. 
 She clucks over you, like a motherly hen. There ! 
 That all right, Sidney ? Sure ? There 's the call 
 to go. Take care of yourselves, and tell Janet I '11 
 be up, next week." 
 
 Day followed him to the door. 
 
 " I do wish you were coming with us, Jack." 
 
 " To help Rob out, in case of emergencies ? " he 
 asked, as his strong hand shut on her slim one. 
 
 " Yes, and to look out for me. With you and Rob, 
 I always feel safe enough to defy emergencies," she 
 said. " Besides, it would be so much more fun." 
 
 He gave her hand one final squeeze. 
 
 " The fun comes later, Day. Take care of your- 
 self and Rob, till I get there to do it for you. Good- 
 bye." And he was gone. 
 
 Day lingered in the vestibule until all chance of 
 a backward glimpse of Jack had lost itself in the 
 brick walling of the tunnel. During the past three 
 or four years, the girl had grown increasingly fond 
 of this young Canadian, taken into her father's office, 
 then into their own home life out of surroundings 
 quite alien to any she had known. In a sense, he
 
 JANET AT ODDS 21 
 
 was like an adopted brother; he had gained her 
 trust, her liking, then her love. True, he could 
 never stand in Rob's place in her life; but Day's 
 life was large enough to give room for two. Between 
 the two, she never sought to make comparison. It 
 was enough for her that her own best times always 
 happened when both the boys were with her. 
 
 It was nearly nine o'clock, next morning, when 
 Rob parted the curtains of his section and stepped 
 out into the aisle, as sleek and smiling as if he had 
 just come from his own room at home. His blue 
 eyes widened in astonishment, as they moved from 
 Sidney, reading in Day's section across the aisle, to 
 the open door of the stateroom where his sister was 
 chattering with Irene and the two Amys. 
 
 " I infer I overslept myself," he observed so sud- 
 denly that Sidney, oblivious of his arising, started 
 and dropped her magazine between the seats. 
 
 " I infer you did. No ; don't get it. It is n't worth 
 the trouble, and you '11 only bump your head. I sup- 
 pose there 's no especial sense in asking if you rested 
 well." 
 
 " Don't I look it ? What time is it ? " He glanced 
 at his watch. " Nine o'clock ! Jove ! I thought I 
 was hanging on to the tail of the lark. Breakfast 
 ready ? " 
 
 " Readier than we are." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Merely that breakfast is sixty-four miles off." 
 
 "Sidney! Get out! That's a nice fable to
 
 22 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 narrate to a starving man. Where are we, any- 
 how?" 
 
 " Sitting on the track, a mile below Newport. 
 We 've been here since five o'clock, or so." 
 
 " Why did n't you tell the conductor to mote 
 ahead?" 
 
 " There 's been some sort of delay to the Boston 
 end of the train," Sidney replied tranquilly. " We 're 
 waiting for it to catch up." 
 
 "How long?" 
 
 " Till it gets here." 
 
 Rob lifted up his voice, quite unmindful of the 
 brace of travelling salesmen, comparing notebooks 
 at the other end of the car. 
 
 "Oh, Day!" 
 
 Day appeared on the stateroom threshold, with a 
 trio of faces behind her. 
 
 " Waked up, sleepyhead ? " she inquired. 
 
 " Merciful Moses, yes ! And I am hungry within 
 me. Have n't you girls got something to eat ? " 
 
 " Chocolates." 
 
 Rob made a wry face. 
 
 " At this hour of the morning ? Bah ! That 's 
 girl all over. But you must have something solid 
 to gnaw on, in all those bags." 
 
 Interrogation, however, proved that they had noth- 
 ing more sustaining than the box of salted almonds 
 which Amy Browne produced from the depths of her 
 belongings. Rob waved them aside disdainfully. 
 
 " They would n't fill a corner of my appetite. I
 
 JANET AT ODDS 23 
 
 want food, Amy, man food, not girl pickings." And, 
 that hope vanished, he fell upon the button of the 
 porter's bell. 
 
 He emerged, smiling, from his conference with 
 the porter; then he proceeded to make known the 
 cause of his smiles. 
 
 " He says we 're stuck here for at least two hours 
 more. There 's been some sort of a small accident 
 to the Boston train, and we have orders to wait and 
 condole with the fragments." 
 
 " Two hours ! " Sidney rebelled. " What non~ 
 sense, Rob ! " 
 
 " There are some through passengers who might 
 not agree with you. However, that 's not the point. 
 If we walk up the track for about a mile, we '11 find 
 a passable hotel where we can get an apology for a 
 breakfast. The train will pick us up, when it comes 
 along. Who 's for trying it ? " 
 
 They all were, it appeared ; and the walk, coupled 
 with the lateness of the hour, developed an appetite 
 which took away all need of apology on the part of 
 the breakfast. Even the girls fell upon the over- 
 done eggs and the underdone chops with relish, and 
 Rob made a mighty meal. When, at long length, he 
 had finished, he gave a sigh of full content. 
 
 " I 'm better now, lots better," he observed. "But," 
 his blue eyes wandered along the row of empty 
 dishes ; " I '11 be hanged if I don't feel sorry for 
 the through passengers, when they come in to 
 breakfast."
 
 24 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 There were but two of the through passengers, 
 however; and the hush of expectancy became an 
 utter silence, as they made their long-awaited advent 
 in the car. Even the travelling salesmen stayed their 
 talk and stared; while the five girls caught their 
 breath in wonder, and Rob so far forgot his manners 
 as to murmur, 
 
 " Heavenly Mike ! what next ? " 
 
 The porter came in first, his face clothed in one 
 immense grin. In one hand, he carried the most 
 immaculate of suitcases whose end bore the unmis- 
 takable label of a college banjo club. The other 
 fingers were shut around an equally immaculate um- 
 brella and a jointed fishing-rod, together with the 
 handle of a limp string-bag whose assorted contents, 
 a bit too openly displayed to suit most tastes, were 
 topped with a good-sized bottle of milk. Behind 
 him, more decorous by reason of his rank and smoth- 
 ering his amusement as best he might, walked the 
 conductor, bearing in his arms a sloppy, blue-satin- 
 coated baby. In the rear of the procession came 
 the apparent owner of the baby, a tall, broad-shoul- 
 dered stripling of perhaps eighteen, well-bred, well- 
 clothed, yet walking with the awkwardness which 
 comes with extreme self-consciousness, and blushing 
 to the very lashes of his honest gray eyes. 
 
 The pause lasted until the new passenger had 
 seated himself, made what lap he could and received 
 into that lap the sloppy baby. Then, as the engine 
 whistled and the car moved slowly northward, the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 25 
 
 groups began to talk, with an absorption in their 
 own concerns which amounted wellnigh to frenzy. 
 
 Later, Rob came with information gleaned from 
 his talk with the conductor. He imparted it cau- 
 tiously and by bits, however, for the stranger's seat 
 faced their group, and Rob had no mind to be 
 caught discussing his chance neighbours. 
 
 " That poor chap's work is cut out for him, to-day," 
 he reported, with a chuckle. " I 'm thankful I 'm 
 not in his shoes." 
 
 Day looked up from the cards she was dealing out 
 to Irene and the Amys. 
 
 " You probably could n't get them on," she said. 
 
 " Don't want to. They 'd pinch, in every sense. 
 Listen, girls, and let the game go hang. There was 
 a sure-enough accident to the Boston train, rather 
 a bad one, I fancy. The baby's mother had some 
 ribs broken, and " 
 
 Irene, the oldest of the group, looked up in quick 
 pity. 
 
 " Oh, the poor little thing ! " she said. 
 
 Rob chuckled. 
 
 " Which ? You '11 change your cry, when you hear 
 it all. She was going to see her father in Quebec, 
 or somewhere near there. Instead, she had to be 
 switched off to a country hospital. This fellow 
 he 's a Williams man was the only other person 
 going through, and the conductor bamboozled him 
 into offering to take the youngster along and hand 
 him over to his grandaddy."
 
 26 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Rob ! Then he is n't the baby's papa ? " 
 
 " Does he look it ? " 
 
 For her only answer, Amy Pope let her gaze rest 
 upon the clothes, the haberdashery, the freckled face, 
 the honest eyes of the boy before her, then on the 
 limp and squirming baby that hung upon his shoul- 
 der. Then, in a denial too strong to be expressed in 
 any words, she shook her head. 
 
 " Do go and talk to him, Rob," Day begged him. 
 " It must be horrible for him to sit there alone, and 
 know we all are watching him. Really, you ought 
 to try to help him out." 
 
 But Rob was obdurate. 
 
 " Not much, Day," he answered. " I 'm not out 
 collecting any new acquaintances. Moreover, in his 
 place, I 'd rather stay incog., and put it through 
 alone." 
 
 And the stranger did put it through alone, save 
 for the handy ministrations of the porter who, to 
 all appearing, had spent his life amid a score of 
 limp and lopsy babies. Together, they removed the 
 gorgeous bonnet and the faded blue satin coat; to- 
 gether, they administered milk with a zeal which 
 deluged their knees and left the baby strangling; 
 together, turn by turn, they entertained the baby, 
 the one holding him upright and shaking him a 
 little, while the other waved watches and shiny 
 knives and shoe-horns before his bored and supercili- 
 ous eyes. And so the long hours wore away, and 
 with the hours the miles, until at last the train was
 
 JANET AT ODDS 27 
 
 on the heights at Harlaka, ready to slide down the 
 long grade that leads to Levis. 
 
 Then came the final tussle, that of getting the baby, 
 cross now and proving the lustiness of his lungs, 
 back into his coat and bonnet. His adopted parent 
 tried, and failed, failed signally and with ignomini- 
 ous results to his necktie. He looked for his ally, 
 the porter ; but the porter was busy, brushing people 
 and sorting out bags. He tried again; again he- 
 failed. Then desperately he put the child down on 
 the seat, clamped him down with his umbrella, 
 wedged the umbrella home with his suitcase and, 
 flushing scarlet to his ears, dishevelled, unneat, and 
 his gray eyes appealing, he made straight for Irene 
 where she sat alone, while the others, in the state- 
 room, were busy with the luggage. 
 
 " I say," he blurted out, while he halted beside 
 her, cap in hand ; " I beg your pardon, you know, 
 and all that ; but, if you 've any idea how this kid's 
 overcoat puts on, for heaven's sake, do come and 
 help a fellow ! " 
 
 And Irene went.
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 " T T OW much of a powwow do you really think 
 JL J. it 's going to be ? " Janet queried indolently. 
 
 " Powwow ? " The guest's tone was injured, 
 defensive. 
 
 " Yes, just about that From all accounts, it 's 
 going to be a jumble of Prince and Police and 
 pageants. You might as well sum up the three pa 
 in one, and call it a powwow," Janet observed, a 
 little more caustically than she was quite aware. 
 
 The guest sniffed. Then she mounted her high 
 horse. 
 
 " How American you are getting, Janet ! " she 
 remarked. 
 
 Janet inspected her fingernails during an interval 
 of silence. Then she laughed. 
 
 " Really ? I had n't discovered it, Gladys. Where 
 do you notice it ? " 
 
 The guest, a dainty little Canadian blonde, coloured 
 at the mirth in Janet's tone. 
 
 " In your point of view," she said a little tartly. 
 " You seem to think it 's nice to come back and make 
 fun of Canada. Quebec is n't as large as New York, 
 perhaps ; but it is fully as " 
 
 But Janet cut in, with manifest penitence.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I don't happen to come from ISTew York ; and 
 I 'm not making fun of Quebec, Gladys. I love it 
 as much as you do, perhaps; and I am perfectly 
 happy to get back here. The only trouble is, it 
 does n't seem like Quebec, this summer. It 's not 
 been our way to go mad about a thing, as you are 
 doing now." 
 
 " We are not mad ; we are interested," Gladys 
 corrected her. 
 
 "Yes; but " 
 
 Gladys continued her correction. 
 
 " And it is a great thing. You can't be three 
 hundred years old, every day." 
 
 " Mercifully not." It was Amy Pope who spoke 
 from a corner of the sofa. 
 
 The guest frowned at the obtrusion of this second 
 American point of view. Then she sought to en- 
 lighten the darkness of its ignorance. 
 
 " It really is going to be a great event," she said. 
 " People are coming from all over the world to see 
 it. Besides all the rest, there will be the fleet, and 
 the fireworks, and " 
 
 " Fun," Amy capped her sentence demurely. 
 " You may as well sum up your /s as your ps, Miss 
 Horth. But where is all this party to happen ? " 
 
 " Has n't Janet shown you ? " There was dis- 
 tinct rebuke in the tone. 
 
 " We have only been here, two days," Amy re- 
 minded her ; " and it takes a little time to get one's 
 self unpacked and settled down. Yesterday, we
 
 30 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 did n't put our noses outside the door ; and, this 
 morning, we only took the shortest kind of a walk." 
 
 The guest half rose from her chair. 
 
 " You 'd better come out with me now." 
 
 " You are going out ? " 
 
 " Yes, for rehearsal." 
 
 Janet started into quick attention. 
 
 " Gladys ! Are you in it ? I thought it was only 
 Saint Roch's people, and that sort." 
 
 Gladys Horth settled back into her chair. She had 
 found the old friend she had come to see, and she 
 resolved to prolong her call accordingly. 
 
 " So it was, at first ; but they could n't make it 
 go. Now we all have gone in for it. It 's great 
 fun ; we 're rehearsing, almost every night, and all 
 the people we know are in one or the other of the 
 two court scenes." 
 
 " What are you ? " 
 
 " I 'm in Henry's court ; I 'm to wear a blue satin 
 gown and a monstrous crinoline, and have my hair 
 in puffs. We girls are all sewing on our costumes 
 now." 
 
 " It must be fun." Janet's tone was envious. 
 
 " It is. And that 's one reason I came here, to-day, 
 as soon as I heard you were back in town. Why 
 did n't you tell us you were coming, Janet ? " Gladys 
 broke off to question. 
 
 Janet cast an expressive glance about the room. 
 
 " I wanted to make sure of my ground, before I 
 advertised it," she said whimsically.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 31 
 
 " You always did. Is it a fact you 're taking 
 boarders, this summer ? " 
 
 The question was a shade too blunt for the taste 
 of Amy Pope, and she cut in, before Janet could 
 reply. 
 
 " !N"ot a bit of it. The crowd of us we 're all 
 chums among ourselves at home thought it would 
 be good fun to have a house-party, this summer, and 
 this was the best place for it we could find. Janet 
 manages it, because it is her house; but we all take 
 a hand in the arrangements, all but Mrs. Blanchard. 
 She 's guest and chaperon." 
 
 " Oh-h ? Is that the way you do it, in the 
 States ? " 
 
 Amy appeared to find something infinitely amus- 
 ing, either in the question or the voice. It was an 
 instant before she answered. 
 
 " Yes," she said then. " It 's our Knickerbocker 
 ancestry, I suppose. We all love Dutch treats." 
 
 Janet interposed. 
 
 " But about the pageants, Gladys ? " 
 
 Gladys recalled herself from her mystification. 
 
 " Oh yes. I stopped here, to-day, to see if 
 you would n't like to be in one. They 're not all 
 full, by any means." 
 
 "Really?" Janet said alertly. "I'll ask the 
 girls." 
 
 " What girls ? " 
 
 " Did n't you know there were six of us here 
 together 2 "
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Oh, yes. But they are Americans." 
 
 It was Amy Pope's turn to be blunt. 
 
 " What 's the difference, as long as we can act ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 Gladys Horth smiled, and the smile held its own 
 hint of superiority. 
 
 " Most of us don't have to act, you know. All we 
 do is to stand about and look pretty." 
 
 " I was n't aware that being an American dis- 
 qualified one for that," Amy responded dryly. 
 
 Again Janet interposed, for she felt that there 
 was imminent danger of her friends' flying at each 
 other's throats. Fond of them both in totally dif- 
 ferent ways, she would have found such a situation 
 the more embarrassing from not being certain which 
 to second. 
 
 " I think we 'd love it," she said, with all the 
 enthusiasm at her command. " You say the places 
 are n't all full ? " 
 
 " Not all. He wants a few more people, especially 
 for the Francis scene. That court is all on horse- 
 back, and not all of us can ride." 
 
 " Alas, I can't do that ! " Amy sighed. 
 
 Gladys bent upon her a glance of pity. 
 
 " Oh, no ; one would n't look for that, you know," 
 she said quietly. 
 
 Amy defended herself, her plumage by now thor- 
 oughly ruffled. 
 
 " I used to," she explained. " My pony bolted 
 once, and threw me, and broke my ankle, though;
 
 JANET AT ODDS 33 
 
 and it spoiled my nerve so I Ve never cared about 
 riding, since." 
 
 And again Gladys made answer quietly, 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " I '11 talk it over with the girls and Rob, to-night," 
 Janet said hastily. "I think some of us may like 
 to go in for it. At least, it will add variety to things ; 
 and it will be good to talk about, after it is all over. 
 Must you go ? I '11 telephone you about it, in the 
 morning." 
 
 " But you will come in, whatever the others do ? " 
 Gladys urged. " We all want you, Janet. The old 
 set are all in Henry's court; we count on you to 
 be there with us." 
 
 Janet laughed and shook her head. 
 
 " Nice of you. But I must talk it over with the 
 others first." 
 
 " I don't see why." 
 
 Janet's answer held its own note of dignity. 
 
 " Because I don't care to go into it, alone, and 
 leave my friends out. We came up here, this sum- 
 mer, to be together." 
 
 " Where are they now ? " 
 
 " Sidney, Miss Stayre, has gone to Lower Town. 
 The others went down to the Island. They '11 all be 
 back for dinner." 
 
 " I 'm back now," Sidney proclaimed negligently, 
 as she came strolling into the room, her hat in one 
 hand, her pins in the other. " What 's wanted, 
 Janet ? " 
 
 3
 
 34 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " A f amily discussion, apropos of the pageants. 
 You really must go, Gladys ? I '11 telephone you, 
 then, in the morning, after I 've put it to vote." 
 
 " Who is the stiff-necked sister ? " Sidney in- 
 quired flippantly, when Janet came back from es- 
 corting Gladys to the door. " And why on earth 
 did n't you introduce her ? " 
 
 Janet looked startled, then a little guilty. 
 
 " Sidney ! I forgot. You see, we don't introduce 
 people here, not when they 're calling." 
 
 " Why not ? " Sidney inquired blankly. 
 
 " Because why, because it 's not the custom. I 
 suppose we think there is n't any need. Nice people 
 know each other, and the others well, the why, 
 you see it does n't make any especial difference about 
 the others." 
 
 Sidney laughed. 
 
 " A nice, humane arrangement ! " she observed. 
 " The only trouble is, it fails to specify which is 
 the nice one, and which is n't. With this haughty 
 lady and me, for instance " 
 
 " Gladys is a dear," Janet defended her. " She 
 is one of my very oldest friends." 
 
 " That settles it," Amy responded promptly. 
 " I '11 take her to my heart, no matter how she snubs 
 me. I think I shall call, to-morrow." 
 
 Janet frowned. The friction of the past half- 
 hour had gone upon her nerves. Moreover, Gladys 
 was a compatriot, and not to be made a subject for 
 flippancy, now her trim little back was turned.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 35 
 
 Sidney interrupted, out of her own train, of 
 thought. 
 
 " Where is Roberval, Janet ? " 
 
 " I think," Amy pursued ; " that you can make 
 yourself a great deal clearer, Janet, if you write a 
 note instead of telephoning. I want to see Miss 
 Horth again soon, and I will carry the note." 
 
 " What about ? " Sidney queried. 
 
 " Whether we want to be in the pageants." 
 
 " Of course we do, Amy. We want to take in all 
 the fun that 's going. Where did you say Roberval 
 was, Janet ? " 
 
 " I did n't say. You did n't give me a chance." 
 
 The chance was still lacking, for Sidney swept on. 
 
 " Paul is there." 
 
 " Paul Addison ? " 
 
 " Yes. He went there to spend a week with some 
 college friends, before coming here. I 've a letter 
 here, sent on from home; he writes that he will 
 get here on the fifth. That 's two days later than 
 he planned. I wish he 'd get here and have it 
 over." 
 
 " What a cousinly speech, Sidney ! " Amy re- 
 buked her. 
 
 " Don't care. He is Judith's brother, and you 've 
 seen Judith for yourself. Paul used to be a thing 
 of joy ; but that was five years ago. Nobody knows 
 what he may have turned into by now." 
 
 " A week will tell. Meanwhile, what about the 
 pageants ? "
 
 36 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 The question was repeated, that same evening, re- 
 peated and discussed. There would be a certain 
 interest in being inside the pageants, not only .for 
 the thing itself, but for the sake of having taken 
 part in the three-hundredth birthday celebration of 
 the quaint old city. Still, it would take time, and 
 tie them down to frequent rehearsals and to ten 
 days of constant action. In the end, though, the 
 vote of the majority was for the taking part. Cos- 
 tumes are always fascinating, and there is a charm 
 in being on the inner side of things. Irene, how- 
 ever, held herself firmly to her original negative. 
 
 " Wade won't get here till the thing begins," she 
 averred, with a becoming blush. " He could n't be 
 in it, if he wanted to ever so badly, and you need n't 
 think I 'd go into it, myself, and leave the poor dear 
 to sit it out alone." 
 
 And the others applauded her decision. Irene 
 Jessup had chosen her own commencement day, 
 twelve months before, for the announcing her en- 
 gagement to Sidney Stayre's cousin, Wade Winthrop. 
 
 " What are you going to do, Hob ? " Day asked, 
 in the pause that came after the applause. 
 
 " That depends. If I can get a job as mounted 
 courtier, I 'm all right. Else, I 'm afraid it will 
 be no go for me." 
 
 " Not really ? " Amy Browne urged. " You 'd be 
 adorable in costume." 
 
 Rob laughed and shook his yellow head. 
 
 " Of course. I was born for silk doublets and lace
 
 JANET AT ODDS 37 
 
 frills. Still, Amy, even you couldn't desire to see 
 me do the minuet thing they talk about." 
 
 " I could, too, Rob," she answered quickly ; and, 
 for a minute, their eyes met. Of all the girls, 
 Amy was the only one besides Day who had known 
 Rob Argyle before his accident, the only one who 
 really understood the change it had made in all his 
 life. 
 
 And Amy Browne, pampered only child of a mag- 
 nificent home, was by no means the stuffed Paris 
 doll she seemed. Under her gentle serenity lay force 
 and generosity. 
 
 But Janet was once more calling her roll. 
 
 " What about you, Day ? " she demanded. 
 
 " Depends on Rob." 
 
 " Day ! Fudge ! " Rob rebelled tersely. 
 
 " Fact," Day replied, with equal terseness. 
 
 " Hang it ! I 'm no spoil-sport." 
 
 " You won't be. I 'm like Irene ; I 'd rather sit 
 it out with the man of my choice than go through 
 the giddy whirl alone." And, crossing the room, 
 she plumped herself down beside her brother in the 
 great chair where, by virtue of his masculine prowess, 
 he sat enthroned. 
 
 Rob's arm shut around her shoulders promptly, al- 
 though his dignity caused him to protest. 
 
 " Aurora darling, save my afflicted knee, or I can't 
 bestride a courtly charger. Count her in, Janet. 
 She 's game." 
 
 " Not unless you are, Rob. I 'm set on that point."
 
 38 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I thought, from all appearances, you had set 
 on me. Go on, Janet. Who next ? " 
 
 Sidney and the two Amys gave an unqualified 
 assent, Sidney because she was ripe for any fun that 
 offered, Amy Browne because, other things equal, 
 she always cast in her lot with the popular side, and 
 Amy Pope from a secret determination to prove to 
 Gladys Horth that Americans could act well and 
 look well, too. Then the discussion centred itself 
 upon the absent members of the party. 
 
 " What about Mr. Blanchard ? " Irene queried. 
 
 Day forestalled all discussion by answering se- 
 renely, 
 
 " Jack ? He '11 decide as Eob and I do." 
 
 " Well, I like that! " Sidney protested. 
 
 " So do I. Jack 's very nice to have about one," 
 Day responded. "What about your cousin, Sidney ?" 
 
 Sidney shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Next week will tell. It remains to be seen 
 whether he has stayed himself, or has turned into 
 Judith's brother. Anything is possible, in five 
 years." 
 
 " By the way, Sidney," Rob broke in ; "we saw 
 the baby, to-day." 
 
 "The baby?" 
 
 Rob laughed. 
 
 " Yes, I know it 's not a specially apropos subject. 
 Day, if you could move just one inch? There. 
 That 's all right. Now sit still. I mean the baby on 
 the train, Sidney ; the one with the adopted parent."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 39 
 
 " How did you know it was the same one ? " 
 
 " I did n't ; 't was Irene. She assisted at its rob- 
 ing, and she spotted it by its blue satin overcoat. 
 It was taking a boat-ride with its grandpapa, and 
 Irene was so overjoyed to see it that she claimed 
 acquaintance." 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " Bu-bu-broa oo, as nearly as I can recall it 
 Is n't that right, Irene ? " 
 
 " I meant the grandfather," Sidney corrected. 
 " Did he say anything about the mother ? " 
 
 " Yes, he said too much, and he said it very, very 
 much too fast for my French to keep up with him. 
 iAs far as I could get the gist of it, though, she was 
 either dead, or going to be, poor soul ! " 
 
 " And the baby will have to be brought up by its 
 grandmother ? " Day asked pityingly. 
 
 " I also gathered, from the old man's hatband and 
 the condition of his buttons, that there was n't any 
 grandmother," Rob answered, and, under his whim- 
 sical words, his boyish voice was grave. " Poor little 
 chap! The broken rail has broken his life all up. 
 The only comfort is, he is too little to realize what 
 it is he 's lost." 
 
 Day, still nestled into the great chair beside him, 
 shut her fingers over his. There had been other 
 breaks in other lives. None knew it better than 
 her jovial brother. Her fingers shut on his; but 
 brother and sister never needed words to make things 
 clear between them. Instead, she merely added,
 
 40 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I wonder what became of the adopted parent." 
 
 And her wonder was destined to a speedy answer. 
 
 Meanwhile, the intervening days passed quickly, 
 bringing with them the coming of the absent mem- 
 bers of the party. Dominion Day came and went, 
 and the Fourth, and the fifth of July dawned, and 
 Paul Addison became uncomfortably imminent. 
 
 To four of the girls, the advent of the young Bos- 
 tonian was a matter of idle curiosity. If he were 
 an agreeable addition to their party, well and good. 
 If not, they would make the best of him when 
 they must, and leave him to go his way when they 
 could. Six girls, all friends and with all manner 
 .of criss-crossing degrees of intimacy, could be suffi- 
 cient unto themselves, regardless of intruding boys. 
 Rob was always an established fact among them, and 
 Jack Blanchard was fast bidding fair to become one ; 
 but they were different. Moreover, to all the girls 
 but Amy Browne who never had attempted college 
 life, sophomorehood seemed a thing of the remote 
 past, and they were prepared to look on Paul, sopho- 
 more of a fresh-water college, as a mere child ac- 
 cordingly. That would be after he arrived, however. 
 Till then, they bestowed upon him the least thought 
 possible, even to Irene Jessup who was pledged to 
 marry Paul's half-brother. Only Sidney and Janet, 
 then, felt responsibility concerning Paul, the one 
 because she was his cousin and so in part the reason 
 for his coming into their group, the other because, 
 years before^ she and Paul had been exceedingly
 
 JANET AT ODDS 41 
 
 good chums, and one always feels more or less ac- 
 countable for one's chums of yester-year. 
 
 Sidney had answered Paul's note, had assured him 
 that she would meet him at the train. At the last 
 minute, however, her courage failed her, and she 
 pressed Day into service as supporting second. Day 
 was nothing loath, and together they betook them- 
 selves to the station at the appointed hour. They 
 had dawdled, going down the hill, for Day had in- 
 sisted upon showing Sidney all the landmarks of her 
 winter spent in the old city, three years before ; and 
 the train was already whistling at the city crossings, 
 by the time the girls came into the square before 
 the station. Then, as the line of cars slowed up 
 and the passengers appeared upon 1 .the platforms, 
 Sidney seized Day's muslin-covered elbow and 
 whirled her about. 
 
 " Look ! " she bade her friend. " There 's the 
 baby's adopted parent, there on the platform of the 
 third car ! " 
 
 In fact, there he stood, browner, more hilarious 
 and far more irresponsible than before; but just as 
 big and manlike and as honest. Apparently Sid- 
 ney's quick gesture had caught his attention, for he 
 looked up, met the eyes of the two girls fixed upon 
 him, recognized them instantly and flushed scarlet, 
 as he recalled the circumstances under which he last 
 had beheld them. All his irresponsibility fled from 
 him, and, with it, all his poise; and it was a blush- 
 ing, self-conscious stripling who stepped down from
 
 42 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the train and halted on the platform. For a mo- 
 ment, he hesitated, still blushing madly and look- 
 ing up, looking down, looking cornerwise, as if 
 seeking escape from the open door of some hidden 
 trap. Then, with an obvious effort, he pulled him- 
 self together, and shut his teeth. The next instant, 
 to the utter consternation of both the girls, he had 
 crossed the platform and cast himself upon Day's 
 neck, with the astounding greeting, 
 
 " Hullo, Sidney, old chap ! You have n't changed 
 a particle."
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 THE drawing-room door opened a crack, and 
 a voice queried, 
 
 " Is this my going-to-be brother ? " 
 
 Paul, his hands in his pockets, was whistling out 
 into the busy street. At the words, he turned 
 alertly. 
 
 "You bet!" Then he parried. "That is, if 
 you 're Irene. I don't want any more mix-ups." 
 
 The door swung open, and Irene crossed the floor. 
 Seen in the strong light of the open window, she was 
 a girl who seemed all brown clothes and brown hair 
 and friendly, big brown eyes. Paul liked her at the 
 start. He also liked the grip of the strong, brown 
 little hand that shut across his fingers. 
 
 " Yes, I 'm Irene ; and you 're ever so much like 
 .Wade. How is the baby 2 " 
 
 Paul laughed. He had a likable laugh, jolly and 
 ungrudging. 
 
 " Search me ! I left him in the arms of his 
 grandaddy, and I trust he '11 stay there. You were 
 a sister to me, all right. I think it took some brains 
 on my part to pick you out and set you working 
 for me." 
 
 " And you did n't really know us ? " 
 
 Paul's laugh, this time, was slightly shame-faced.
 
 44 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Ask Miss Argyle," he said. 
 
 " She told me. I really think you could n't have 
 been striving for dramatic effect, in choosing the 
 method of your appearing." Irene laughed. " Still, 
 I fancy Day will survive. Where is Sidney ? " 
 
 " Gone to take off her hat. I wish she 'd hurry 
 up. I 'm naturally very shy, you see, and she is my 
 sole support, in this crowd of strangers." 
 
 " Except " Irene's voice was suggestive. 
 
 Bravely Paul rose to the emergency. 
 
 " Oh, you 're going to be my step-sister-in-law, 
 and don't count. However," his honest gray eyes 
 swept over her in manifest approval ; " however, I 
 must say I think old Wadeikins has done one sen- 
 sible thing in his life. I wish he 'd hurry up and 
 finish up the job. Still, even if we did join forces 
 on the infant child, we 're not exactly old-time, trusty 
 cronies, and Sidney " 
 
 Irene sought to jog him on across the pause. 
 
 " You find her ? " she inquired. 
 
 Paul's reply was terse, albeit lacking in convention. 
 
 " Bully ! " he answered, and Irene, instead of 
 being shocked, nodded in full agreement. 
 
 " What about Janet ? " she asked then. 
 
 To her extreme surprise, both glance and voice 
 lost all their directness, as Paul answered evasively, 
 
 "I've only seen. her for a minute, you know." 
 Then abruptly he changed the subject. " What 's 
 the Argyle fellow like, Irene ? " 
 
 Irene liked the matter of fact fashion in which
 
 JANET AT ODDS 45 
 
 he assumed the relationship between them, and chose 
 her as his temporary oracle. Her voice showed her 
 liking. 
 
 " Altogether splendid. You '11 like him, Paul." 
 
 Once more Paul whistled thoughtfully at the street 
 outside the open window. 
 
 " Don't be too sure," he answered guardedly then. 
 " He looks confoundedly superior." 
 
 " Who is that ? Rob ? Nonsense, Paul ! " Sidney 
 objected suddenly, as she joined them in the window. 
 " You looked upon him with jaundiced eyes, because 
 you thought he did n't appreciate your baby. Did 
 you know Irene saw him, a day or two ago ? " 
 
 " By Jove, no ! How 's the little chap getting 
 on ? " Paul demanded, forgetting Rob completely in 
 the more absorbing interest. Then, after Irene had 
 told her story, he added eagerly, " I '11 tell you what, 
 let 's go hunting for him, first thing in the morning, 
 and see what we can find out." 
 
 The girls assented ; but the Fates willed otherwise. 
 ISText morning, Sidney was just coming down the 
 stairs, and Irene was drawing on her gloves, in the 
 hall below, when a crash and a shriek from the front 
 room above sent the household to the rescue, with 
 Paul six steps in the lead. 
 
 " I was beautifying myself for Jack," Amy 
 Browne confessed penitently, when the curtains and 
 a chintz-covered chair had followed the alcohol lamp 
 into the street, to the manifest surprise of a caleche- 
 load of tourists beneath. " I suppose I must have
 
 46 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 joggled the lamp, when I put the tongs in; but I 
 had just burned off a whole bundle of curls, and I 
 was feeling a little fretty on that account. What 
 will you do to me, Janet ? " 
 
 " Send you out to see if you can match the cur- 
 tain stuff," Janet told her practically. 
 
 Amy huddled her blue dressing-gown around her, 
 while the burned-off tag-locks on her brow dangled 
 in limp apology for the ruin they had caused. 
 
 " I '11 be ready, in a minute," she said meekly. 
 " I 'm sorry, Janet. I did n't mean to." 
 
 But Paul, who had followed the ruins to the street, 
 lifted his voice from below. 
 
 " All out ! Sidney ? Irene ? I want my relations." 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " To go to call on the kid, of course." And the 
 group scattered as speedily as it had gathered. 
 
 " I say, Sidney, who are these Blanchards, any- 
 how ? " Paul asked bluntly, as the two cousins and 
 Irene went tramping down the Cote d' Abraham at 
 a pace which turned all eyes in their direction, so 
 swift was it, and so rhythmic in its strength. 
 
 " Why, they are " Sidney hesitated ; " they 're 
 the Blanchards, of course." 
 
 " Naturally. But where do they come in ? Whose 
 contingent are they ? " 
 
 " Everybody's. Jack is, at least. We all adore 
 him." 
 
 " Quite obviously, especially Miss Browne." 
 Paul's tone was slightly dry, and he plunged his
 
 JANET AT ODDS 47 
 
 fists into his pockets. " But whose party is he, aside 
 from the Dame's ? " 
 
 "The Dame? Oh, Mrs. Blanchard?" Sidney 
 laughed outright. 
 
 " Yes. Is he our sort ? " 
 
 " Paul, are you going to turn out a snob ? " Irene 
 asked him rebukingly. 
 
 " You bet your life I am, step-sister-in-law ! 
 There has to be one in every family, and I 'm it 
 for ours. As for the Dame, well, my mama does n't 
 tell about her lordly relatives." 
 
 " Probably because she never had any," Sidney 
 suggested remorselessly. " As for Mrs. Blanchard, 
 Paul, we love her; but now and then we do regret 
 her a little bit, when she gets too reminiscent. But 
 Jack is another story." 
 
 Paul shifted his cap to the extreme back of his 
 head, made it firm with both hands, then once more 
 stuck his hands into his pockets. 
 
 " What 's the yarn ? " he queried then. 
 
 " It 's Day's, or, rather, Rob's. Jack lives at their 
 house, is just like an adopted brother; but, when 
 Hob first discovered him, he was a Pullman car 
 conductor." 
 
 " Moses ! Was his mama broken in an accident, 
 too? And will the blue-overcoat baby end in my 
 home as my adopted brother ? " 
 
 Irene laughed at the consternation in his tone; 
 but Sidney swept on with her story, a story she loved 
 well, as holding its own bit of unpractical romance.
 
 48 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " He was very nice to Rob, looked out for him, 
 and all that. It was soon after Rob was hurt; he 
 was very lame then, and glad of the care. He re- 
 membered it and, when he had a chance, he intro- 
 duced Jack to his father. They took him back to 
 New York with them, to be Mr. Argyle's secretary; 
 and then, the first thing we any of us knew, they 
 took him into their home, and he 's lived there with 
 them, ever since. Sometimes, I even wonder if they 
 know he was n't born there." 
 
 " Hm ! " Paul meditated, whistling softly to 
 himself. " So that 's it ? Is he well is he 
 conductor-y ? " 
 
 " Not one bit," Irene responded quickly. 
 
 But Sidney lifted her head a little. 
 
 " What if he were ? " she asked, and her voice was 
 ominously quiet. 
 
 They crossed to Levis in a body, that noon. Six 
 of the party were eager; Rob and Day were wildly 
 hilarious. Paul alone held himself aloof from the 
 general mood of expectant rejoicing, held himself 
 judicial, even critical. In choosing this attitude, he 
 felt he had reason on his side. Were not his father 
 and his grandfather listed in Who 's Who ? Was 
 not his mother an invariable hostess for every globe- 
 trotting notable who climbed up Beacon Hill ? More- 
 over, was he himself not a Williams sophomore and 
 reasonably sure of his election into Alpha Delt. ? If 
 the others wanted to be chums with a Pullman car 
 conductor, well and good. For himself, he would
 
 JANET AT ODDS 49 
 
 wait to see what the fellow was like. A crowd of 
 girls were not too discerning judges; even Kob 
 Argyle might not prove himself infallible, good com- 
 rade as he had shown himself, the night before. Paul 
 mounted his attitude accordingly. He tumbled off 
 it, headlong, the instant that the train came in, bring- 
 ing Jack Blanchard, bareheaded and smiling broadly, 
 upon the lower step of the New York sleeper. 
 
 And yet, there was nothing especially striking 
 about the looks of Jack Blanchard; that is, if one 
 excepted the steady, kind brown eyes and the sol- 
 dierly carriage of the wide shoulders. Whatever 
 claim to good looks he might once have put forth 
 had been injured by a scar across his temple, a scar 
 whose winning had endeared him to all his friends. 
 But the poise of his head, the shut of his mouth, the 
 look in his eyes now and then, the grip of his hand 
 and, above all else, his laugh: these things showed 
 the man, and the man was bound to gain attention, 
 liking, at the start. Four or five years older than 
 the others, more self-reliant and masterful by reason 
 of his life and of his army training on the South 
 African veldts, Jack won the trust of strangers, the , 
 loyal enthusiasm of all who dared to call him friend. 
 And yet, jovial and kind as he was to everybody who 
 crossed his path, Jack's friends were singularly few. 
 It was his choice to keep that relation a bit more 
 sacred than is the fashion nowadays. Moreover, the 
 very difficulty of getting into that small circle made 
 it a coveted goal to the outsiders who, otherwise, 
 
 4
 
 50 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 might have stopped to question whether one really 
 could be chums with a man who once had worn a 
 corporation uniform. 
 
 A part of this Paul took in at a glance; a part 
 it needed all the summer for him to learn. However, 
 the first glance had led him to repent of his stric- 
 tures, and accordingly he voiced his repentance, as 
 he started to walk away at Sidney's side. 
 
 " He 's all right," he observed, with what seemed 
 to' him effusive cordiality. " I 'm not sure you over- 
 praised him, Sidney. I rather like his looks. Oh-h 
 fudge ! " For he found himself speaking to empty 
 air. Sidney had attached herself to Jack's immedi- 
 ate bodyguard, and Paul was left alone. 
 
 He annexed himself promptly to Amy Pope, who 
 appeared to be likewise outside the coveted radius 
 of Jack's chumship. Moreover, Paul had liked Amy 
 at the start. She was pretty; she knew things, and 
 she never suppressed her views of affairs in general 
 for the mere sake of expediency. Paul, too, loved 
 a wordy tussle, and already the two of them had 
 crossed swords more than once, leaving Paul by no 
 means always the winner in the skirmish. He had 
 retired to bed, the night before, adoring Sidney as 
 of old, loving Irene as the brother he was so soon 
 to be; but, down in the depths of his boyish soul, 
 convinced that his good times, that summer, would 
 centre in Amy Pope. Unless ? There was Janet, 
 and they had been such chums before. Paul shook 
 his head at his necktie, then gloomily laid it down.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 51 
 
 Janet was changed. As yet he had been able to form 
 no notion of what was going on inside the brain of the 
 reserved young girl with the determined chin and the 
 alternating glints of fun and fire in her dark eyes. 
 
 " Amy Pope is scheduled to be my present She," 
 he observed to himself, as he tucked himself between 
 the sheets. " I like a fighter, and she 's a corking 
 good one, so long as she does n't get too fierce." 
 
 But fierceness was in Amy's character only when 
 she fought for her friends, not with them. Now 
 she greeted Paul gayly, as he followed her on board 
 the ferry, then led the way to the bow where wind 
 and sun both struck them sharply, as they leaned 
 on the rail with their eyes upon the rock-walled city 
 across the river. 
 
 " You did n't tell us how you found the infant, 
 this morning," she reminded him. " Was he over- 
 joyed to see you ? " 
 
 " He would have been, if I had only found him. 
 r As it was, I 'd mislaid the street where I put him, 
 and Sidney was in such a hurry to meet Blanchard 
 that she wouldn't give me time to look it up." 
 
 Amy laughed softly to herself. 
 
 " The Blanchard microbe ? It is funny, when you 
 stop to think about it. And yet, you can't help 
 liking him, when you come to see him." 
 
 Paul nodded. 
 
 :< Yes, he 's better than he sounds in the advance 
 notices. Of course, if it were only girls, one would 
 put it down to Beg pardon ? "
 
 52 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Don't mind me," Amy besought him. " Go 
 right on." 
 
 " I was going to, only you interrupted," Paul as- 
 sured her calmly. " As I was going to say, if it 
 were only girls, one would put it down to the romance 
 of the thing. The story really is romantic: leaving 
 college to go to the Boer War, coming home to find 
 his mother minus every red cent, and going to work 
 at whatever came. I suppose," Paul sighed heavily ; 
 " that 's what makes a girl burn off her lovelocks in 
 a fellow's honour. But Argyle is worse about it 
 than his sister; and, from all accounts, my own 
 venerable brother Wade is down with the same dis- 
 ease. I appear to be the only one who has n't caught 
 the germ." 
 
 Amy cast a backward glance across the deck. 
 
 " Not guilty," she responded quickly then. 
 
 " Are you immune ? " 
 
 Amy's sigh echoed that of Paul. 
 
 " He is," she answered briefly. " I am outside 
 the ring of adoring satellites for the simple, sober 
 reason that I can't get him to manifest the slightest 
 interest in my existence. When I 'm visiting at the 
 Argyles', he treats me with a sort of humane polite- 
 ness ; but that 's all. He 's never rude ; he 's much 
 too nice for that. He just forgets all about me, and 
 it hurts my feelings hard. There are times when 
 it 's my chiefest wish to step on his toes, to make 
 him aware of my existence." 
 
 She looked so pretty, as she spoke, so full of her
 
 JANET AT ODDS 53 
 
 naughty determination, that Paul's gray eyes danced 
 in sympathy with her whim. 
 
 " Agreed ! " he answered tersely. " Let 's." 
 
 "You, too?" 
 
 " I feel it in my bones, and also in my heart, I 
 shall. There hasn't been much time, yet. How- 
 ever, as I said, let } s." 
 
 Amy sank her chin on her fists, joined knuckle to 
 knuckle. 
 
 " How ? " she inquired. 
 
 " I 'm not sure yet. I '11 meditate. In the mean- 
 time, I wish to find my kid." 
 
 "Why don't you?" 
 
 " Because, as I told you, I have mislaid the street. 
 I thought I 'd know it again, because there was a 
 legless boy in a goatcart on the corner where I turned 
 in. I left the kid in the third house." 
 
 " But it is barely possible the goatcart may have 
 moved," Amy suggested. 
 
 " Sure. The same possibility also applies to the 
 kid. The best thing to do is to find the cart, and 
 then count three. I '11 tell you what." Paul glanced 
 up at the city, now apparently hanging directly above 
 their heads. " You and I are n't in this Blanchard 
 love-feast ; we 'd get homesick, if we sat about on 
 the edges and looked in. Therefore, we '11 go up 
 with the others and feed, and then we '11 leave them 
 to patacake their idol, and we '11 go hunt the babe." 
 
 " Would it be polite ? " 
 
 " It would be very sensible."
 
 54 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Amy went on a fresh tack. 
 
 " What shall you do with him, when you do find 
 him?" 
 
 Paul looked a trifle blank at the question. 
 
 " How should I know ? The decent thing, I sup- 
 pose. Let 's see. You pinch the baby cheek, and 
 press a bit of gold into the baby palm." 
 
 " Press the button," Amy suggested irrepressibly. 
 
 And Paul capped her phrase as irrepressibly. 
 
 " And hear the kiddie cry. I suspect that will 
 be the cold truth of the situation. Anyhow, we '11 
 go. What 's more, we '11 take him down some gum 
 drops." 
 
 " What for ? He has n't any teeth." 
 
 " You bet he has. I got' my finger into his mouth 
 once, by mistake. And, anyhow, they '11 do for corks, 
 if he gets too outspoken." 
 
 " All right. Wait, though. What about re- 
 hearsal ? " 
 
 " What rehearsal ? " 
 
 " The pageants. We 're all going out, to-day, with 
 Miss Horth." 
 
 " The deuce we are ! What for ? " 
 
 Amy explained. When she had finished explana- 
 tion, she added, on her own account, 
 
 " I think, if you don't mind about the baby, I 'd 
 rather go out there. Miss Horth is Janet's chiefest 
 local friend; but she is very haughty to all of us 
 Americans, and I 'd a little like to keep my eye on 
 her and watch her do it."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 55 
 
 Paul reflected swiftly. Then lie laughed. 
 
 " They can," he assented. " Likewise, they 're 
 funny while they 're doing it. It used to be a drawn 
 game between Janet and my sister Judith. Me- 
 thinks I 'd also like to watch this one happen. We '11 
 call off the baby-hunt till morning. Meanwhile, by 
 way of getting ready, we '11 sally forth and buy the 
 gum drops and a drum."
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 TT7EERE is Paul?" Janet's voice was heard 
 V V to ask in the hall outside, about the middle 
 of the next morning. A moment later, she pushed 
 open the door of the back drawing-room. " Does 
 anybody know where Paul is ? " she demanded for 
 a second time. 
 
 Sidney looked up from the ball of wool she was 
 winding from the skein looped over Jack's out- 
 stretched hands. The ball matched the one in Mrs. 
 Blanchard's lap, and was obviously destined to serve 
 as its successor. 
 
 " I don't," she answered, while Jack took advan- 
 tage of the temporary lull to scratch the bridge of 
 his nose with one stiff thumb. 
 
 " Curious Kow a chap itches, once his hands are 
 put out of commission," he observed discursively. 
 Then he added, " We have n't got him concealed 
 about our persons, Janet. In fact, I Ve hardly 
 spoken to the boy, since I came." 
 
 " Is n't he with some of the others, Janet ? " Sid- 
 ney asked. 
 
 " I think not. Rob and Day have gone for a 
 drive, Irene 's writing letters in her room, and Amy 
 just went out shopping." 
 
 "Which Amy?"
 
 JANET AT ODDS 57 
 
 " Amy Browne. She went to get some new cur- 
 tain stuff to put in place of the one she cremated in 
 Jack's honour." 
 
 Jack looked up sharply. 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 " Janet ! How mean of you to tell ! " Sidney re- 
 proached her. 
 
 " K"ot a bit Did n't I tell Jack I had put on my 
 new pink muslin in his behalf ? That 's as bad as 
 to curl up my front hair into a frizzle. I likely 
 should have done that, if it only had been becom- 
 ing." And Janet proceeded to pin on her hat above 
 the smooth, thick hair that framed her face. 
 
 " What about Amy ? " Jack queried. 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " Sidney says I must n't tell ; but I think I will, 
 else you '11 imagine greater things than really hap- 
 pened," she replied demurely. " Amy is a thing of 
 vanity, and she knows that curly fluff of hers suits 
 her face to perfection. By way of making it more 
 fluffy in preparation for your advent, she burned 
 up the curtains of one of the front windows." 
 
 Jack looked mystified. 
 
 " I fail to connect," he said. 
 
 " Jack, you dear old innocent ! " Sidney mocked 
 him. " It 's evident that you have n't a sister of 
 your own, and that Day's hair curls of itself, without 
 any help on her part." 
 
 " So does Amy's ; does n't it ? " he asked, so 
 blankly that both girls burst out laughing.
 
 58 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I '11 tell Amy that," Janet assured him. " It 'a 
 tribute, to her skill, and it ought to atone for the 
 ragged ends she left, when she burned herself, the 
 other day." 
 
 Deliberately Jack let the wool slide from his hands 
 and turned to face the girls before him. 
 
 " Do I gather," he asked whimsically, yet with! 
 a little accent which somehow showed that the idea 
 was not agreeable to him ; " that girls, nice girls, 
 roast their hair into frizzles like that ? " 
 
 " Yes," Janet told him remorselessly. " Also oc- 
 casionally they roast themselves." 
 
 " But you don't," he urged. 
 
 Sidney halted in her efforts to untangle the dropped 
 skein. 
 
 " Merely because, as Janet says, we look better 
 as the Lord made us, with straight hair. Else, we 
 should become curly, too. Do you mean to say, 
 Jack " 
 
 " I mean to say I supposed girls, nice girls, the 
 girls you and Day have for friends, were just as 
 nature made them. I think I 'm rather sorry I 've 
 found out the truth," he answered bluntly. 
 
 " I don't see how you 've kept from finding it 
 out till now." Sidney's tone was thoughtful. 
 
 Jack's gaze rested on his mother, trim in her in- 
 evitable black silk frock and little lace cap and 
 ruffles. 
 
 " I was busy about some other things, you know," 
 he reminded Sidney, with a smile. " There were n't
 
 JANET AT ODDS 59 
 
 many girls in my life, till I was long past Rob's age ; 
 and," his brown eyes turned to her expressively; 
 " when they did come, they were n't the sort that 
 needed to improve on nature much." 
 
 Sidney's colour came, and she returned to her 
 knots with some haste. It was not like downright 
 Jack, this new trick which had been coming in his 
 speech, the past few months. Day had noticed it, 
 too; the two girls had spoken of it together, had 
 wondered what it meant. 
 
 Janet, meanwhile, pursued the question. 
 
 " But you don't mind it, Jack ? " 
 
 " I don't like it, if that 's what you mean." He 
 threw aside his momentary seriousness and laughed 
 out in his old jovial fashion. " I 'd rather take you 
 as you are, and make the best of you." 
 
 " I 'm afraid you 're very old-fashioned," Janet 
 rebuked him. " All in all, though, I think I won't 
 report this conversation to Amy. She might find it 
 ungrateful, especially since she has branded herself 
 in your honour. It really was a horrid burn, to say 
 nothing of making charcoal of half her front hair. 
 And she is a dear little thing. But has anybody 
 seen the other Amy ? " 
 
 " The dear big thing ? " Sidney looked up from 
 her knots once more. " I have n't seen her since 
 breakfast." 
 
 " Does it strike you that you have a lamentable 
 scarcity of names in this crowd ? " Jack remarked, as 
 once more he held out his hands for the skein. ' ' Two
 
 60 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Aniys and two Brownes. I should think you might 
 get a trifle mixed up now and then. Ready, Sidney ? 
 All right, only do hurry up; my arms are para- 
 lyzed. Oh, by the way, if it 's Amy Pope you want, 
 I saw her starting off with young Addison, an hour 
 ago." 
 
 "With Paul?" 
 
 " Yes. They seemed bent on mischief, too. He 
 had a huge bundle under his arm, and they both 
 were chuckling over something, as they went through 
 the hall. Steady ! There 's another put-through 
 place." 
 
 " If you put it through once, you have to, every 
 time," Sidney objected. 
 
 Again Jack's eyes rested on her face, and his smile 
 now was not wholly jovial. 
 
 " So I 've generally found it," he answered. 
 " Still, in the end it 's worth the while." 
 
 Janet, heedless of the little allegory, had plumped 
 herself down upon the arm of Mrs. Blanchard's chair. 
 
 " Tired, dearie ? " Mrs. Blanchard queried, laying 
 her hand on Janet's shoulder, for she had never been 
 taught to dread the result of coddling the reserved 
 and undemonstrative young girl. 
 
 " No," Janet said quaintly ; " Janet is n't tired. 
 I rather think she 's lonesome." 
 
 " Go and rout out Irene and take her for a walk," 
 Sidney suggested practically. " If Wade gets a 
 letter, every day, he needn't expect to find them 
 two hours long."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 61 
 
 But Jack had let the last of the skein slip through 
 his fingers, then had risen. 
 
 " And Jack 's tired of sitting still," he cut in sud- 
 denly. " Come along, Janet ; let 's go for a good 
 long walk." 
 
 Sidney looked after them with unenvying eyes, as 
 they went tramping down the street. 
 
 " Is n't that just Jack ? " she asked herself. Then 
 she added, also to herself, " I think I '11 take that 
 young cousin of mine in hand, to-night, and give him 
 a heart-to-heart which includes a few new notions 
 about girls. He has n't given Janet ten consecutive 
 minutes of his time since he came ; and it 's not fair, 
 when they used to be such chums." 
 
 However, somebody else was taking Paul in hand, 
 just then, taking him with a grip that defied all his 
 efforts to relax it. 
 
 " I recollect myself now," Paul had said, as he 
 and Amy turned down the sunny street. " At least, 
 my notebook recollects me. I was taking down the 
 address of the costume man, and I found the street 
 where the kidlet abides, Sainte Therese." 
 
 " Where is that ? " wag Amy's not unnatural 
 question. 
 
 " Down hill somewhere. We '11 take the first car 
 that comes, and ask the conductor." 
 
 " I know better than that," Amy asserted. " We 
 need a Saint Roch's car; then we can transfer. 
 Apparently your baby abides in the slums." 
 
 Paul surveyed her quizzically.
 
 62 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Did you happen to notice his haberdashery ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 And Amy admitted the pertinence of the question. 
 
 Down hill accordingly they went, and there, by 
 dint of transfers and of many questions, they made 
 their way to Rue Sainte Therese, and the baby. 
 They found the street one of a snarl of little by-ways 
 which threaded a wilderness of tiny houses, all 
 gables and dormers and copper roofs, houses whose 
 front doors opened out into the street above a single 
 oilcloth-covered step, houses whose windows were as 
 tightly sealed as if the season had been winter, not 
 July. They found the baby, blue overcoat and all, 
 sitting in a frowsy wicker carriage and uttering 
 spluttery remonstrances at the street in general. 
 Save for a faceless rag doll seated by his side, he 
 appeared to be alone. Nevertheless, he promptly 
 resented the friendly greetings of his erstwhile nurse. 
 Amy added her efforts at conciliation to those of 
 Paul. 
 
 " Baby ! See ! See ze pitty," she adjured him, 
 as she held up a shining toy. " See ze pitty itty 
 sing we 's brought oo." 
 
 Baby fists and baby voice smote the air simultane- 
 ously. When he could make himself heard, 
 
 " You 're on the wrong track," Paul advised her. 
 " Perhaps he thinks you 're too gushing with him. 
 Best be a little more coy." 
 
 There was an interval of coyness, while they stood 
 at a respectful distance and slowly unpacked a scar-
 
 JANET AT ODDS 63 
 
 let tin horse and a purple rubber ball from the bundle 
 on which Jack had made comment. The baby eyed 
 them with supercilious gravity. So long as they 
 maintained a proper distance, these strange grown- 
 ups were welcome to amuse themselves in any way 
 they chose. However, as soon as, horse and ball in 
 hand, they approached his frowsy chariot, he re- 
 sumed his hostile demonstrations towards them. Paul 
 drew off in manifest alarm. 
 
 " By Jove ! He 's fairly frothing at the mouth," 
 he said hurriedly. " He '11 do himself some sort 
 of harm, have a shock or something. What an orator 
 he '11 make in time, though ! Just see him pound 
 the air at all the proper pauses. But, I say, this 
 is awful. We '11 have the fire department out, if 
 this keeps on. There must be some way to switch 
 off the motor." 
 
 " How did you do it, coming up ? " Amy asked 
 unkindly. 
 
 " I did n't much. The porter told me to jounce 
 him up and down, and it did a little good. I 'd do 
 it now, only I don't see where we could get a fair 
 grip. He 's all strapped up into this go-cart, you 
 see, and he 's ready to fight us like a a " 
 
 " Spunky baby." Amy capped his phrase for him. 
 " What if we ride him down the street a bit ? It 
 may quiet him." 
 
 " Good scheme ! " Paul approved. " It 's fairly 
 safe, too, for he 's lashed too tight to get at us, if 
 t we stay well behind him. A change of scene is
 
 64 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 always good for the nerves; the doctor sent my 
 mother to Los Angeles, when she had nervous 
 prostration." 
 
 Amy's answer was unfeeling. 
 
 " At this rate, we '11 soon be candidates for Pata- 
 gonia. Let 's try my plan, and ride him down the 
 street." 
 
 The plan worked well. The baby's interest in the 
 journey absorbed him to such a point that he neg- 
 lected to notice the nature of his motive power, and 
 he subsided into placid gurglings. Above his un- 
 conscious head, Paul and Amy exchanged nods of 
 satisfaction, as they slowly trundled him along the 
 sunshiny street. At the corner, Amy raised her 
 brows; Paul nodded. Smiling in full enjoyment 
 of their stratagem, with the baby booing and splutter- 
 ing at the shiny windows of the houses and at a 
 scavenger dog who sniffed at him, they rounded the 
 corner, too intent upon their friendly plan to note 
 the little old man just dashing out of a doorway, 
 farther up the street, to heed the shriek of mingled 
 rage and fury which he sent echoing after them. 
 Even had they heeded, the shriek would have con- 
 veyed nothing to their academic ears. It was in 
 French; but not the French of Paris, nor* yet of 
 the American college type. 
 
 A moment later, Paul glanced backward over his 
 shoulder. Then he quickened his pace. 
 
 " I say," he remarked, while he laid h is hand 
 beside Amy's on the bar of the carriage ; " I think
 
 JANET AT ODDS 65 
 
 perhaps we 'd better hurry up. There seems to be 
 some sort of a row back there, and we don't want 
 to get mixed up in it. Suppose we dodge around 
 that corner over there and lie low ? " 
 
 The carriage balked at the crossing; but they 
 made their corner and entered a street, named, to 
 be sure, yet possessing all the attributes of a blind 
 alley. Once there, Amy slowed her step; but Paul 
 cast a second glance over his shoulder. 
 
 " Well, by thunder ! " he said. " We appear to 
 have steered into the cyclone's path. Here, let 's dive 
 into this back-yard place, and let it whirl past us." 
 
 The carriage balked again, then entangled itself 
 in the entrance to the back-yard place. Before Paul 
 could assume the helm and change the course, the 
 cyclone had whirled down upon them, a shouting, 
 gesticulating crowd. In the front rank came the 
 little, shabby old man, and a fat little French police- 
 man, all badge and moustache and shining hat ; and, 
 to Paul's intense surprise, instead of dashing on 
 past them, the entire mob swept upon them, as if 
 the objective point of the whole mad rout had been 
 himself and Amy, and the blue-overcoated baby in 
 his frowsy chariot. 
 
 For a moment, there was silence, a silence full of 
 expectation, since neither the mob nor its object ap- 
 peared to know just what would happen next. The 
 silence ended, when the policeman shut his law- 
 gloved hand on Paul's right arm, ended in a babel 
 of strident French that defied Paul's ears. 
 
 5
 
 66 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 For one short instant, Paul's gray eyes flashed, 
 and he lifted his arm with the full intention of cuff- 
 ing the little Frenchman soundly. Then he remem- 
 bered the might of the law, dropped his arm and 
 lifted his voice persuasively. 
 
 " Not guilty ! " he said cheerily. " What in thun- 
 der is the matter ? You '11 get a sun-stroke, yon-all, 
 if you keep on exciting yourselves like this. What 
 do you want, anyhow ? " 
 
 The babel kept on, more noisy, more hostile with 
 every moment. In the midst of it, the little man 
 ended his utterances with a culminating yelp of 
 anger, sprang forward, tore the carriage out of Amy's 
 grasp and made off with it up the street, while the 
 clamour changed from menaces to plaudits. Under 
 cover of the shrieking, Paul turned to Amy, rage 
 and amusement struggling for mastery in his honest 
 eyes. 
 
 " Well, I am blessed," he said slowly; " if I don't 
 believe they think we were trying to kidnap their 
 blasted baby ! " . 
 
 "What? No! Yes! Do explain it to them," 
 Amy begged. 
 
 " I don't believe I can," Paul confessed. 
 
 " Don't you speak French ? " 
 
 " Perfectly ; but not the sort they speak up here. 
 I shall have to leave you to do the talking." 
 
 Amy shook her head. 
 
 " I only know two words, oui and one other, and 
 I forget now just what the other was," she answered
 
 JANET AT ODDS 67 
 
 hilariously, for the whole situation seemed to her 
 intensely comic. 
 
 Paul, however, foresaw a possible change to 
 tragedy, or, failing that, to melodrama. Swiftly he 
 sought the dusty corners of his mind in the hope 
 of discovering a few stray wisps of his sub-freshman 
 French. Discovered, however, they took some time 
 and care, before they could be fitted to each other 
 and to the present crisis. 
 
 " You wait," he said at last. " You rest a mo- 
 ment there, and I speak the whole story." 
 
 The officer pricked up his ears. He was town- 
 born, not habitant ; and Paul's accent was better 
 than his vocabulary. He pricked up his ears; 
 then he let off a volley of accusing French in 
 reply. 
 
 Paul let the volley die away to silence. He was 
 too wary to waste his energy on a wholly impossible 
 attempt to understand. Instead, he utilized the time 
 to frame his next sentence. He framed it with a 
 glibness that astounded himself, astounded Amy, 
 astounded even the chubby officer who, taking it for 
 granted that Paul's fluency was more than skin deep, 
 launched forth upon another tide of French which 
 plainly ended in a question. 
 
 For reasons wholly obvious, Paul forebore to an- 
 swer the question. Amy jogged his attention a little 
 mercilessly, for even upon her gayety it was dawning 
 that, in time, the situation might lose some of its 
 more comic phases.
 
 68 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Why don't you tell him ? " she inquired, in 
 manifest rebuke. 
 
 "Tell him what?" 
 
 " Why I don't know," Amy answered vaguely. 
 " Whatever it is he wants to know." 
 
 This time, Paul's chuckle was irrepressible. 
 
 " I will," he responded glibly. " I 'm only wait- 
 ing for you to tell me what it is. I 've done my 
 fair share in the talking ; now it 's up to you to 
 understand." 
 
 Amy turned to face the crowd, now looking on in 
 expectant curiosity. 
 
 " Is n't there somebody here who speaks a little 
 English ? " she demanded. 
 
 Only a murmur answered her, a murmur of nega- 
 tion, punctuated by shrugs and disdainful smiles. 
 Paul, at her side, read the faces around them like 
 an open book. 
 
 " No go," he said. " We 're marooned in a sea 
 of French. All we can do is to drift till we sight 
 an English craft." 
 
 Amy laughed as unconcernedly as if she had been 
 sitting on the Leslie steps. 
 
 " I really believe I shall come to admire your 
 metaphors as much as I do your slang," she 
 said. 
 
 " Think it over and decide," Paul advised her 
 coolly. " Meanwhile, from the way this minion of 
 the law is plucking at my elbow, I infer he wants 
 to have me go somewhere with him. If you 've
 
 JANET AT ODDS 69 
 
 nothing better to do, you might as well come along 
 and see the situation through." 
 
 There was silence for a moment. Then Amy's 
 laugh, hearty and infectious, bubbled up and over. 
 
 " Paul Addison," she said, when she could speak ; 
 " I verily believe we 've gone and got ourselves 
 arrested."
 
 CHAPTEK SIX 
 
 JANET and Jack came back from their walk, Rob 
 and Day from their drive and Amy Browne from 
 her shopping. Luncheon was cooked and served and 
 eaten, and still there was no sign of Paul and Amy 
 Pope. 
 
 " Where can those children be ? " Janet wondered 
 for the third time, as they left the table. 
 
 And, for the third time, Mrs. Blanchard replied 
 tranquilly, 
 
 " Don't worry, Janet. Boys always come home, 
 when they begin to get hungry." 
 
 Day nodded across at Jack, who was standing at 
 attention behind his mother's chair. 
 
 " Your present habits developed early, Jackie 
 boy ? " she asked audaciously, and Janet's question 
 was swamped in a rising tide of chaff. 
 
 The question repeated itself over the tea and 
 Sally Lunn, however, repeated itself and was ac- 
 corded a more serious discussion. It repeated itself 
 again at dinner, this time to be met with grave and 
 anxious faces. By now, there seemed no reasonable 
 cause that Paul and Amy should prolong their ab- 
 sence any further. True, both of them were in- 
 veterate jokers; yet neither one of them ever had 
 been known to carry a joke beyond the limits of
 
 JANET AT ODDS 71 
 
 courtesy and good taste. The girls were ' still in- 
 clined to treat the matter as a foolish freak; but 
 Jack looked grave, Rob openly alarmed. 
 
 It was Mrs. Blanchard who finally broke in upon 
 the aimless discussion. 
 
 " Jack ? " She spoke decidedly. 
 
 "Mother?" 
 
 " As soon as you have finished your dinner, dear, 
 I think you 'd better go out and make a few 
 inquiries." 
 
 Sidney looked up, a world of trouble in her eyes. 
 
 " You think it is as bad as that ? " she asked, 
 while her thoughts flew off to Boston and her aunt. 
 
 Mrs. Blanchard touched the girl's hand reassur- 
 ingly- 
 
 " I only think it may be, and that 's the reason 
 I want Jack to find out that it is n't." 
 
 Already Jack had risen to his feet. 
 
 " I 've had all the dinner I care for. I think 
 I '11 go at once. Will you come, too, Rob ? " 
 
 Rob rose irresolutely, glancing from Mrs. Blanch- 
 ard to Day, and then to Sidney. 
 
 " Unless they need me here." 
 
 " Go on," Day urged him. " Two heads are 
 always better than one, and we are all right. There 's 
 nothing we can do but worry, and we really don't 
 need masculine assistance in doing that." 
 
 " Why don't you telephone from here ? " Janet 
 called after them. 
 
 But Jack shut the outer door too soon to allow
 
 72 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 himself time to answer. He saw no reason to inform 
 Janet that the direction taken by his telephonings 
 might not be reassuring. 
 
 " You think something is wrong ? " Rob asked 
 briefly, as they swung out into the darkening street, 
 where the gray shadows seemed loath to vanish be- 
 fore the coming of the electric lights. 
 
 Jack nodded, as he fitted his stronger stride to 
 the pace of his companion. 
 
 " I 've been thinking so for some time," he an- 
 swered quite as briefly. 
 
 " You did n't say so." 
 
 " What was the use of stirring up a panic ? As 
 long as daylight lasted, I thought they might be 
 off on an impromptu picnic." 
 -"And now?" 
 
 " I don't know what to think." 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " 
 
 " I 'm going straight to headquarters literally.'* 
 
 " You mean ? " 
 
 " I 'm going to put the police on the track." 
 
 " Oh, I say, I would n't do that, yet-awhile," Rob 
 remonstrated, with extreme disfavour. 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " It sounds so so criminal. Besides, it may get 
 into the papers." 
 
 " Not here. Not if we object. Canadian papers 
 can be muzzled, if one knows how to go to 
 work." 
 
 In spite of his anxiety, Rob laughed, while he
 
 JANET AT ODDS 73 
 
 studied with admiring eyes the resolute profile of 
 his friend. Then he laid his hand on that friend's 
 arm. 
 
 " Jack," he said ; " I believe you 're as much a 
 Canadian as ever." 
 
 The resolution softened, lighted into kindly liking. 
 Then, half unconsciously, Jack shortened step. 
 
 " I 'm going too fast for you, old man," he said. 
 " Let 's slow down, a bit. Canadian ? Yes. Why 
 not?" 
 
 There came a pause, short, wellnigh imperceptible. 
 Then Rob answered, with an accent rarely used from 
 man to man, 
 
 " Merely because we 'd rather have you altogether 
 one of us." 
 
 At police headquarters, events transpired, and 
 swiftly. In fact, according to Jack's present mood, 
 it would have been a bold man who suggested a 
 delay; and even the unrolling of red tape was hur- 
 ried by his masterful dictation. They entered the 
 doorway of the great stone building in a mood as 
 bleak and gray as the outer walls. Half an hour 
 later, they were back in the street, smiling and talk- 
 ing buoyantly, while they awaited the leisurely com- 
 ing of a Saint Roch's car. 
 
 " Best telephone to the house," Rob advised, as 
 they came down the stone steps of the city hall. 
 
 Jack nodded. 
 
 " Only don't be too hopeful," he advised. " We 
 don't want to stir them up for nothing. Tell them
 
 74 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 we think we have a clue, and hope we 're on the 
 right track." 
 
 " You don't think there 's chance for any doubt ? " 
 
 " I should n't ; only it sounds so totally impos- 
 sible." 
 
 " It 's the impossible that happens," Rob made 
 assent. " After the which original utterance, I '11 
 go inside this shothecary pop, and telephone to 
 Day." 
 
 In all truth, it did seem impossible, this clue 
 which both boys believed to be the right one. There 
 had been a few uncertain moments in the office of 
 police headquarters, moments of apparently futile 
 discussion which had taxed to the uttermost Jack's 
 French and Rob's patience. Then the fluttering of 
 official leaves had been followed by much telephon- 
 ing, of which Rob could not make out a single word. 
 Bit by bit, however, he had gathered its import from 
 the changes in Jack's face, as he stood listening to 
 the nearer end of the conversation. Then, when the 
 telephoning had ceased, Jack turned to Rob in hasty 
 explanation of its substance. 
 
 " He says they 've got a pair of people down in 
 the Saint Sauveur station that may be Paul and 
 Amy. I told him it was n't possible ; but I have 
 a sneaking fear it may be." 
 
 " What in thunder In the station What 
 are they doing there ? " Rob gasped, in blank amaze- 
 ment, blanker consternation. " What can have hap- 
 pened to them, Jack ? "
 
 JANET AT ODDS 75 
 
 " He says they were picked up and run in, this 
 morning, charged with kidnapping a baby." 
 
 " A ba - by ! Oh, for the love of Moses ! " And, 
 to the surprise of the official at the desk, Rob went 
 off into peal after peal of laughter. " It 's that 
 Paul," he gasped, when he could find his voice. 
 " He 's got 'em again, Jack ; this is the second time. 
 It must be a form of brain disease, like kleptomania, 
 only this specializes on babies." 
 
 It was no especial wonder that Jack looked mys- 
 tified. In the short time since his arrival, no one 
 had thought to acquaint him with the circumstances 
 under which they all had first seen Paul. 
 
 " It sounds like them, really, Rob," he urged 
 swiftly, as if to forestall the continued chaffing of 
 his friend whom he judged to be indignant at the 
 suspicion fallen on his comrades. " They both are 
 tall, both evidently Americans. The girl has on a 
 wide white hat with what he calls a wreath of 
 feathers ; the boy is wearing gray clothes and a dark 
 green tie, and " 
 
 " Sure ! They 're it, all right," Rob assented tran- 
 quilly. " I don't need any other proof, Jack ; their 
 occupation is quite enough." 
 
 " And neither one speaks any French," Jack 
 ended, as if he had not heard the interruption. 
 
 " Likely not. Few of us do, judged by these local 
 standards. Well, if you 're ready, let 's proceed to 
 bail them out." And, his hands in his pockets and 
 his face ail one comprehensive smile, Rob sauntered
 
 76 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 out of the police headquarters, followed by Jack who 
 obviously was inclined to take the matter far more 
 seriously. 
 
 They found the culprits sitting side by side upon 
 a bench in the open office of the station, totally en- 
 grossed in playing cat's cradle with the string that 
 had tied up their ill-fated toys. Beside them on the 
 floor, the toys were stacked in a neat pile, while the 
 paper lay across them, covered from end to end with 
 the hieroglyphs of tit-tat-too. Comfortable, impeni- 
 tent, hilarious, they glanced up at the sound of ap- 
 proaching steps. 
 
 " My sainted conscience ! It 's the pampered idol ! 
 'And we were going to step on his toes," Paul mut- 
 tered swiftly. " I rather think, though, it 's his turn 
 to score." Then, as the glass door swung open, and 
 their two rescuers came within hail, he added jaunt- 
 ily, " So glad to see you ! You 've come just in the 
 nick of time, for we 've used up all the means of 
 entertainment at our disposal, and even this string 
 is getting worn a little thin." And, rising, he held 
 out his hand to assist his companion to her feet. 
 
 " But why the mischief did n't you telephone us ? " 
 Rob demanded, while Jack was making prolix ex- 
 planation at the desk. 
 
 Paul laughed carelessly. 
 
 " Do you suppose I was going to lose such a good 
 chance to study police court conditions ? " he de- 
 manded in return. " I 've put in the day, getting 
 material for next term's economics. Besides," he
 
 JANET AT ODDS 77 
 
 added nonchalantly ; " Amy did n't succeed in get- 
 ting together French enough to explain that some 
 chap had made off with my money and I could n't 
 raise enough even to operate their confounded old 
 slot machine. Smith is n't very strong in languages," 
 he ended pointedly, with the white of one eye turned 
 upon his companion in disgrace. 
 
 " Paul," Sidney said, as they left the table, the 
 next morning ; " you are going to take a walk with 
 me." 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " Now." 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " Because I am your cousin." 
 
 Paul whistled. 
 
 " You 'd better take Amy. She was the one that 
 really stole the infant." 
 
 " I did not," Amy contradicted promptly. 
 
 " Who suggested making off with him ? " Paul 
 asked her pointedly. 
 
 " I did ; but that was only to quiet him down, 
 after you had made him cry." 
 
 " Well, I like that," Paul was beginning, when 
 Sidney interposed. 
 
 " I really don't see how this concerns the case in 
 hand, Paul. I invited you to go to walk, not to " 
 
 Paul interposed in his own turn, making, the while 
 a rueful face at Amy. 
 
 " That 's the very thing. Do you suppose a fellow 
 has lived as long as I have, and not found out it
 
 78 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 always means a lecture when a relation asks to see 
 him by himself? I thought you were above taking 
 such a mean advantage, Tids; but I suppose you 
 have caught it from Wade. It used to be a favourite 
 trick of his." 
 
 " Tids ? " Amy challenged. 
 
 Paul smiled ingratiatingly in the direction of his 
 cousin. 
 
 " It 's what I used to call her, years and years 
 ago," he explained, in a stage whisper. " Now and 
 then I find these little old pet names work wonders 
 in staving off a moral crisis." 
 
 But Sidney, hearing, laughed and shook her head. 
 Nevertheless, she bided her time until the Leslie 
 house and Louis Street were far behind, and she and 
 Paul were strolling lazily along the footpath leading 
 up the glacis and on around the wall. It was a 
 hazy day, gray and sunless, and the breeze swept 
 across the heights above the river, bringing in its 
 freshness the tang of the northern forests hidden 
 away beyond the encircling ring of hills. At their 
 feet, the city rolled away from the higher buildings 
 in the foreground to the distant huddle of roofs 
 beside the Saint Charles valley; and, beyond the 
 last roofs of the city, beyond the little, winding river, 
 the wide blue valley stretched away, farm-dotted, 
 village-spotted, until, in its turn, it rolled upward 
 once more to join the lower slopes of the . purple 
 Laurentides. It was the first time Paul had found 
 the footpath, and he wandered on along it in a con-
 
 JANET AT ODDS 79 
 
 tented silence, hands in the side pockets of his coat, 
 cap on the back of his head and his lips ready for 
 the whistling which, for the present, did not come. 
 Then suddenly he turned and glanced at his cousin 
 who was strolling by his side, her eyes on the turf 
 before her, a little frown between her brows. 
 
 " Let her go," he bade her abruptly. 
 
 " Her ? Who ? " Sidney looked up blankly. 
 
 " Oh, any old. I can see I 'm in for it, so we 
 may as well have it over," he made unexpected 
 answer. 
 
 He was fully prepared for her laugh; not, how- 
 ever, for her words that followed. 
 
 " Paul, you are a fickle soul." 
 
 " Mayhaps. But why ? Not with you, sure," 
 he defended himself swiftly; and Sidney, had she 
 been holding her gaze fixed on him, and not upon the 
 grass before her, would have been astonished at the 
 boyish liking in his honest eyes. 
 
 " You know I did n't mean that, Paul," she re- 
 sponded quickly. " We began just where we left off." 
 
 Again his glance sought hers. 
 
 " That is, if we ever did leave off, Tids. I am 
 no letter-writer, and so are n't you ; but I don't im- 
 agine that has made much difference between us." 
 
 " Not a bit. Not one bit. But whom did you 
 come here to play with, Paul ? " 
 
 " You," he answered promptly. 
 
 " Yes, of course." There was a little hesitation 
 in her tone, for which Sidney rebuked herself sharply
 
 80 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 and at once. In her loyalty to the Argyles and Jack, 
 perhaps she had given too little thought to the pos- 
 sible devotion of this young cousin. Little by little, 
 in the past three or four years, she had absorbed the 
 opinion of Wade Winthrop that Paul was a young- 
 ster, a mere child of an epoch totally different from 
 her own. After all, he was only two years younger 
 than herself. Janet Leslie was the same age, and 
 Sidney never professed to regard her as too young 
 for comradeship. However, she pulled herself out 
 of her self-reproachful reverie, and returned to her 
 main theme. " Yes, of course. But who else ? " 
 
 Paul chuckled. 
 
 " It looked, yesterday, as if Amy Pope were to 
 be about to be the favoured individual," he answered. 
 
 Sidney permitted herself to be lured into a digres- 
 sion. 
 
 " You both of you ought to have been put to bed 
 without your suppers," she said severely. 
 
 Paul chuckled again. 
 
 " We came mighty near it. I fancy we would 
 have been, if it had n't been for Jack. Confound the 
 fellow ! Where did he pick up the lingo, anyhow ? " 
 
 "He used to " 
 
 " Yes, I know the fable. It sounds like one of 
 the moral tales I used to read, when I was a young- 
 ster, on Sunday afternoons. Even then, I used to 
 prefer Indians. But it does n't necessarily imply 
 that he was also a linguist," he added, harking back 
 to his main theme.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 81 
 
 " Everybody who comes here has to speak French." 
 
 " Not on your life," Paul asserted. " Ask Amy 
 Pope. Besides, this is n't French ; it 's dago-ese. 
 However, he had it pat; he was no time at all in 
 having it out with the Bobby at the desk, and in 
 having us out of our shackles at the same time. But, 
 Sidney Stayre, I warn you " 
 
 " Well ? " Sidney broke his ominous pause. 
 
 " I warn you that, if you ever let on to old Wade 
 that his infant brother got himself arrested on sus- 
 picion of helping to kidnap a Canuck baby " 
 
 Sidney interrupted; but her assurance was far 
 from reassuring. 
 
 " I sha'n't have to. Irene has probably told him 
 already." 
 
 Paul stared at her in speechless disgust. Then, - 
 
 " Irene ! " he exploded. 
 
 " Yes. She writes to him, every morning. Of 
 course, she '11 tell him." 
 
 " Oh ! " There were volumes in the tone. Then 
 Paul departed along another track. " Sidney," he 
 said ; " I don't know what to make of Janet 
 Leslie." 
 
 Sidney controlled her voice as best she could, lest 
 it betray her pleasure at his choice of subject. 
 
 " How do you mean ? " she queried, as she idlf 
 picked a daisy from the turf at her feet. 
 
 " We used to be such chums at Grande Riviere. 
 Now I can't make her out at all." 
 
 " Have you tried ? " 
 
 6
 
 82 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 The question was a bit more curt than Sidney had 
 intended, and Paul flushed hotly. When he spoke, 
 his voice was full of boyish trouble. 
 
 " Then you 've noticed, too ? " he asked. 
 
 " Noticed what ? " she said evasively, for she had 
 been unprepared for the trouble in Paul's voice and 
 in his friendly eyes, and she wanted to gain time 
 to grasp the fact that Paul's avoidance of Janet, all 
 those last two days, so far from being accidental, had 
 been of his own choice. 
 
 " You never used to dodge like that, Tids," he 
 rebuked her. " Noticed that we we don't get on 
 together." 
 
 Sidney ceased to dodge, and came directly to the 
 point. 
 
 " Have you and Janet had a fuss ? " she queried. 
 
 He shook his head, then gave his cap a vicious 
 tweak. 
 
 " Hang it, no ! It takes two to make a fuss, and 
 I have n't been able to get in fussing distance of 
 Janet, since I came." 
 
 " Janet is always quiet," Sidney said, in attempted 
 explanation. 
 
 " She can talk fast enough with Blanchard." 
 
 " He is a Canadian, too." 
 
 "Hm! Or with Argyle." 
 
 "Kob spent a winter in their house, you know," 
 Sidney explained again. 
 
 " That 's not my fault," Paul mutinied. " So did 
 I spend a summer with her, if it comes to that.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 83 
 
 That 's no reason, though, that she should sort us out, 
 sheep and goats, and make me " 
 
 " Well ? " Sidney urged him, when the pause had 
 lengthened. 
 
 " The goat," Paul ended, and there was a falling 
 cadence to the word which was comically incongruous 
 with its literal meaning. Then he looked up sharply. 
 " Tids, Janet Leslie does n't like me one little bit." 
 
 " What makes you think so ? " Sidney parried, 
 wondering, the while, just how far it was fair to 
 betray Janet's real attitude towards the boy beside 
 her. 
 
 " She looks at me edgewise, and then removes 
 herself, with her chin stuck up in the air," Paul 
 responded, with an accuracy of description which 
 spoke well for his powers of observation. 
 
 Unhappily, however, his powers were only skin 
 deep, as Sidney undertook to convince him. 
 
 " It 's only Janet's way," she said. 
 
 " Then Janet's way is a mighty disagreeable one, 
 according to my notion," he made prompt answer. 
 " There 's no especial reason, as far as I can see and 
 after our old larks together, that Janet should do 
 the haughty lady in my presence. She used to be 
 up to anything, a good deal like Miss Pope; now 
 she is as prim as a Dutch doll. Look here, Sidney," 
 again the honest gray eyes met hers ; " Wade and I 
 both thought it would be a good scheme for me to 
 come up here, this summer. I was sure I was going 
 to have a corking good time ; but, now I 'm here,
 
 84 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 I '11 be hanged if I don't wonder whether I 'm not 
 in the way." 
 
 " Paul ! What nonsense ! " 
 
 " It is n't nonsense," he answered firmly ; " it 's 
 just Janet. The rest of you are all right Even the 
 Dame," he chuckled at the memory ; " called me 
 Laddie, this very morning. But, after all, it 's 
 Janet's house ; in a sense, I 'm Janet's guest and, 
 what 's more, I 'm not a welcome one." 
 
 His words fell into a silence that lasted long, so 
 long that Sidney, her eyes fixed upon the hillocks 
 of the ancient battle-ground, appeared to have for- 
 gotten his last words. When she spoke, however, her 
 own words disproved the doubts of her memory. 
 
 " Paul," she said slowly ; " it 's horrid to be gos- 
 siping with a boy about another girl. Still, you are 
 my cousin, not just an ordinary boy at large, and I 
 suppose that does make a difference." 
 
 " Bather ! " Paul interpolated swiftly. 
 
 " Yes, it does. I can say things to you I would n't 
 say to anybody else but Wade, and Rob, perhaps. 
 Janet is n't like the rest of us. She used to be more 
 so ; but she 's had bad times since then, and they 
 have changed her, made her less ready to take her 
 friends on trust Besides, she is a Canadian; and, 
 after all said and done, there is a difference. We 
 .don't think it 's indecent to be a little demonstrative 
 now and then. Janet does. She is reserved and 
 shy. At Smith, all the first year, she had a horrid 
 time because she persisted in waiting for other people
 
 JANET AT ODDS 85 
 
 to come three quarters of the way, and then she 
 sulked because they did n't do it. She 's got over the 
 sulking part; but she still waits, and that is what 
 she is doing now with you. You can believe me or 
 not, just as you choose; but I really do know Janet 
 Leslie through and through. I know she lias been 
 making a lot of plans for your coming, counting a 
 lot on it; but she would have died, rather than say 
 so. Now you 're here, she is disappointed that you 
 don't get on together, more disappointed a good deal 
 than you are. By good rights, you ought to be chums. 
 It is her fault that you are n't ; but it 's you that 
 will have it all to do." 
 
 "And if I don't?" 
 
 " Then you '11 stay just where you are, without 
 budging one single inch," Sidney answered quickly. 
 
 " Hang it all ! " Paul burst out. " What is it that 
 you think I am going to do ? " 
 
 " Take Janet by the horns," Sidney answered, in 
 a sudden outburst of metaphor. 
 
 " And get myself gored ? Thanks." 
 
 Sidney shook her head at the targets of the rifle 
 ranges. 
 
 " You won't," she predicted confidently.
 
 CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
 " TTI THERE is " the speaker clung to the word, 
 
 V T while she hunted through the chaos in her 
 lap ; " the yellow silk ? " 
 
 "It's here. Catch." 
 
 " Thanks." Amy shut her hand on the flying 
 spool. " And has anybody some extra satin ? " 
 
 " Yes, two yards. I had a lavish fit, when I or- 
 dered it," the other Amy assured her. " To be sure, 
 mine is pink. Will that make any difference ? " 
 
 " None to speak of. Still, I think I won't use it, 
 all things considered." 
 
 " How about mine ? " Sidney asked, from between 
 the pins that filled her mouth, for she was kneeling 
 on the floor in front of Day, shortening a trailing 
 satin skirt to its proper length. 
 
 " Yours is sulphur ; mine is lemon. Amy Browne, 
 where did you get that lovely, lovely lace front ? " 
 
 " Out of a remnant and six yards of bargain- 
 counter ribbon. I made it, last night. While you 
 and Paul were frivoling on the terrace, I sat at 
 home and plied my needle," Amy Browne responded 
 virtuously. 
 
 " While Jack read Kipling with annotations to an 
 admiring audience of one," Day interpolated, over
 
 JANET AT ODDS 87 
 
 her shoulder. " Sidney, I am at the inside end of 
 that last pin. Do you mind moving it a little ? " 
 
 Amy Pope pursued her investigations. 
 
 " How many many crinolines is anybody going 
 to have in its petticoat ? " 
 
 " Two," Amy Browne responded. 
 
 " Three," Sidney insisted, with decision. " It 
 will hang better so." 
 
 " Thank goodness, I 'm to be on horseback ! " Day 
 put in. " I never could manage one of those hogs- 
 heads of skirts." 
 
 " Day ! How inelegant ! Do call it a pigVpate," 
 Rob's voice remonstrated from the hall. " I say, 
 may I come in ? " 
 
 " Yes, if you won't sit on things," Day told him. 
 
 " Is a chair a thing ? Because, if 't is, I think I 'd 
 rather stay outside." Nevertheless, he came in and 
 took possession of a chair. 
 
 With a little shriek, Amy Browne snatched a 
 handful of pink satin breadths from across the chair- 
 back, just as Rob settled his eight score pounds 
 against it. 
 
 " Rob, do get up. You 're sitting on something 
 else," Sidney besought him hastily. 
 
 Without troubling himself to rise, Rob investi- 
 gated the brown paper parcel which served as cushion. 
 
 " It 's only a bundle of shiny stuff and a pumpkin- 
 coloured sleeve," he replied serenely. " I 'm not 
 hurting them, and a fellow must sit somewhere." 
 
 " Not on my sleeve, though." Sidney fell upon
 
 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 it and smoothed it out with anxious care. " Do see 
 what 's in the bundle, Rob." 
 
 " Paul's purple pajamas," Rob answered allitera- 
 tively, as he held them up. " Won't he be, to use 
 his own vernacular, a corking sight, when he gets 
 these on ? " 
 
 " Paul is very slangy," Janet observed thought- 
 fully, from the corner where she sat working in a 
 sea of pale rose silk. 
 
 " It goes with the epoch, Janet," Rob told 
 her. 
 
 " Also with the nationality," she made impersonal 
 response. " You Americans are always given to so 
 much slang." 
 
 " That is the reason our language is so rich," Rob 
 retorted promptly. " We are constantly mining in 
 the depths of of " 
 
 "The alphabet?" 
 
 " The slums ?'" 
 
 Amy Pope and Janet made the suggestions at the 
 same instant. Rob chose the former. 
 
 " Thanks. The alphabet, for new material. To 
 be sure, like all other mining, we don't do the work 
 ourselves. We leave that for the sophomore of the 
 fresh-water college, and then we appropriate the 
 output and Hullo, Irene ! I did n't observe you 
 till just now. What doing ? " 
 
 " I am darning the stockings of the entire com- 
 munity," Irene answered from the deep windowseat 
 where she had perched herself. " In the meantime,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 89 
 
 I am thanking my lucky stars that I have a Wade 
 to play with, and am therefore not in the pageants. 
 Kot one of these girls would think she could make 
 herself a plain gingham frock ; and look " 
 
 " Irene ! " Sidney interrupted. " I made nine, 
 this summer." 
 
 " Trot 'em out," Rob advised her. " You don't 
 look it, Sidney; and Irene is in a mood to take 
 nothing on trust." 
 
 " They were n't all mine, by any means. The 
 twins and Phyllis got them, all but one. That hap- 
 pens to be the one I 'm wearing now." Sidney rose, 
 as she spoke, and brushed the clippings of satin from 
 her chambray gown. 
 
 Rob studied her admiringly for a moment, studied 
 her firm, erect pose, her laughing face, her steady 
 eyes. He studied even her gown which seemed in 
 some way a part of her personality, as if, in colour 
 and in cut, another would have been incongruous. 
 Then, his scrutiny and his gravity alike ended, he 
 renewed his chaff. 
 
 " When I grow up and be a nice young lady," he 
 announced ; " I shall be like Irene, and sew only 
 useful things, like towcloth and black stocking heels. 
 What were you remarking, Day ? " 
 
 " That I want you to see how fine I look." And 
 she turned herself about for his approval. 
 
 He gave it unreservedly, as he always did give it 
 to Day. None the less, he sought to modify it by his 
 words.
 
 90 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I think I have observed before, Day, pretty is 
 as pretty does. You look very nice and neat; but 
 you are as vain as a young peacock. I expect you '11 
 take to pawing the ground with your hind heels, 
 as they do in the minuet. Here, stand still, you 
 thing of beauty ! How do you suppose we are going 
 to observe you properly, if you hop about like 
 that ? " 
 
 Indeed, Rob spoke truly. In her dress for the 
 court of Francis First, Day was a thing of beauty 
 and of girlish charm. The skirt hung about her in 
 heavy folds of pale green satin ; the bodice was velvet 
 of a darker green, with puffed sleeves and a high, 
 stiff collar which framed her plump young throat and 
 rose to form a striking background for her eager 
 face and for the high-piled masses of her hair. A 
 bit of lace softened the edges of the wide, square 
 neck, and a string of cairngorms set in silver 
 added the needed touch of contrast to her pretty 
 costume. 
 
 " It really is becoming, Day." Irene slid out of 
 her windowseat and joined the group at the other 
 end of the large room. " I can't see why, though," 
 she added thoughtfully. 
 
 Day laughed. 
 
 " Take it out of me, dearie ; do," she urged, with 
 perfect good temper. " Anybody can wear green." 
 
 " Anybody can't, then," Janet protested suddenly. 
 " Did you ever see me try it ? " 
 
 But Irene spun about sharply, and faced the trim,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 91 
 
 dark little figure in the sea of rose-pink breadths 
 whose faint reflection was lighting the face above 
 into more than a hint of brilliant beauty. 
 
 " After this, we don't want to see you in anything 
 but pink, Janet," she said decidedly. " Once for 
 all, it settles my bridesmaid colour, for the others 
 can wear it, and you must. It was providence that 
 gave you that pink group for yours." 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " Providence, or Gladys ? " she asked. " For my 
 part, I suspect it was the latter, for Gladys is more 
 potent than most people are aware. Her father is 
 backing the whole thing." 
 
 " Who is to be your final partner, Janet ? " 
 
 " A new Englishman who has just come out. I 
 haven't seen him yet; but Gladys says he is nice 
 and dances adorably. I also hope he can talk, 
 though, if we are expected to look interested, in all 
 the pauses." 
 
 " Englishmen never talk," Day said serenely. 
 " Their looks don't belie them, either ; they look 
 unutterable." 
 
 " Insufferable, you mean," Eob corrected her. 
 " Say it out, Day; Jack is reading the papers, 
 downstairs." 
 
 Day's correction came swiftly. 
 
 " Jack is n't English," she said ; " he 's us." 
 
 " Before that, he was n't English, but Canadian," 
 Janet offered further correction. 
 
 Rob laughed tolerantly.
 
 92 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " ' Oh, Canada! Our fathers' land of old, 
 Thy brow is crowned '" 
 
 he hummed. " It 's all the same thing, Janet. What 
 I deplore about you all is your beastly loyalty. Has 
 anybody seen Paul ? " 
 
 " Poor Paul ! " Sidney's tone belied the pity in 
 her words. " By some mistake, they sent him scar- 
 let lacings for his shoes, and he 's gone to see about 
 changing them." 
 
 " I 'd have worn them as they were," Rob said, as 
 he shook out the purple trunks and hose that still 
 dangled across his knee. " A touch of colour would 
 have gladdened this half -mourning." 
 
 " Amy's frock will do that," the other Amy told 
 him. 
 
 " Amy Pope ? Is she dancing with him ? " 
 
 " Of course," Amy Browne made answer tran- 
 quilly, and, as she spoke, Sidney cast a hasty glance 
 at Janet. 
 
 In the week that had gone by since her walk with 
 Paul upon the glacis, it had seemed to Sidney that 
 there had been a suggestion, now and then, of some- 
 thing verging on the old relation between Janet and 
 her cousin. Years before, during the one summer 
 they had spent together at Grande Riviere, Paul and 
 Janet had been rare chums. Equally matched in 
 age, they had been just as equally matched in their 
 appetite for out-door sports, for teasing, rollicking 
 fun. They had fished, and tramped the mountain 
 trails, and ridden on the floating logs; they had lost
 
 JANET AT ODDS 93 
 
 themselves in the bush, and had had drenchings times 
 without number. They had squabbled ceaselessly, but 
 in a jovial sort of fashion which ruffled their good 
 temper and their mutual liking not one whit. Then 
 they had gone their ways, the one to luxury; the 
 other, by a sudden change of fortune, to the grinding 
 economy which is so much worse than abject, care- 
 free poverty. In the years since that time, Paul had 
 gained in exuberant jollity in proportion as Janet 
 had gained in reticence. Each, meanwhile, had held 
 closely, all those years, to the memory of the old- 
 time friendship. Each one, now that they had once 
 more come together, was prepared to meet it, not in 
 the mood in which it had been abandoned; but ac- 
 cording to the newer phases of his character. 
 
 Under such conditions, there was no especial won- 
 der that the meeting had not prospered. Janet, 
 grown starchy in her reticence, starchy and a wee 
 bit critical, had been at no pains to cover her aston- 
 ishment at the whoop of jovial greeting which Paul 
 sent on before him up the street. And Paul, leaping 
 up the steps to meet her, as she stood there waiting, 
 was plainly as much upset as she had been, when his 
 hearty handshake was received with stiffly outstretched 
 fingers and eyes drooped towards his feet. He could 
 not know that Janet was secretly longing to shut her 
 hand hard over his and to meet his gray eyes squarely, 
 could not know the girlish shyness and self-distrust 
 which held her back from any demonstration. Nor 
 yet could Janet know that this great jolly, slangy
 
 94 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 guest of hers had been counting for days upon the 
 quality of the greeting he had every reason to ex- 
 pect, had been hurt to the quick by the quality of the 
 greeting she accorded him. 
 
 The longer the anticipations of such a meeting 
 and the shorter the meeting itself, the longer are 
 bound to be its results. If Janet had stuck to her 
 proper place as hostess, Paul would have ended by 
 realizing the welcome hidden under her chilly man- 
 ner, for the jovial, rollicking fellow was by no means 
 dense. Instead of that, however, Janet had muttered 
 some vague excuse which centred in Mary Browne, 
 and had vanished towards the kitchen, leaving Sidney 
 to do the honours in her stead. By the time Janet 
 reappeared, a good hour later, Paul was so much 
 engrossed with Irene and Amy Pope that he acknowl- 
 edged the presence of his former chum with the 
 most cursory of nods. 
 
 This state of affairs had existed for some days, un- 
 noticed, to be sure, by all the party except three. 
 Those three, Paul, Janet and Sidney, were acutely 
 uncomfortable. The others saw no cause for dis- 
 comfort, even if Paul accorded to Janet no more 
 attention than he gave to pretty, fluffy Amy Browne. 
 The one by reason of her reticence, the other by her 
 purely ornamental qualities, was plainly no fit com- 
 panion for a lusty, outspoken youth like Paul. It 
 was far more fitting that he should pair off with 
 Amy Pope, whose energy matched his own. 
 
 Paul, being the sort of boy he was, regretted the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 95 
 
 situation, but lost no time in idle repinings. He 
 would have preferred to play with Janet. Janet 
 holding herself aloof from him, however, he must 
 take the next best thing that offered. Janet was 
 constituted otherwise. She shut her teeth and went 
 her way, although the present situation was bidding 
 fair to ruin her pleasant summer. And Sidney, the 
 last one of the trio, also shut her teeth. While she 
 shut them, she studied how to go to work to rectify 
 matters. Her talk with Paul had been the result 
 of that study, and it did its work. Before the week 
 was ended, she had the gratification of seeing Paul 
 and Janet starting for rehearsal, side by side, in 
 quite their old way. 
 
 By this time, rehearsals were the order of the day, 
 and pageants the central theme of conversation. The 
 quaint old rock-walled city was on the eve of its 
 three-hundredth birthday party, to which a trio of 
 nations had been bidden, on which the eyes of Europe 
 and the western world were bent. And, to entertain 
 the guests, there were to be fireworks and parades, 
 illuminations and, best of all, a series of eight mon- 
 ster pageants reviewing the history of the colony 
 from its babyhood until its present grown-up day. 
 
 Everybody was in the pageants, as a matter of 
 course; everybody, that is, who could wear a cos- 
 tume and act a part. It was the simple law of the 
 pageants that everybody should be doing something, 
 a most natural something, at every instant; and to 
 achieve this end with three thousand different actors,
 
 96 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 rehearsals must go on unceasingly. Accordingly, 
 day after day, as the afternoon sun dropped west- 
 ward, the crowd of actors followed westward, too, to 
 gather on the monstrous out-door stage above the 
 river, and go through their parts until the fallen 
 twilight drove them home again to wait for the com- 
 ing of another day. And meanwhile, morning after 
 morning, all over the city groups of girls were gath- 
 ered, sewing busily on the gay breadths of satin 
 and silk and velvet which were to form their pretty 
 costumes, while the masculine actors went their ac- 
 customed way, relying, sometimes vainly, on the com- 
 mittee who had agreed to furnish forth their finery. 
 Into one such sewing-bee Rob Argyle had penetrated ; 
 and now, with Paul's costume dangling across his 
 knees, he sat looking on, advising the others and 
 plainly enjoying himself to the very utmost. 
 
 " When do we get a dress rehearsal ? " he inquired 
 at length. 
 
 " It depends on the pageant we 're in," Janet said, 
 as she threaded her needle. " I hear they 're going 
 to begin them about a week before, and sell tickets 
 to the last ones." 
 
 " A week before. That should be next week," Rob 
 said thoughtfully. " Mother and Wade will be here 
 then. What a shame dad can't come, too ! " 
 
 Day looked up. 
 
 " Want a bit of news, Rob ? " she queried. 
 
 " Is he coming ? " 
 
 " For gala day. I heard, this morning ; you
 
 " All over the city groups of girls were gathered, sewing 
 busily." Page 96.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 97 
 
 were n't here, when the letter came. Else, I should 
 have told you." 
 
 " Miss Janet," Elsie spoke from the threshold ; 
 " Miss Horth is downstairs. She 'd like to see you." 
 
 Janet started alertly to her feet. 
 
 " Gladys ? Most likely she has come to tell me 
 something about my Englishman. I '11 be down, 
 Elsie, as soon as I can make myself presentable." 
 
 However, Janet's interpretation of the word pre- 
 sentable was a strict one; and there was a long in- 
 terval before she did present herself to the waiting 
 guest. The guest, meanwhile, was occupied in star- 
 ing at the stranger young man who sat at the far 
 end of the room into which she had been ushered 
 to await her hostess. Too much absorbed in his paper 
 to heed the low voices and the light footfall of the 
 guest, he sat there reading on and on, wholly un- 
 conscious of his pretty young countrywoman whose 
 gaze was bent on him steadily, approvingly, yet with 
 a hint of question. She saw before her a sturdy, 
 broad-shouldered man of the middle twenties, well- 
 knit, well-dressed, well-groomed. Only his profile 
 was towards her. She could see the strong, sharp 
 lines of the face, the level eye, the shapely chin. She 
 studied the face intently, partly because she was 
 lacking other interest just then, partly because she 
 was held by a baffling resemblance to some one whose 
 identity she could not place. 
 
 Then Janet came in, dainty and cordial. At the 
 stir of her coming, the young man looked up, rose, 
 
 7
 
 98 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 came forward, was introduced and, after a few words, 
 went his way. Gladys stared after him for a mo- 
 ment. Then, dismissing him, she went directly to 
 the subject of her errand. 
 
 " Janet," she burst out eagerly ; " I am perfectly 
 content." 
 
 " That 's good," Janet made calm assent. " What 
 now ? " 
 
 " Louise Gehanne is ill." 
 
 " That 's kind of you," Janet retorted. 
 
 " Wait. That 's not the real reason. Of course, 
 I 'm sorry on her account. But, as long as she is 
 out, I am simply, gloriously happy, for you 're to 
 have her place in the pageants." 
 
 Janet pricked up her ears. 
 
 " Her place ? Who is she ? " 
 
 " She is the little French girl who has been doing 
 Champlain's wife. He " it was thus that the 
 loyal pageanters alluded to their English coach; 
 " has n't liked her acting a bit. He has been asking 
 about you, who you were, and where you trained, 
 and all the rest. He asked my father, and father 
 told me, and and now we girls are all delighted. 
 We all of us, all the old set, have been wanting 
 you to have a better place. You 're one of us, and 
 we 're so glad to have you back here again, and 
 all " In her excitement, Gladys was fast becom- 
 ing incoherent. 
 
 Janet had flushed and paled by turns, and now her 
 breath was coming sharply. In all the pageants, no
 
 JANET AT ODDS 99 
 
 one part had appealed to her more than that of the 
 child wife of Champlain, who had come out with 
 him to help to rule the baby city he had founded. 
 It meant much to her that she had been chosen, 
 chosen after she had had a chance to show her powers 
 of acting, to take the part of the dainty little wife. 
 It meant far, far more than that, however, that her 
 old friends, dismissing personal ambition, had willed 
 to have it so. Even then, however, she did not take 
 in all their plan until, her rapture ended, she faced 
 the practical questions of the change. 
 
 Meanwhile, Gladys chattered on. 
 
 " You '11 get a note from him, to-day. He told 
 father he should write to you about it, or else call, 
 himself. You '11 do it ; won't you, Janet ? " 
 
 " I 'd love it, if there 's time to get myself trained 
 for it. Of course, I would n't take it, and spoil the 
 part. But," she paused a little blankly, as the idea 
 flashed upon her ; " but what about the costume ? " 
 
 Gladys smiled serenely. 
 
 " That 's all settled, long ago. You 're coming to 
 our house to be fitted, to-morrow noon. We girls all 
 have finished up our costumes, and mother has sent 
 for Marie to come to help us out." Then, that subject 
 settled, abruptly she shifted to another one. " Janet." 
 she demanded ; " who is that Mr. Blanchard ? " 
 
 " Jack ? He 's one of our friends who is here 
 with us." 
 
 " Yes ; but where did you ever know him ? " 
 
 " He is a friend of the Argyles. Really, he is
 
 100 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Mr. Argyle's secretary; but he lives at their house 
 and goes everywhere with Rob and Day." 
 
 " Where did they pick him up ? " Gladys persisted. 
 
 " Pick him up ? Gladys ! What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Only that I 'm sure he 's the man who used to 
 run the Springfield sleeper, a few years ago. I used 
 to go down with him often; and I knew him again, 
 to-day, as soon as ever he spoke." 
 
 For an instant, Janet's face showed her perturba- 
 tion. She knew the social tenets of her former 
 friends, knew they were rigid and not to be ignored. 
 Then she cast aside the best of the lessons her college 
 life had taught her, and dismissed strict truth for 
 the sake of what seemed to her to be expediency. 
 
 " Gladys ! What nonsense ! " She gave a care- 
 less little laugh. " Jack Blanchard is Rob Argyle's 
 dearest friend. You needn't lose your head like 
 that, on the strength of a likeness to a man you 
 never really knew." 
 
 And the subject was closed, but not the incident.
 
 CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
 " T S Miss Leslie at home ? " 
 
 i Day, who had met the stranger on the steps, 
 looked up into a shrewd, middle-aged face which 
 somehow won her liking. 
 
 " She is n't at home. I 'm sorry." 
 
 " So am I," the man said, and Day also liked his 
 hearty voice and the finish he gave to all his con- 
 sonants. " I wanted to see her, this morning, if I 
 could. When will she be at home ? " Plainly he 
 expected an invitation to come in and wait. 
 
 Day dashed the expectation. 
 
 " I am sorry," she repeated. " Miss Leslie has 
 gone for the whole day. She went, last evening, to 
 stay with some friends at Cap Rouge." 
 
 " The Blakistons, likely," the man said, as if to 
 himself. 
 
 Day smiled. His obvious familiarity with Janet's 
 haunts made so much of cordiality on her part seem 
 safe and possible. 
 
 " Yes. She is there. Will you telephone ? Or 
 can I take a message for her here ? " 
 
 " May I come in ? Thank you. You are Miss 
 Leslie's friend, one of the friends who came up here 
 with her, that is ? " 
 
 Day laughed.
 
 102 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Yes. I 'm her business manager," she said as 
 calmly as if her elevation to that office had not been 
 made, that very instant. " Can I do something for 
 you?" 
 
 The man laughed in* his turn. Then he handed 
 Day a card which bore a name she knew well by 
 local reputation, and an official title high up on the 
 list of sponsors for the coming celebration. 
 
 " Yes, do come in," she said, with a total change 
 of accent. " I am Miss Argyle. I have heard all 
 the Leslies speak of you often. You were so good 
 to them in their trouble." 
 
 " Mr. Leslie was a friend of mine," the man said 
 briefly. " Now, Miss Argyle, I am in a great hurry, 
 this morning, and I must come to the point. Are 
 you willing, on Miss Leslie's account, to tell me if 
 this house is full ? " 
 
 Day reflected swiftly, swiftly recalled what she 
 had heard about the coming congestion. 
 
 " Comfortably," she made guarded answer. 
 
 The face before her cleared a little from under its 
 anxious clouding. 
 
 " But not uncomfortably ? " His voice was 
 eager. 
 
 " Not a bit. The rooms are huge, and we girls 
 are used to piling up, in summer," Day responded. 
 
 " Could you put in another one ? " 
 
 "I?" 
 
 " Miss Leslie, of course I mean," the man cor- 
 rected himself hastily.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 103 
 
 " She could. I am not sure she would, however. 
 It might depend somewhat upon the one." 
 
 " But there is a room ? " 
 
 " There is n't now. And two more people are 
 coming, to-morrow." Day forestalled his increasing 
 eagerness. 
 
 He rose. 
 
 " I am sorry. I had hoped there was a chance that 
 Miss Leslie " 
 
 Day interrupted him, and went straight to the 
 point. 
 
 " Just what is it that you want ? " she asked 
 directly. 
 
 The answer was fully as direct. 
 
 " I want a room and board for Lady Wadhams." 
 
 " Who is she ? " 
 
 " She is Why, she is Lady Wadhams," the man 
 said blankly. " Besides that," he added hastily for 
 Day's enlightenment ; " she is sister to " And he 
 uttered a name known the Dominion over. 
 
 "I am so sorry," republican Day said politely; 
 " but I 'm afraid I don't know about him, or what 
 he has done. However, the main question is, is Lady 
 Wadhams nice . to know ? " 
 
 " Of course." "No types can express the shocked 
 fervour of the accent. 
 
 " What makes her want to come here ? " Day pur- 
 sued, with further directness, for she was a little 
 nettled by the accent. 
 
 " She does n't. It is my plan for her."
 
 104 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Because I know the Leslies, and how comfort- 
 able she will find the house. And " 
 
 " And ? " Day prodded him a little sternly. 
 
 " And," something in his glance involuntarily be- 
 trayed the fact that he liked this intrepid young 
 American a good deal better than he approved of 
 himself for doing ; " and, moreover, there is n't any 
 other suitable place where she can go." 
 
 Day smiled. She had extracted the confession for 
 which she had been angling. 
 
 " It is very late to be making one's plans," she 
 observed severely. 
 
 " Yes ; but Lady Wadhams was delayed beyond 
 her expectation." Then, dismissing apology, he came 
 directly to the point once more. " Do you think 
 Miss Leslie could take her in ? " he asked. 
 
 Day answered with American explicitness. 
 
 " It would depend entirely upon what Lady Wad- 
 hams was willing to pay for being taken in." But, 
 even as she spoke, she rejoiced that Janet was not 
 present to check the ungarnished bluntness of her 
 speech. 
 
 " Ten dollars," the man suggested. 
 
 Day shook a scornful head. 
 
 " Not enough," she said briefly. 
 
 " My dear young lady ! But ten dollars a day is 
 all the Chateau asks." 
 
 Day's smile never changed. No need to tell this 
 stranger that she had supposed his offer applied to
 
 JANET AT ODDS 105 
 
 the week's rate. Ten dollars a day would be a goodly 
 penny to drop inside of Janet's coffers. She longed 
 to jump upon the bargain, embrace it, clinch it there 
 and then. Instead, she held herself according to 
 her code of dignity. 
 
 " Of course," she answered, with a slow thoughtful- 
 ness which might accompany a graceful yielding; 
 " its being a person such as Lady Wadhams does 
 make a difference. I think perhaps Miss Leslie 
 might for her I '11 speak to Miss Leslie, as 
 soon as she comes in." 
 
 Five minutes later, she escorted the caller to the 
 door and watched him make his exit, murmuring 
 gratifiedly to himself. Then, turning, she ran up 
 the stairs, eager to spread her news among the other 
 girls, sewing in the room above. 
 
 To her extreme surprise, she found Janet settled 
 at one side of the group. 
 
 " I thought you were at Cap Rouge," she ex- 
 claimed, too much astonished at Janet's appearing 
 to heed the sudden silence which met her coming in 
 at the open door. 
 
 " I was ; but am no more," Janet replied com- 
 posedly. 
 
 " But you meant to stay ? " 
 
 " I did. I changed my mind, though. Old Mrs. 
 Blackiston was taken horribly ill in the night, and 
 I decided that they had enough to do, without en- 
 tertaining a guest, so I had them send me home, 
 the first thing this morning."
 
 106 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " When did you get here ? " 
 
 " While you were making yourself agreeable to 
 somebody in the drawing-room." 
 
 Day laughed. 
 
 " I was agreeable, too. I 've been transacting busi- 
 ness in your name." And she proceeded to repeat 
 the conversation which had taken place below. 
 
 The other girls heard her to the end, with in- 
 creasing hilarity; but Janet plainly was aghast. 
 
 " Day ! What have you done ? " she exploded, 
 midway in Day's narrative. 
 
 " Hush, Janet ! Don't interrupt. It 's splendid, 
 Day; go on," Irene urged. 
 
 "But Lady Wadhams " 
 
 " Who is she, anyhow ? " 
 
 " A great swell from " 
 
 " I hate that word you English use," Day inter- 
 rupted, with a little frown. " People can't be divided 
 up like that. They 're either nice, or else they 
 are n't ; but their niceness is a matter of their brains 
 and their ancestors, not of their butlers and their 
 clothes. Now do listen, Janet. Ten dollars a day! 
 You would n't have let that go ? " 
 
 " You could n't have afforded to," Amy Pope as- 
 sured her bluntly. 
 
 " But where can we put her ? " Janet protested. 
 " The house is full now, and Mrs. Argyle and Mr. 
 Winthrop come, to-morrow, and Mr. Argyle " 
 
 " Nonsense ! " Sidney broke in. " Wade is to 
 room with Paul, in any case, and you 've saved a
 
 JANET AT ODDS 107 
 
 room for Mrs. Argyle, all the time. Give that room 
 to Lady What-you-call-her, put the Argyles into our 
 room, and Day and I will move up and live with 
 you." 
 
 " Sidney ! You can't. The room is n't large 
 enough for three." 
 
 Day took up the word. 
 
 " What utter, arrant nonsense ! How many times 
 in freshman year did we girls pile in together, just 
 for the fun of the thing? I remember one night, 
 when there were seven of us in Amy's room. What 's 
 more, we '11 do it now." 
 
 " But there won't be a thing for you to sleep on," 
 Janet wailed. 
 
 " Move our beds upstairs." 
 
 "What about Lady Wadhams?" 
 
 Day looked a trifle blank. That aspect of the 
 case had not occurred to her. 
 
 " But she can't sleep in more than one bed at 
 once," she urged at length. 
 
 " What about the maid ? " 
 
 " He did n't say anything about a maid." 
 
 " Most likely he thought it was n't necessary," 
 Janet retorted a little crushingly. " Anyway, she 
 is sure to have one." 
 
 " No matter." Sidney rose, as if to end the dis- 
 cussion. " Day and I will make up beds on the 
 floor. It 's no use to protest and make a fuss about 
 it, Janet. Day has given her word, and it is my 
 experience that, when an Argyle says a thing is to
 
 108 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 be, not even an earthquake can stop it from happen- 
 ing. Come along, Day, and we '11 proceed to plan 
 about our moving." 
 
 Sidney's sole motive in rising had not been to 
 end the discussion. More than that, she was anxious 
 to get Day out of the room before any echo of their 
 recent talk came to her ears. For once in her life, 
 Sidney Stayre was thoroughly angry at the turn 
 events had taken, thoroughly vexed with Janet for 
 making them take that turn. 
 
 " By the way," Janet had said with utter non- 
 chalance, as soon as a pause followed the greetings 
 which had hailed her unexpected coming ; " there 's 
 one thing I want to warn you girls about, now we 're 
 alone." 
 
 " You sound mysterious, Janet," Irene remarked. 
 
 " Not mysterious exactly ; only I wanted to say 
 it, naturally, when Jack was out of the way. Please 
 be careful, all of you, not to let it out to Gladys 
 Horth that Jack ever ran on a train." 
 
 " Why not, I 'd like to know ? " Sidney demanded 
 shortly. 
 
 Janet pursued her theme tranquilly, too much ab- 
 sorbed in making the most of her opportunity to 
 pay any especial attention to Sidney's voice. 
 
 " Perhaps, while we 're about it, we 'd better not 
 say anything to any of the girls up here." 
 
 " Why not ? " Sidney demanded, for a second time. 
 
 Janet glanced up calmly, quite unaware of the 
 storm her words were likely to create.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 109 
 
 " Because Gladys is sure she 's recognized him. 
 I told her she had made a mistake; not told her, 
 that is, but tried to make her think she had, without 
 exactly fibbing. Still, we don't want it to get about 
 up here, you know." 
 
 " Why not ? " persisted Sidney. 
 
 " Because there 's no reason he should suffer for 
 it now," Janet replied, with unabated calm. 
 
 " Suffer ? " 
 
 " Yes. It would be horrid for Jack to have the 
 girls all cutting him, just as he 's in the pageants 
 with them, and bound to see them, every single 
 day." 
 
 " But why should they cut him ? " Sidney's voice 
 was ominous in its level quietness. 
 
 " Why, because he used to be a conductor, you 
 know. As a rule, we don't have to dance with them, 
 and drink tea with them, and all that." 
 
 " Janet Leslie ! You disgusting little snob ! " It 
 was Amy Pope who spoke, Amy Pope whose great- 
 grandfather had been Secretary of State in his day, 
 whose father was a man of millions and of highly 
 convoluted brains. For the past five minutes, she 
 had been swelling and reddening with her wrath; 
 yet Sidney, who had watched its coming, was not pre- 
 pared for any such explosion. 
 
 Janet whitened to the lips. 
 
 " At least, we don't in Canada," she amended 
 caustically. 
 
 Amy's reply was equally caustic.
 
 110 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Perhaps not. Still, it might depend a little on 
 the sort of man the conductor turned out to be, and 
 whether he was willing to drink tea with you." 
 
 Janet smiled a little, and lifted her chin. 
 
 " Not with us," she answered smugly. 
 
 Amy's colour came a shade more hotly, and she 
 raised her head to reply. Then she checked her- 
 self, and merely observed, with slow and cutting 
 emphasis, 
 
 " Then, even more than ever, I thank my lucky 
 stars that I 'm not Canadian." 
 
 Irene broke in, and hastily. She was as angry 
 as Amy herself; but her three years of extra age 
 enabled her to hold herself in better check, increased, 
 too, her anxiety to prevent any break in the house- 
 hold harmony. 
 
 " I am not quite sure I understand you, Janet," 
 she said. " Do you think it would make any dif- 
 ference in Jack's good time up here, if your friends 
 knew he had been " Illogically enough, her loy- 
 alty shrank suddenly from putting the situation into 
 words. 
 
 " I don't think. I know," Janet said a little 
 sullenly. 
 
 " But why ; especially when it was all over with, 
 so long ago ? " 
 
 " Our friends, as a rule, don't do things like that," 
 Janet responded loftily. 
 
 " How much worse is it to be a Pullman car con- 
 ductor than it is to sit on a stool in a bank, all the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 111 
 
 year round, like that little idiot you introduced to 
 me, yesterday ? " Amy exploded again. " One is a 
 little narrower quarters than the other, for the con- 
 ductor gets an occasional change of scene, and he 
 can hide in the baggage car, when his people get 
 too great a bore." 
 
 " Do you know what I think about it," the other 
 Amy chimed in suddenly. " If a man behaves him- 
 self and acts a gentleman, he can sweep the streets, 
 for all I care." 
 
 Janet turned upon her hotly. 
 
 " Rubbish, Amy ! You do care 1 There is n't one 
 of you who does n't draw the sharpest sort of social 
 lines." 
 
 " Of course we do," Amy Pope responded. " The 
 only thing is, we draw the lines at the people, not 
 at the work they had to do, once upon a time. Jack 
 is a gentleman. He had to do something all at once, 
 and he took the first thing that came along for him 
 to do. Moreover, he did it well. I don't see what 
 bearing it has upon the present." 
 
 "It hasn't," Janet conceded. "That's why I 
 want to keep it out of the present." 
 
 Irene once more tried to make herself heard. 
 
 " You really think," she said ; " that, if your 
 friends here knew " 
 
 " They would cut him, the next time they saw him 
 look their way," Janet responded flatly. " What 's 
 more, you every one of you would have done the 
 very same thing, yourselves. You took him first, by
 
 112 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 way of Day, took her word about him that he was 
 really nice. Of course, when one knows him " 
 
 But Sidney struck in. 
 
 " Do you mean," she said, after an interval of 
 thought ; " that you really really fibbed to Gladys 
 Horth?" 
 
 Janet turned scarlet. 
 
 " I did n't fib, Sidney. I only asked her if she 
 was n't mistaken." 
 
 " Hm ! Same child in another dress," Sidney com- 
 mented shortly. " I thought you were above such 
 things as that, Janet Leslie." 
 
 " I did it, for the sake of Jack," Janet defended 
 herself. 
 
 " That is utter nonsense. Jack can stand on his 
 own merits, without any need of your fibbing about 
 him." 
 
 " But I did n't fib," Janet protested. " And Gladys 
 is a gossip. It would have been all over town before 
 rehearsal, that very afternoon." 
 
 " Suppose it had ? " 
 
 " Then nobody would have been nice to Jack." 
 
 " What about us ? " 
 
 " Oh, us ! " Janet's tone was disdainful. 
 
 " Yes, us," Sidney repeated firmly. " We came 
 up here to play together, you know, not to hang on 
 to other people." 
 
 " But they all were beginning to like Jack," Janet 
 urged. 
 
 " Well, let them go on liking him."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 113 
 
 " And I 'm sure they 've all been very nice to 
 
 you." 
 
 " Nice enough. Still, we could have lived without 
 them," Sidney answered callously. " I do hope 
 you '11 also refrain from telling them that the Stayres 
 keep only one servant, and make all their pickles 
 with their own fair hands, to say nothing of their 
 party frocks." 
 
 " Sidney ! " Janet faced her, holding her eyes 
 and voice as steady as she could. " I 'm sure you 're 
 very hard on me." 
 
 Yet once again, Irene summoned her extra years 
 to her assistance. 
 
 " Janet," she said quietly ; " I really think you 
 have mixed up things rather badly for us all; but 
 I do believe you meant it in all loyalty to Jack. If 
 Jack were here, he 'd be the first to tell you that 
 there was no disgrace in that old work of his; we 
 all are glad to have him for a friend, even if his 
 was n't the sort of work our brothers ever have hap- 
 pened to do. Those things are a good deal a matter 
 of chance, and we Americans, more than you do, 
 believe an honest gentleman can make himself wel- 
 comed anywhere. We girls all think you 've made 
 a bad mistake. If your friends wanted to cut Jack, 
 they were welcome; there was no especial sense in 
 your fibbing to prevent it. You have fibbed, ac- 
 cording to my notion; and all we can do now, in 
 simple decency, is to stand by that fib to the extent 
 of keeping still. It would only make a bad matter 
 worse, if we were to contradict you."
 
 114 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 4 
 
 " You mean, then ? " Amy Pope asked bluntly. 
 
 " That, for the sakes of both Jack and Janet, all 
 we can do now is to hold our tongues and let matters 
 take their course." 
 
 Sidney raised her hand for silence. 
 
 " Girls ! Girls ! Here comes Day upstairs," she 
 warned them hurriedly. " For goodness' sake, don't 
 any of you girls tell her a word about it. She never 
 would forgive Janet, the longest day she lived." 
 
 And the girls heeded her warning; but events, as 
 it proved, did not.
 
 A HUGE grandstand, back to the city and bent 
 to form three sides of a mammoth octagon, 
 faced outward to the river and to the southern hills 
 beyond. Upon its lofty top, a pinnacled pagoda with 
 red hangings awaited the coming of the royal guest. 
 The roof of the royal box formed the platform for 
 the coach where, megaphone in hand, he paced to 
 and fro, to and fro with ceaseless, nervous tread, or 
 halted now and then to hurl his instructions down 
 upon his corps of actors. Behind the grandstand 
 and across an open field whose dusty, trodden turf 
 and border of gaudy booths inevitably reminded one 
 of the entrance to an American circus, behind it and 
 far away, the noise of the city dwindled to a hum- 
 ming silence, more like the droning of a swarm of 
 bees than of a city's bustling life. Before it opened 
 out the stage, hundreds of feet across, a stretch of 
 rolling country dappled with clumps of bushes, edged 
 with forest trees and, at its farther side, dropping 
 sharply over the wooded bluff down to the river, far 
 beneath. And on that very stage, a century and a 
 half before, the rising sun had struck full upon a 
 British army, silently deploying before the outmost 
 barriers of ISTew France, deploying for the battle
 
 116 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 which should leave them victors, yet lacking their 
 gallant leader to share their triumph. 
 
 There were triumphs of another sort now, triumphs 
 enough and to spare for all the giant corps of actors 
 whose numbers were so nearly equal to those of the 
 thin red line who had marched forth to battle on that 
 selfsame spot. It was no mean achievement they 
 had undertaken and accomplished, this setting forth 
 in less than a dozen different scenes the whole pith 
 and substance of the city's three hundred years of 
 life. The long weeks of preparation were ended, 
 and the celebration was at hand. Of the success of 
 the celebration there was no longer any doubt. Few, 
 however, of the guests, and those only the most 
 thoughtful ones among them, in watching the smooth 
 succession of the scenes, could gain the slightest idea 
 of the careful study which had gone before. 
 
 " The actors themselves don't half appreciate the 
 work he 's doing," Sidney said impatiently, as they 
 were crossing the street behind the grandstand, on 
 their way to the final dress rehearsal. " They take 
 it all as a matter of course, and accept it calmly. I 'd 
 like to put them down behind the scenes at one of 
 our Smith plays. Then they would begin to realize 
 what it has been to keep this crowd in order." 
 
 " Doubted," Amy Pope rebelled, as she jumped 
 across a puddle with a bounce out of all harmony 
 with her crinoline. " I defy anybody to get a clear 
 notion of any sort from behind our scenes. They 're 
 too chaotic for that."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 117 
 
 " But everybody does things here," Day added. 
 " Even that little red child she 's only a baby 
 in the Phipps scene " 
 
 " It 's the costumes/' Amy Browne interrupted. 
 " How has he ever found out what they ought to 
 be?" 
 
 " British Museum and the War Office," Day said 
 briefly. " What were you remarking, Rob \ " 
 
 " That this blasted beast of mine refuses to waddle 
 at this pace. Come along, Day. Let 's have a canter, 
 and see if we can't quiet him down." 
 
 " All right. There 's time, and they will behave 
 better after it, I suppose. Come, Jack." And the 
 trio of friends went scampering off towards Sillery. 
 
 Amy Pope looked after them with something akin 
 to a sigh. 
 
 " I do wish my pony had n't spilled me, when my 
 courage was young and callow," she lamented. " It 
 was my childish dream to be a circus lady, and have 
 pink clothes and a calico charger, and this does really 
 seem the next best thing. Cruel to have it denied 
 to me ! " 
 
 " Amy ! " Janet wakened suddenly from the rev- 
 erie which had been holding her, ever since she had 
 come downstairs, that noon, gowned in the sombre 
 mauve so curiously out of keeping with the years 
 of Champlain's child wife. " Amy, how can you 
 speak of it like that ? " 
 
 Amy faced her in honest, good-tempered surprise. 
 
 " Like what, dearie ? " she questioned blankly.
 
 118 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Like a circus." There was more rebuke held in 
 the tone, even, than in the words. 
 
 " Well, why not ? That 's just what it is," Amy 
 responded, laughing. " It 's a glorious, high-art 
 circus, historical and very splendid." 
 
 But Janet shook her head. 
 
 " Not on this ground," she answered quietly, and, 
 through her quiet, one felt instinctively that she was 
 listening to the tramp of ghostly feet, the din of 
 ghostly arms and war-shouts. " It might be, in some 
 places; but not here, where every single foot of 
 ground has its own bit of history. How does it make 
 you feel, when those two armies come up together 
 over the cliff and stand there side by side, while the 
 band is playing God Save the King ? " 
 
 " As if I 'd like to whistle Dixie, 1 Amy made 
 flippant answer. 
 
 Paul plucked her by the satin puff which served 
 as elbow. 
 
 " Come along here and say ' How ? ' to Mrs. Ar- 
 gyle," he urged suddenly. " There is a lot of time, 
 and I want old Wade to see my purple clothes some 
 more. What 's the use of being elegant, if you can't 
 get yourself envied." And, with a nod to the others, 
 he led the way off at a sharp diagonal to the trail 
 they had been taking. When they were safely out 
 of hearing, " I say, you were getting on thin ice," 
 he warned his comrade. " I 've heard Janet go off 
 like that before. This is sacred ground to her, and 
 a sacred subject. Her father had a lot of material
 
 JANET AT ODDS 119 
 
 put together when he died, and Janet has more than 
 a notion of turning it into a history, some day or 
 other. I actually believe she thinks that one battle 
 was the greatest one that ever was fought; she looks 
 like a veritable Maid of Orleans, when she talks 
 about it. As for joking about it I sure thought 
 she 'd have you by the throat, before I could get 
 you away." 
 
 Amy yawned. 
 
 " What sense ? " she queried. " Everybody is dead 
 and buried now." 
 
 " Yes ; but it still seems to be a sore subject, up 
 here," Paul mused. " For my part, I can't see the 
 sense of putting Wolfe and Montcalm up to dance 
 together. Still, I 'm only an American, and can't 
 get up the proper thrill. First day I saw it, I 
 laughed." 
 
 " It was funny," Amy admitted. 
 
 Paul shook his head. 
 
 " No," he corrected her ; " it was n't. I was only 
 afraid it was supposed to be. With these English 
 chaps, you never really know." 
 
 They found Mrs. Argyle, with Wade and Irene 
 beside her, comfortably settled at the left end of the 
 grandstand where Irene was busily engaged in pour- 
 ing forth the lore she had accumulated during the 
 past three weeks, and in pointing out the major 
 landmarks: the Indian village at the west, the little 
 Don de Dieu rocking on the stream beneath, the 
 crowds of gaudily-dressed actors piling into their
 
 120 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 places on the right-hand stand, the helmet of a stray 
 member of Wolfe's army prowling through the under- 
 brush that edged the cliff, the plaster urn being 
 trundled across the stage by a pair of Jackies from 
 the fleet, ready to be rushed on for the Fontainebleau 
 scene, a little later. 
 
 " Is this the historic path ? " Wade queried, at 
 the end of Irene's harangue from which he had car- 
 ried away the sole impression that never until then 
 had he appreciated the luminous depths of her brown 
 eyes and the eager expressiveness of her voice. 
 
 " Not on your life, Wadeikins ! " Paul assured him 
 promptly. " They would n't run any risk of wear- 
 ing out their best piece of tourist bait. That path 
 catches more shekels than any other fly in their book. 
 It looks a good deal like this ; but the looks are only 
 skin deep. I went down it once, so I know, for I 
 fell on top of a heap of shale at the bottom and 
 skinned my nose and my knees. How did it happen 
 you did n't come out here before ? " 
 
 " I was n't doing any great amount of walking 
 then, you know," his older brother reminded him. 
 
 " True, oh, King ! One would n't think it now, 
 though, to look at you." And Paul stared admir- 
 ingly at the slim, well-knit man seated at Irene's 
 other side. 
 
 And Paul spoke truly. In Wade Winthrop's 
 present appearing there was nothing to suggest that 
 there had been a time when he had been banished, 
 owner of a pair of suspect lungs, out of his law
 
 JANET AT ODDS 121 
 
 office, his social life, his home, to grow as strong 
 as he could in the Canadian mountains, while he 
 faced the possibility of a lasting invalidism that 
 seemed to him to be worse than death. Out of the 
 experience he had brought two blessings, he was 
 wont to tell all comers: health, and the knowledge 
 of his cousin, Sidney Stayre. And Sidney had 
 brought him, by devious ways, to his affianced bride, 
 Irene. That summer, then, directly and indirectly, 
 had completely reconstructed his whole life. Be- 
 fore that, he had been a Boston lawyer, a little too 
 tenacious of his own aristocracy, a little too self- 
 centred. Now he was a successful editor of a ISTew 
 York daily, a man of broad sympathies, of ripened 
 knowledge of his fellow men. A sprinkling of gray 
 hairs marked the time of his crossing from one life 
 to the other; and the crossing had been made hand 
 in hand with Sidney. 
 
 The girl had come to him out of the vagueness 
 which often veils the family record. She had found 
 him despondent, querulous, totally absorbed in his 
 own invalid concerns. She had swept down upon 
 him without the slightest reverence for his point 
 of view. She had weighed him by the measure of 
 her common sense, and she had found him sadly 
 wanting. By coaxing and coercion she had set her- 
 self to work to make good the want, and the waning 
 summer had put upon her work the seal of its ap- 
 proval. Out of it all, Wade Winthrop had emerged, 
 not only healthful, but a man. Of all his kin, no
 
 122 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 one now was more his loyal admirer than his half- 
 brother Paul with whom, in past years, Wade had 
 been in almost ceaseless friction. There had been 
 no uncertain welcome in the way, that very noon, 
 Paul's hand had shut on his, before he made way 
 for Sidney and Irene. 
 
 Now, seated on Irene's other hand and listening 
 with inattentive ears to her enthusiastic explana- 
 tions, Paul's gray eyes were fixed on his half-brother 
 with a full approval. What they saw was a trim, 
 well-set-up man of the early thirties, distinctly good 
 to look at by reason of his clean-cut features and 
 his sunny smile. Just now, the smile was all for 
 Irene; but Paul, watching, was quite content to 
 have it so. Was it not that very smile which had 
 won Irene's consent to become his own half-sister ? 
 
 Mrs. Argyle, meanwhile, was alternately chatting 
 with Amy Pope, and nodding to friends scattered 
 here and there among the audience. A winter in 
 Quebec, a few years before, had won her a cordial 
 welcome at many a fireside in the city, a welcome 
 which had surprised her by the promptness of its 
 renewal when she had come back again, three days 
 ago. Now and then, too, her eyes rested on a New 
 York face, for already the city was beginning to 
 swarm with guests. Then sharply she recalled her 
 attention from Amy's chatter and from the smiling 
 faces of her friends. Already the straggling line 
 of Indians was trooping towards the beach to meet 
 Jacques Cartier and his sailors as, cross on shoulder,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 123 
 
 they came singing up the trail. The last rehearsal 
 of the pageants had begun. 
 
 Notwithstanding Day's frequent letters filled with 
 bulletins of the pageants' progress, Mrs. Argyle had 
 confessed herself surprised, three days before, when 
 she had stepped from her car at Levis. A dress 
 rehearsal had been appointed for that afternoon, 
 and the Levis wharf was swarming with actors in 
 brave array: Indians, sailors and courtiers, heralds 
 and beef -eaters, soldiers of the armies of Wolfe and 
 Murray and Montcalm. They dotted the crowd 
 upon the ferry; they wandered to and fro in the 
 Quebec streets. They even dashed out from the 
 Leslie house in Louis Street, and fell upon her 
 neck in eager greeting. 
 
 " Do give me a little time to get used to you," 
 she begged at last. " There is so much wig and 
 cape about you boys that I can hardly tell you 
 apart. As for you girls " 
 
 " We 're lovely," Day supplemented, with a prance 
 of pure rapture which was out of all harmony with 
 a court dress of green satin. " Did you ever see 
 anything quite so dear in all your life ? " 
 
 Mrs. Argyle laughed. 
 
 " I certainly never saw anything quite so as- 
 tounding," she rejoined. " Do stand in a row, all 
 of you, and tell me who you are, while I take you 
 in. No; not you, Day. You're entirely too crazy- 
 headed in all your finery. Why, Irene child! No 
 costume ? "
 
 124 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Irene's answering blush was as becoming as any 
 costume could have been. 
 
 " I thought," she said demurely ; " I 'd stay out- 
 side as critic, and as guide to you and Wade." 
 
 Mrs. Argyle's hand upon her shoulder was full 
 of womanly understanding ; but she only said, 
 
 " Then guide, please, for I really, in the face of 
 all this gorgeousness, really can't remember who is 
 who." 
 
 Accordingly they lined up before her in the order 
 of their appearing, Rob and Day and Jack, all three 
 courtiers of King Francis, the two boys brave, one 
 in vivid blue, the other in dark, dark red, with Day 
 between them in her greens. Next came another 
 group, courtiers also and partakers in the coveted 
 pavane danced at the court of Henry Four: Paul 
 in violet trunks and tights, a tinselled cape dangling 
 from one shoulder and a plumed hat in his hand; 
 Sidney and the two Amys in pointed velvet caps 
 and monstrous crinolines. And last of all came 
 Janet alone, dainty and sweet in her prim little 
 purple robes, her jewels and her mirror dangling 
 from her belt, the child wife whom the great 
 Champlain brought out with him from France to 
 rule with him over his city of eighty souls and a 
 few savages. 
 
 And Mrs. Argyle, looking little more than a mere 
 girl herself, gave them her unstinted applause. 
 Then she followed them to the door and watched 
 them up the street until they vanished, swallowed
 
 JANET AT ODDS 125 
 
 up in the crowd of brilliant costumes that filled the 
 long perspective seen beyond the Louis Gate. 
 
 " No," she answered all Rob's urging ; " I 'm not 
 going out with you, to-day. I shall stay at home 
 and wrestle with my trunks, instead. I don't want 
 to see any of it, until it all is perfect." 
 
 And now, the Monday after, it certainly was 
 perfect. Even the coach ceased his nervous tramp- 
 ing and his megaphoned instructions, as the second 
 C artier scene drew to an end, and the long line of 
 mounted courtiers rode slowly off the field. There 
 came a little pause of expectancy, a little buzz of 
 conversation, and then a roar of applause that shook 
 the stand to its foundations. Out from the right- 
 hand distance behind the stand, there came trotting 
 full half an hundred Jackies from the fleet anchored 
 in the river below the terrace. Outstretched in 
 their midst was a gigantic square of bright blue 
 canvas, spotted over with huge golden fleur-de-lys, 
 a square of canvas that rose and fell and bellied as 
 they came, throwing from its lustrous surface all 
 manner of wondrous lights and shadows, of chang- 
 ing hues that ranged from vivid violet into sombre 
 gray. Straight across the stage the Jackies trotted 
 and, without an instant's break in their rhythmic 
 pace, an instant's pause of indecision, they dropped 
 the monstrous square of canvas, outspread, before 
 the royal box, and went their way to vanish in the 
 left-hand distance, their rhythmic trot unbroken to 
 the end. After that, the arrival of the royal court
 
 126 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 and the dancing of the pavane, the peacock minuet, 
 came by way of anti-climax. 
 
 " But, by Jove ! " Wade said, as he pounded his 
 applause at the closing of the stately dance ; " I 
 never saw such colour in my life. I 'd like to go 
 back again and be a reporter, for the mere sake 
 of piling on the adjectives." 
 
 But there was scanty chance for conversation. 
 The last courtiers were barely off the stage, when 
 the Jackies trotted in once more to bear away the 
 royal carpet ; and, a moment later, the jangling bells, 
 hidden away among the trees, announced Cham- 
 plain's return to his baby colony. 
 
 All the colony went trooping down to the water's 
 edge to greet him. Then, while the cannon boomed 
 and the bells clashed merrily, they came trooping 
 back again, with Champlain and his girl wife in 
 their midst, the centre of plaudits and of cheering. 
 Champlain, masterful and arrogant, by good rights 
 should have been the focus of all eyes, since the 
 whole celebration was given in his honour. Instead 
 of that, however, all eyes were fixed on Janet Leslie, 
 as she came slowly forward, clinging to her hus- 
 band's arm, womanly in her dignity, childlike in 
 her modest bearing, her dull mauve robe trailing 
 softly across the trodden grass and catching into 
 itself all the purplish glory of the falling twilight. 
 
 She went through her part so simply that it seemed 
 less a part than life itself; she received the greet- 
 ing of her loyal people, the eager admiration of the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 127 
 
 dusky Indians who pressed about her, toying with 
 her trinkets, gazing at themselves delightedly in her 
 little mirror. Then, when the savage dance was 
 ended and the citizens once more drew near to broach 
 their cask of wine and drink her health and wel- 
 come, the enthusiasm no longer could be downed. 
 Champlain received his share; but Janet's was the 
 real ovation. After her sorrow and her change of 
 fortune, after her three years in the great American 
 college, Janet Leslie had come back to them once 
 more, their own and a Canadian still, to be the real 
 queen of all their festival. 
 
 But even the loyal young Quebeckers slackened the 
 clamour of their glad welcome, and paused to smile 
 at one another, as their gaze rested on the tall, gray- 
 eyed stripling in violet trunks and tights who, heed- 
 less of his minuet partner standing at his side, leaned 
 far over the rail of the right-hand stand, pounding 
 his hands together until his palms were blistered. 
 
 From far across the mammoth stage, Janet heard 
 the clamour, lifted her head and, careless of all who 
 saw her, sent a smile of merry, mocking gratitude 
 straight to its eager source.
 
 CHAPTER TEN 
 
 LiTE that same evening Lady Wadhams came. 
 She was a buxom blonde of forty plus, mar- 
 vellously gowned and with a face as totally devoid 
 of expression as if it had been enamelled. With her 
 came an assortment of hand luggage which appar- 
 ently included everything in the world but her maid 
 and her trunk, both of which articles were far too 
 impressive to be listed in that category. The cate- 
 gory did include, however, a diminutive Japanese 
 poodle who objected strenuously when the carter 
 ventured to step down on the pavement to accept 
 his fare. As he also objected strenuously to Janet, 
 it might be reasoned that he shared the aristocratic 
 prejudices of his mistress. Be that as it may, at 
 least he was less inexpressive. In fact, his expres- 
 siveness became a shade too strident, and the maid, 
 receiving him from the arms of her mistress, be- 
 came expressive on her own account and slapped 
 him soundly. 
 
 Only Janet and Mrs. Blanchard were waiting to 
 greet her Ladyship in the hall, although a fringe 
 of jaunty ties and pumps, dimly visible through the 
 banisters of the upper hallway, betrayed the fact 
 that American curiosity was rampant up above. 
 Later, it stole away on the tips of its toes, and took
 
 JANET AT ODDS 129 
 
 counsel together in the room of Mrs. Argyle whose 
 whispered admonitions to it to be good and come 
 away, had been quite lost in the din of the arrival. 
 When the last piece of hand luggage had been de- 
 posited on the floor of the hall, and when the poodle 
 ceased to monopolize the conversation, Lady Wad- 
 hams turned to Janet who stood waiting, dainty and 
 girlish in her thin muslin frock, to lead the way 
 upstairs. 
 
 " I would like to see Miss Leslie," Lady Wadhams 
 said, and her voice was majestic. 
 
 " I am Miss Leslie," Janet replied quietly. 
 
 Lady Wadhams' lorgnette was of mother-of-pearl 
 and fiercely shining. She turned it full on Janet. 
 Then, - 
 
 " Impossible ! " she observed briefly. Then, with- 
 out another word, she followed her maid upstairs 
 and vanished for the night inside the room which 
 Mrs. Blanchard already was pointing out to the 
 impassive nursemaid of the poodle. 
 
 Across the hall and behind closed doors, the con- 
 ference lasted long. Now and then, Mrs. Argyle, 
 as in duty bound, suppressed some utterance too 
 audible or too outspoken. At heart, however, she 
 agreed; and the younger generation, feeling her 
 agreement, disregarded her suppressions utterly. 
 Mrs. Argyle had heard the voice; above all, she 
 had heard the accent, and she had drawn her own 
 conclusions. The Argyle circle was singularly free 
 from snobs.
 
 130 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 At length, Jack rose to his feet, in token that, 
 for him, at least, the discussion was nearing its 
 end. 
 
 " After all," he said ; " I 'm sorriest for my 
 mother and Janet. It will come hard on them. The 
 rest of you are Americans, and don't care a hang. 
 As for me, I 've seen her kind before ; they used 
 to be the bane of my sleeping-car existence, for they 
 filled all space, wanted all the privileges, and in- 
 sisted on tipping me, and not the porter. I am a 
 little sorry, though, to have you get the notion that 
 this is our upper class. It 's not the real thing at 
 all; but then But my mother does take a title 
 desperately in earnest, no matter whether it 's two 
 years old, or two hundred. As far as Janet is con- 
 cerned, it will use up all her spare time to wait 
 upon the prejudices of that infernal puppy." 
 
 The puppy, as it proved, was by no means the 
 central point of Janet's woes. The woes began early, 
 next morning, began with the advent of Mary Browne 
 at Janet's bedside. 
 
 " Miss Janet dear," Mary made regretful preface ; 
 " I 'm sorry to be disturbing you ; but whatever will 
 I do ? There 's not a drop of water to be had and 
 the fat lady upstairs is ringing her bell to bits, to 
 have me bring her some." 
 
 Janet sat up in bed, and rubbed her eyes. It was 
 a purely conventional thing to do, however, since the 
 last touch of sleepiness had vanished at the sound 
 of Mary Browne's anxious voice.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 131 
 
 " No water ! " she echoed in amazement. 
 
 " Not a drop from any of the taps, as the woman 
 calls them that scrubs the floors. Faith, I 'd like 
 to see her tap them now. They 're dry as a contri- 
 bution box in a country church." 
 
 Janet gave her eyes another rub. Then she dropped 
 back again upon her pillow and lay staring up at 
 Mary Browne in perplexity. 
 
 " Have you telephoned yet ? " she asked. 
 
 " To what shop would I telephone for water ? " 
 Mary Browne demanded. Then, seeing the real con- 
 sternation written on Janet's upturned face, she re- 
 pented of the flippancy of her question. " Where 
 would I telephone ? " 
 
 " To the water company. Ask-them Oh, find 
 out anything you can. I '11 be down in a few min- 
 utes." And, a bath being obviously out of the ques- 
 tion, Janet seized her shoes and stockings. 
 
 Mary Browne was back again, before her young 
 mistress had finished brushing out her long brown 
 hair. 
 
 " It 's the main has broke, Miss Janet dear, on 
 account of their turning on too much pressure for 
 all these extra people. There 's no water anywhere ; 
 it will be noon, before it comes." 
 
 Dropping her hand, brush and all, to her side, 
 Janet faced the maid limply. 
 
 " Mary Browne ! What can we do ? " 
 
 " Go without," Mary Browne responded. 
 
 " Yes ; but Lady Wadhams, and breakfast, and
 
 132 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 all ? " Janet urged. " I could manage the girls and 
 even Mrs. Argyle ; but Lady Wadhams What will 
 she do ? " 
 
 " The same thing everybody else is doing, this 
 morning, and the same thing she herself would do, 
 if she was at the Chateau. People will have to wash 
 in a pint cup, to-day ; that is, if they 're lucky 
 enough to wash at all. As for breakfast, go and 
 have a talk with Mrs. Argyle. She 's got the Ameri- 
 can sense and get-there in her, and she '11 tell you 
 what to do." 
 
 And Janet, forgetting her national nerves in the 
 more urgent crisis, departed, brush and all, in search 
 of Mrs. Argyle, amid the plaudits of Sidney and 
 Day who, by this time, were wel} awake. 
 
 Mrs. Argyle frowned anxiously, as Janet disclosed 
 the crisis. 
 
 " I don't like it, Janet," she said decidedly, when 
 Janet had ended her disclosure. " It 's too much 
 like a preface to typhoid. You can't be too careful, 
 child, no matter what it costs you. You have a large 
 tank in the garret, where the water comes into the 
 house ? Save that for what you need most, and be 
 sure you boil, boil a good half hour, every single 
 drop you use for cooking, all this week. Boil it 
 hard. For the table We could get on without, 
 for once; but I suppose " 
 
 Janet laughed. 
 
 " I suppose she will," she assented. 
 
 For an instant, Mrs. Argyle's face became as merry
 
 JANET AT ODDS 133 
 
 as Janet's own. Then she returned to the case in 
 hand. 
 
 " You 'd better wake the boys at once," she said, 
 still with the quick decision that, weeks after, proved 
 to have been their best protection. " Tell them to 
 dress as fast as they can, and go out to buy Apolli- 
 naris. They must get it, a good deal of it and at 
 any sort of price. Ask Rob to come in here, before 
 he goes." Then she smiled up into Janet's anxious 
 face. " Don't worry, child," she said lightly. " That 
 will carry us through the day; and it will be all 
 right by to-morrow, by the latest. As for the poodle, 
 he can live on milk, and I '11 take her Ladyship on 
 my own shoulders." 
 
 However, she did not. 
 
 Lady Wadhams appeared at breakfast, an hour 
 later, clothed in a frown of disapproval which in- 
 cluded all things. She also wore a white silk frock 
 and a dog-collar of pearls. A part of her frown she 
 diverted from things in general and turned upon the 
 costume of Mrs. Argyle, whose dark blue linen tailor- 
 made clothes had, as it chanced, cost far more money 
 than the silk frock of Lady Wadhams. For reasons 
 of her own, moreover, Mrs. Argyle's morning trin- 
 kets consisted of a small gold brooch and her wed- 
 ding ring. Lady Wadhams dropped her lorgnette 
 with a click, nodded curtly to Janet, curtly to Mrs. 
 Blanchard, seated herself and fell to gazing into 
 space, while she tapped the cloth with her finger-tips. 
 
 Mrs. Argyle repressed her own smile, shook her
 
 134 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 head warningly at Day whose lips were twitching 
 ominously, then turned to the haughty dame beside 
 her. 
 
 " Is n't it a charming morning ? " she asked cas- 
 ually, as she took up her napkin. 
 
 The gaze removed itself towards a yet more dis- 
 tant space, the plump chin lifted itself slightly, and 
 a voice, icily remote, responded, 
 
 " Keally ? I had n't noticed." 
 
 Amy Pope sneezed. Later, she made apology. 
 
 " I had to do something, or else have apoplexy," 
 she explained ; " and it is so trite to cough." 
 
 " Have you caught cold, Miss Pope \ " Jack asked 
 her. 
 
 At his voice, Lady Wadhams lifted her glass and 
 took a prolonged stare in his direction. 
 
 " Your son, I fancy, from his accent, Mrs. Blan- 
 chard," she observed. Then she turned to Jack, with 
 swift effusion. " Really, it 's very good to hear an 
 English voice again. I was n't expectin' it at all." 
 
 Before Jack could forestall her, his mother, mani- 
 festly proud and pleased, had uttered the introduc- 
 tion; and Lady Wadhams, after a second and more 
 approving stare, lost no time in annexing him to the 
 list of her own possessions. Jack writhed in secret, 
 as he met the demure, but mirthful, glances of the 
 girls; but he could not well refuse to answer her 
 Ladyship's efforts at conversation, and bit by bit 
 he found himself drawn into talk. Once or twice 
 he suffered a pause to grow long, for the sake of
 
 JANET AT ODDS 135 
 
 watching Lady Wadhams turn a palpably deaf ear 
 to the American accent around her. Once Wade, 
 seeing Jack's manifest discomfort at being singled 
 out for attention, sought to come to his relief; but 
 Wade was promptly snubbed and dismissed to his 
 place amid the outer darkness. And the situation 
 ended with the breakfast. 
 
 Just as she was leaving the table, Lady Wadhams 
 addressed the group at large. 
 
 " Is it an American custom, I wonder," she ob- 
 served languidly ; " to serve Apollinaris for one's 
 breakfast ? " Then, without awaiting a reply, she 
 departed in search of the more congenial society of 
 her poodle and her maid. 
 
 Paul gazed after her through the half -shut lids 
 of him who gazes on a rare old picture, seeking to 
 gain the full value of its perspectives. 
 
 " Nice birdie ! " he remarked benignly. " The 
 last time I saw her, though, she was n't so keen about 
 discussing American customs as she is now." 
 
 " Saw her before ! When was that ? ".- the two 
 Amys demanded, in eager duet. 
 
 Deliberately Paul rose from the table, deliber- 
 ately he crossed to his half-brother's chair. 
 
 " When she dined at our house, last Christmas 
 holidays," he answered nonchalantly. Then he bent 
 down above his brother, as if in consolation. " Cheer 
 up, Wadeikins," he adjured him. " I '11 write home 
 to mother, and ask her to send on a certificate that 
 you really are within the social pale, even if you
 
 136 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 don't look it." And the breakfast ended in a clamour 
 of mirth quite unlike the sombre hush of its beginning. 
 
 Between the especial exigencies of the housekeep- 
 ing developed by the presence of Lady Wadhams and 
 the absence of water, and the excitement of prepar- 
 ing for the first real performance of the pageants, 
 all that morning long her Ladyship's eccentricities 
 were quite forgotten. One and all, the young Amer- 
 icans were engaged in flinging themselves into the 
 breach, the boys departing in search of mineral waters 
 and bulletins, the girls following Janet and Mary 
 Browne and even Elsie about the house with offers 
 of help which merely would have added to the gen- 
 eral confusion, had they not been so full of good 
 will and common sense. Even Amy Browne, the 
 least efficient of the group, was caught in the general 
 mood of energy, and Mrs. Argyle discovered her, a 
 vast tin pail in hand, just starting down the steps. 
 
 " Where now, Amy ? " she asked carelessly. 
 
 Amy shook her pail in gay good nature. 
 
 " Down to the Ring. I 'm going to bring some 
 water up from the fountain." 
 
 Mrs. Argyle's carelessness left her swiftly. 
 
 " No ; you 're not, child," she contradicted, while 
 she laid a detaining hand on Amy's shoulder. " No 
 one knows what may be in that basin. We can't be 
 running any risks. If need be, we '11 all swim in 
 mineral water baths and cook with ginger ale; but 
 this city water must be left alone for the present." 
 And Amy, secretly relieved at being freed from cer-
 
 JANET AT ODDS 137 
 
 tain pangs of conscience which had goaded her to her 
 errand, set down the pail in a corner of the hall, 
 and went in search of her embroidery. 
 
 Not until high noon and time for luncheon did 
 Lady Wadhams give sign of her existence. Not until 
 the luncheon was half over did she give sign that 
 she was conscious that any one but Jack sat with 
 her at the table. Then, suddenly lifting her lor- 
 gnette, she swept the table with a slowly-revolving 
 stare which finally came to rest on Mrs. Blanchard's 
 cluny cap. 
 
 " I thought some one told me, Mrs. Blanchard," 
 she said, without troubling herself to drop her eyes 
 from the cap to the face below ; " that Mrs. John 
 Argyle of New York was to be here in this house." 
 
 Mrs. Blanchard's sense of fun was not exuberant; 
 but even she could not repress a smile. 
 
 " This is Mrs. Argyle beside me," she said quietly. 
 
 The lorgnette turned in the direction of the trim 
 little lady in the dark blue frock, aggressive in its 
 plainness. Then it fell. 
 
 " Really not ? " said Lady Wadhams. 
 
 Then it was that Day choked and left the table. 
 
 For a moment, Rob sat gazing after her, his red 
 face expressive of acute discomfort. Then he ex- 
 cused himself, and went limping away in search of 
 his suffering sister. Unfortunately, however, he for- 
 got to close the door behind him, and the sounds 
 which came drifting down the stairs were plainly 
 mystifying to Lady Wadhams.
 
 138 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Do you suppose we ever can endure it, Rob ? " 
 Day said, as at last she wiped her eyes. 
 
 " We must, for Janet's sake," he answered grimly. 
 
 " But without disgracing ourselves, I mean." 
 
 Rob laughed. 
 
 " If this sort of thing goes on, I am much more 
 afraid of our disgracing Janet. Still, how can a 
 fellow keep from chortling? I thought I had seen 
 snobs before ; but she 's outside the uttermost limit. 
 What do you suppose mother probably said next ? " 
 
 Day drew a long breath of relief that the worst 
 of her giggling fit was finished. 
 
 " I don't see that there was anything left for her 
 to say, until she could show off her marriage cer- 
 tificate. Rob, if this goes on for another meal, I 
 shall " 
 
 Rob interrupted. 
 
 " You Ve no right to laugh, Day ; you 're the one 
 who brought it on us all. If I remember rightly, 
 it was you who made the bargain." 
 
 " Does it strike you," Day inquired ; " that there 's 
 a certain humour in the way she is snubbing mother 
 and Wade, and taking dear old Jack to her heart? 
 I wonder what she 'd say, if " 
 
 However, she was soon destined to find out. 
 
 Dinner went a shade more smoothly. The meal 
 was very late, since the entire household, from Lady 
 Wadhams down to Elsie and only excepting Mary 
 Browne and the poodle, had been out to the pageants 
 in the afternoon. Accordingly, it was long past
 
 JANET AT ODDS 139 
 
 eight o'clock when they gathered in the dining-room, 
 a gorgeous group. The younger ones were in their 
 pageant costumes, while Mrs. Argyle, yielding to 
 the protestations of her daughter, had abandoned her 
 tailor-made frock in favour of a thing of frills and 
 furbelows. None the less, Lady Wadhams, although 
 relaxing a shade of her austerity in contemplating 
 remote distances, yet saw fit to give most of her at- 
 tention and all of her talk to Jack. 
 
 There was reason for this, too, Day felt, as she 
 proudly watched this chosen friend of hers, for Jack 
 talked well, that night, and looked his very best. 
 His full, dark wig had chanced to be the colour of 
 his hair; it brought out all the best of his com- 
 plexion, while its drooping lovelocks hid the scar 
 which only strangers ever counted ugly. His dark 
 red court costume fitted him well and, showing to 
 their full his wide shoulders and erect and soldierly 
 carriage, it added tenfold to his distinction and his 
 dignity. Never really handsome, Jack Blanchard 
 yet came near to it, that night; and, excited by the 
 afternoon's success, he talked far more than was his 
 wont with strangers, yet with the same frank sim- 
 plicity which had first won the love of Rob Argyle. 
 
 Rob watched him, too, exchanging now and then 
 a glance with Sidney, or a smile with Day, when 
 Jack had scored a point of argument successfully, 
 or when both voice and eyes took on the quiet kind- 
 liness they all loved best of all his moods. It was 
 plain that Lady Wadhams felt his charm. She re-
 
 140 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 called her gaze from distance and turned it full on 
 Jack, without the slightest consciousness of the con- 
 trast between her inexpressive countenance and that 
 of Jack, so strong and quiet in its manliness. At 
 last, leaning her plump elbows on the table, she 
 faced him even more directly. 
 
 " Were you in Ottawa, last winter, Mr. Blan- 
 chard ? " she asked. 
 
 Jack shook his head. 
 
 " I was in New York." 
 
 " Really, I thought I might have met you there 
 at Government House. In New -York ? Where were 
 you before that ? " 
 
 Jack smiled a little, as if to himself ; but he made 
 no pause, not even one long enough to add emphasis 
 to the little intake of the breath, which ran around 
 the table. He answered with unruffled quiet, albeit 
 very distinctly, 
 
 " Before that, Lady Wadhams, I was conductor 
 of a Pullman sleeping-car." 
 
 All around the table, the breath went out again, 
 audible now by reason of the pause which followed 
 Jack's words. Lady Wadhams took her elbows from 
 the table, and fixed her eyes upon limitless distance. 
 The pause lengthened. Mrs. Argyle, for once, lacked 
 the right word to say; and the young people, one 
 and all, were too much interested in the little scene to 
 wish to hurry it towards its end. The pause length- 
 ened more and more, until it came to a point where 
 Lady Wadhams alone could be the one to break it.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 141 
 
 And break it she did. Some germ of inherent 
 niceness in her, not yet entirely overgrown with 
 snobbery, made her repent it that she had created 
 something which seemed to her a wholly impossible 
 situation. She recalled her gaze from distance and 
 turned it again to Jack. 
 
 " How interestin' ! " she said, with a heavy sort 
 of enthusiasm. " Some day, you must be tellin' me 
 all your adventures. I 've always wanted to meet 
 a really self-made man." And, rising from the 
 table, she pressed her hand into Jack's arm with 
 ostentatious friendliness. 
 
 Jack saw her to the door, closed the door behind 
 her. He was but just in time, for Paul, by reason 
 of his past acquaintance, was once more summing 
 up the situation. 
 
 " How nice ! " he said. " And her husband won 
 his title from his millions, and he won his millions 
 from the beef he packed out to the Boer war. It 's 
 a grand thing, Jack, to be a British nobleman." 
 
 " Perhaps Jack spells his in two words, Paul," 
 his cousin reminded him, too low for Jack to hear.
 
 CHAPTEK ELEVEN 
 
 NEXT day, the Prince of Wales came; and, 
 of all the household, it was Mary Browne 
 who - showed the most enthusiasm in sallying forth 
 to meet him. 
 
 " I never saw a prince in all my life, and my 
 grandfather was a British subject/' she averred. 
 " No, Miss Janet dear ; I thank you kindly for 
 the offer of your bedroom window ; but I think I '11 
 be going out to meet him when he lands." 
 
 And Janet applauded her decision. She even 
 went to the length of ordering luncheon served a 
 full hour early, so that Mary Browne might have 
 leisure to don her festival array. Janet had always 
 been a loyal friend to Mary Browne; but, in the 
 past -two days, her loyalty had taken on a new con- 
 sideration. It was no small undertaking to keep 
 one's temper under strict control, while catering to 
 the whims of Lady Wadhams; but Lady Wadhams 
 herself was as nothing, in comparison with the poodle. 
 As the hours and the meals had gone by, it had 
 transpired that the poodle was a fanatic epicure, 
 and far more critical, even, than was his mistress. 
 However, this might have been by reason of his longer 
 pedigree and consequent longer period of dainty 
 living. On the first morning of his Quebec sojourn,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 143 
 
 Mary Browne had made the supreme mistake of 
 offering him a breakfast of broken bits of meat and 
 bread served on a new tin plate. The poodle sniffed, 
 backed off to scowl at Mary Browne, then lifted up 
 his voice in querulous lamentation. His mistress, 
 pushing the tin plate aside with the tip of her plump 
 foot, interpreted his remonstrances as an explana- 
 tion that his customary breakfast was a bowl of 
 chicken broth and a slice of fresh and crispy buttered 
 toast. Mary Browne, with apparent meekness, had 
 bowed to the inevitable. Yet, after all, she had been 
 engaged to cook for humans, not for canines. 
 
 Luncheon served and eaten, Janet descended on 
 the kitchen, sent Mary Browne to her room and, 
 with the help of Elsie, proceeded to wash up the 
 dishes. Mary Browne had remonstrated; but, in 
 the end, she had yielded and gone creaking up the 
 stairs. Half an hour later, she had come creaking 
 down again, portly and prosperous-looking in her 
 trim black gown and feathered hat; and her inces- 
 sant smile had widened almost to her ears at the 
 chorus of farewells which came from the front win- 
 dows, as she turned down the sunny street. Ten 
 minutes later, Paul came sauntering into the kitchen. 
 
 " 'Most ready ? " he queried. 
 
 Janet shook her head. 
 
 " Dozens more cups, the knives to clean, and all 
 the puppy's dishes," she made answer. 
 
 " Confound the puppy ! I hate a dog no bigger 
 than a skeeter, with the manners of a royal duke.
 
 144 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Let the knives go, and feed the poodle out of a tin 
 can," he advised her. 
 
 " No use. The creature must have his Minton, 
 no matter what the rest of you get. Are the others 
 ready to start ? " 
 
 " Sidney has put the seventh pin into her best 
 hat, and now she is fitting on some new gloves. 
 Think what it is to he a prince ! " Paul added 
 pensively. 
 
 Janet disdained the addition. 
 
 " Tell them to go on," she ordered. " I really 
 must finish here, and I '11 find you, down below." 
 
 " Shame to leave you ! " 
 
 " No help for it," she answered, with what phi- 
 losophy she could. " It was Mary Browne's turn ; 
 she deserves an outing now and then. It 's all 
 right, really, and I will overtake you. Please do 
 go on." 
 
 Paul nodded, and, his fists still in his pockets, 
 departed in the direction of the hall where the others 
 stood chattering and settling their hats and gloves, 
 while they waited for Janet. 
 
 " Go ahead, all of you," was his version of the 
 message with which he had been burdened. " I '11 
 wait for Janet, and bring her along after you in a 
 few minutes." That done, he returned to the kitchen 
 and seated himself astride a corner of the table, there 
 to await the leisurely progress of events. 
 
 " Now and then a fellow gets tired of being in 
 a bunch. I thought I 'd rather take it calmly, alone
 
 JANET AT ODDS 145 
 
 with you," he offered explanation. " What 's turned 
 all the soldiers out into Louis Street ? " 
 
 Janet, careless of her hands, attacked the knives, 
 and fell to scouring them in energetic haste. 
 
 " They 're lining the streets to the wharf, I sup- 
 pose," she said, above the clatter. " They gener- 
 ally do." 
 
 " I should say they were lining them, with a ven- 
 geance. There 's a string of red coats squatting on 
 each curb from Citadel Hill down as far as you can 
 see. The street looks like a tomato patch in a sunny 
 garden. It must be ninety-nine out there, and 
 there 's a good two hours to wait. As I observed 
 before, it must be a grand thing to be a prince," 
 Paul added meditatively. 
 
 He said it once again, an hour later; but the 
 meditative quality was all gone from his alert young 
 voice, and his gray eyes were gleaming with the 
 excitement of the scene. His present position was 
 far less comfortable than had been his seat astride 
 the corner of the table. Up on top of the highest 
 roof in Lower Town, a roof covered with tin that 
 matched the heat of the blazing July sun exactly 
 above their heads, shadeless, breezeless, he and Janet 
 were sitting side by side, awaiting the coming of the 
 royal fleet. Strange to say, however, they were not 
 uncomfortable ; they were entirely too content for 
 that. For the time being, their years had dropped 
 from them, and they were a pair of merry, carefree 
 youngsters, as they sat there on the scorching roof, 
 
 10
 
 146 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 their backs against a chimney and their toes stuck 
 out before them, stiff and straight. 
 
 " Seems rather like old times, Janet," Paul had 
 commented, as he had flung himself down beside 
 her with a careless bounce which set the tin to clat- 
 tering beneath his weight. 
 
 There were no reservations in Janet's answering 
 smile. 
 
 " Exactly," she made contented reply. Then, with 
 a glance at the gay scene around them, she added, 
 " Only, you know, with a difference." 
 
 But Paul protested. 
 
 "No difference at all," he told her. "There's 
 us, and there 's a jolly big powwow. It always 
 used to happen so." 
 
 In truth, there was, to use Paul's phrase, a jolly 
 big powwow going on around them. It is not every 
 day that the royal heir comes to his colony's shores ; 
 and, to all appearing, now that he was coming, the 
 whole colony had turned out to do him honour. 
 Above their heads, the entire cliff edge was black 
 with people, huddled in an ever-thickening swarm 
 which stretched from the Grand Battery clear to the 
 top of the green glacis below the King's Bastion, a 
 long dark line against a background of gay and flut- 
 tering bunting. Around them, on other, lower roofs, 
 were little knots of men and women, their gay summer 
 costumes forming curious contrast with their unlovely 
 quarters. Below, the street was lined with soldiery, 
 shoulder to shoulder, ready to present arms at the
 
 JANET AT ODDS 147 
 
 royal coming. Every now and then the cobbles 
 clattered beneath the hoofs of a mounted regiment, 
 or the high walls on either side echoed the gay notes 
 of a band, leading other regiments down to take 
 position near the landing; and to Janet, listening, 
 it seemed that the bands played always Canada, and 
 then God Save the King. Last of all, from Moun- 
 tain Hill there came a clatter and a cheering. The 
 next instant, into the street below there swept a 
 train of scarlet coats, of prancing, kicking horses, 
 of stalwart, strong-faced men. It was the North- 
 west Mounted Police, the Royal Police almost as 
 famous in fiction as in fact; and they were riding 
 down to guard the royal landing, for the hour of the 
 arrival had now come. 
 
 " Look ! " Janet's hand trembled a little, as it 
 pointed down the river beyond the grim gray fleet 
 backed by a single white and yellow ship, beyond 
 the bevy of small craft, down to the point where 
 Saint Joseph landing juts out to meet the Isle of 
 Orleans. " I see the smoke. They '11 be in sight 
 now, in a minute." 
 
 Then, heedless of the crowd about her, heedless 
 of Paul at her side, she let her hand fall into her 
 lap, and sat there silent, intent, her eyes gleaming, 
 her lips slightly parted, while the faint banners of 
 smoke grew nearer, more distinct until, inch by inch, 
 there crept into sight around the point the dark hull 
 of the escorting cruiser, and, close behind, the huge 
 shape of the Indomitable, ship of mystery, bearing
 
 148 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 at her masthead the yellow and blue and scarlet of 
 the royal standard. 
 
 For moments long, ever since the first faint curl 
 of smoke had been sighted above Point Saint Joseph, 
 the vast crowd had held itself in silence, utter, breath- 
 less. Then when, the point quite rounded, the great 
 Indomitable came sweeping towards them, river and 
 cliff above echoed with one great cry of welcome, 
 while the gray waiting fleet turned to a tangle of 
 gay colours, and the royal salute of one and twenty 
 guns came crashing down from the citadel on high 
 to meet the answering crashes from the ships of 
 war below. 
 
 Amy Pope, meanwhile, audibly and aloud was 
 bemoaning the separation of Paul and Janet from 
 their little party. 
 
 " I know they 're not as comfortable as this, in 
 all that crowd," she protested for the dozenth time, 
 unconscious of the fact that Janet and Paul were 
 by now ensconced upon the topmost point of the 
 building where Mr. Leslie's office had been of yore, 
 a building which far overtopped its neighbours. " I 
 do hope they can see what 's happening." 
 
 "Trust Janet!" Eob said lazily. "She has a 
 good head for making her own arrangements. But, 
 as for comfort " He gazed about him with an 
 expressive smile. 
 
 Down in the lower harbour, opposite the Empress 
 at her long red pier, there lay the steam yacht of 
 a western railway king. The king himself, meeting
 
 JANET AT ODDS 149 
 
 and recognizing Rob and Mrs. Argyle as they had 
 crossed the Ring, that noon, had carried back the 
 whole party with him to his launch, and now they 
 were stretched out in deck chairs underneath the 
 flapping awning of the yacht, consuming iced tea 
 and sandwiches, while they waited for the royal 
 advent. The three Argyles and the Amys, quite 
 used to such experiences, took the whole matter tran- 
 quilly, even to their host who, divested of his news- 
 paper crown, proved to be a genial, jovial gentleman. 
 Little by little, the talk grew personal between them, 
 until Jack felt at liberty to shift his chair a bit 
 nearer Sidney. 
 
 " Another chapter," he said to her smilingly, and 
 too low for their host to hear. 
 
 Instantly her smile answered to his own. Where 
 Jack Blanchard was concerned, Sidney rarely needed 
 an interpreter, and now her mind flashed backward 
 to the evening, years before, when Jack had likened 
 to a fairy tale the strange transitions in his life. 
 The great transition, though, had been between the 
 two extremes. Jack's real life lay between them. 
 His Pullman car experience had been no more his 
 natural place than was the social circle of Lady 
 Wadhams, or even of his present host. Jack's father 
 had been a gentleman who, from no fault of his 
 own, had died and left his widow penniless. Jack's 
 university life had been interrupted by the Boer 
 war and its consequent call for troops. The ending 
 of the Boer war had found him with but three pos-
 
 150 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 sessions to his name: a D. S. O., a plucky nature, 
 and an old mother dependent on his care. The 
 Pullman uniform had been the rest of the story; 
 the rest, but not the end, for now had come the 
 sequel. And the sequel, as Jack well knew, was 
 testing him with its gay prosperity as no adversity 
 had ever done. And Jack knew, too, within his 
 secret heart, that he could never have met that test 
 one half so well, had he not been able to count upon 
 the loving loyalty of Day, the frank common sense 
 of Sidney Stayre. He counted on them both; but 
 with this difference: it was with Sidney that he 
 talked most often of the changes in his life and 
 prospects. Now his words responded to her smile 
 of comprehension. 
 
 " This sort of thing is really very upsettin', as 
 her Ladyship would say. I think I have a natural 
 appetite for the fleshpots, Sidney." 
 
 " Have n't we all ? " she asked him. 
 
 " More than most of you, I mean. It 's so easy 
 to slide along a cushioned groove ; but I 'm not so 
 sure it 's good for me." 
 
 " Meaning ? " But her eyes were not at all in 
 harmony with the brevity of her question. 
 
 His answer was as brief. 
 
 " That, once in a while, I feel as if I had been 
 swept off my feet and landed in a satin-covered bed." 
 
 She laughed outright at his metaphor. 
 
 " But the bed is comfortable," she assured him 
 gayly.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 151 
 
 Thoughtfully he continued his metaphor. 
 
 " Yes. Still, a fellow can lose the use of his legs, 
 if he stops in bed too long." 
 
 Something in the accent caught Sidney's half- 
 idle attention. There was anxiety in it, and some- 
 thing akin to self-distrust. She turned to him 
 directly, a world of liking and of cordial reassur- 
 ance in her eyes. 
 
 " You won't," she told him flatly. " It 'a not in 
 you. In fact, you '11 prevent that by the way you 're 
 lying and kicking now. .What 's the matter, Jack ? 
 Out with it ! " 
 
 For a moment, he sat facing her in silence, study- 
 ing her intently as she waited there, upright in her 
 lounging chair, her strong, bright face intent upon 
 his mood, her brown hair ruffled by the breeze which 
 softly stirred her pale rough pongee frock. Sidney 
 was good to look at, he told himself, but better still 
 to know. No mere outward beauty, however exqui- 
 site and dainty, could ever count for much, when 
 weighed against those downright, honest eyes of hers 
 that looked straight towards the heart of all things, 
 himself included.' The moment was long and full 
 of thoughtfulness ; but at length he answered, and 
 his answer took her by surprise. 
 
 " Moral indigestion," he told her crisply. 
 
 She frowned, but not at him. 
 
 " Jack," she said ; " it 's that horrid woman. 
 She 's going on your nerves." 
 
 He shook his head.
 
 152 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I 'm not a baby, Sidney. Men are n't supposed 
 to have such things as nerves. Still " 
 
 " Still, she was very horrid," Sidney supplemented. 
 
 This time, Jack laughed, and his laugh was re- 
 freshingly normal, especially after his late mood of 
 introspection. 
 
 " Really, Sidney, if the truth must be told, I rather 
 liked the fun of the whole thing," he reassured her, 
 and she could not doubt the sincerity of voice or 
 words. " I 've never been able to be ashamed of 
 my Pullman epoch; really, there was nothing espe- 
 cially disgraceful about it, except one half-white 
 porter who stole my best shoes. But I did enjoy 
 firing it at Lady Wadhams, for I knew the shock 
 would bowl her over utterly. What 's more, it did." 
 He paused to laugh boyishly at the memory. " Still, 
 I must say," he added ; " the old lady picked her- 
 self up sooner than I should have given her credit 
 for being able to do." 
 
 For a little time, Sidney shared his mirth. Then, 
 leaning back in her chair, she fell to studying him 
 intently. 
 
 " Then what is it really, Jack ? " she asked him. 
 
 From the distant reaches of the river whence so 
 soon the ship of mystery was to appear, he recalled 
 his gaze and fixed it on her face. 
 
 " I suspect it 's too long a vacation, Sidney," he 
 answered then. " I 'm used to working. I 'm hap- 
 piest when I 'm busy ; that is, I get the soundest 
 sort of happiness. It 's good fun, this drifting on
 
 JANET AT ODDS 153 
 
 from day to day, doing nothing but live in a per- 
 petual sort of party ; but it is n't good for me. I 
 was n't born to it, as the Argyles are ; I need the 
 other thing to keep me steady. It 's like taking a 
 fellow off a meat diet and feeding him on nothing 
 but ice cream. The ice cream is sweet and cool and 
 good ; but it does n't make much muscle. Some day 
 or other, I shall need my muscle. Some day, even, 
 I may get put back into the old groove, and find I 'm 
 not large enough to fill it. If one softens, one has 
 a tendency to shrink ; it would be beastly not to fill 
 up one's last-year shoes. Besides, whatever comes, 
 I 'm not likely to go on for ever, a tail to the Argyle 
 kite." 
 
 Once more Sidney sat up to face him. This mood 
 of Jack's was new to her ; it antagonized her slightly, 
 worried her much more. 
 
 " Jack," she questioned sharply ; " have you been 
 misunderstanding Hob, or Day ? " 
 
 His answer reassured her. 
 
 " No, Sidney. One never misunderstands one's 
 very dearest friends." 
 
 " Then what is the matter ?" she queried fearlessly. 
 
 " What I say. They make my life too easy for 
 me. It 's bound not to last." 
 
 " Do you doubt their loyalty ? " she asked a little 
 shortly. Then, seeing his colour come, she straight- 
 way repented of her shortness. " Jack," she said ; 
 " you 're right. You have been lazy too long. 
 You 're thinking about yourself and growing mor-
 
 154 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 bid ; you need to wake up and get busy. About the 
 Argyles: they do make life easy for you, for me, 
 for us all. They do it as a matter of course. They 
 can, and they don't think anything about it. But 
 you don't see the other side of it, the things you do 
 for them." 
 
 " What things ? " he interrupted. 
 
 She smiled a little, as she lifted her eyes to 
 his. 
 
 " The way you keep all sorts of little worries away 
 from Mr. Argyle ; the way you spare him work and 
 care and friction with the 'men who try to waste his 
 time. And Rob. He 's very lame ; there 's no use 
 trying to deny it, nor," her voice dropped to a mur- 
 mur ; " nor that he always will be. In a way, it 
 holds him out of man things; but he always has 
 you in reach to keep him happy and in touch with 
 mannish ways. That alone should count for every- 
 thing. From what Rob has said to me, I know he 
 feels he owes you what he never, never can make 
 even. And with Day Jack, do you know what 
 it means to us girls to have a friend like you, older, 
 almost like a brother, but something else besides ? 
 I found it out, when I had Wade." 
 
 "Only from Wade, Sidney?" 
 
 Her eyes met his; but her reply was lost in the 
 sudden clamour which rose around them, as the 
 yacht's colours went whizzing to the masthead. The 
 Indomitable was in sight, a ship of mystery no 
 longer.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 155 
 
 And, all this time, Mary Browne was having ad- 
 ventures on her own account, and, what is more, 
 enjoying them immensely. 
 
 From the hour of her entering Quebec, she had 
 confessed to Elsie that she had felt herself on for- 
 eign soil, a tourist in a stranger country where the 
 daily routine was a mere show enacted for her bene- 
 fit. To-day, routine had ceased entirely, to be re- 
 placed by a gorgeous bedlam of colour and noise and 
 swirling human crowds. And Mary Browne, of set 
 purpose and smiling broadly, made her way into the 
 thickest of the bedlam, revelling in the feeling that 
 she was a part of the packed, ecstatic life around 
 her. Had not a stern sense of decorum prohibited, 
 she would have waved a union jack, or beaten on a 
 drum. That forbidden, she elbowed her way as close 
 as possible to the man who did it. 
 
 The Prince was late about arriving, a good two 
 hours behind his printed schedule. Mary Browne 
 passed the time industriously threading the city 
 streets to see the final decorations, standing on divers 
 corners to watch divers passing soldiers, and nearly 
 giving herself an apoplexy by running after a score 
 or more of pipers that served as band for one of 
 the visiting Highland regiments. At last, warned 
 by the clattering hoofs of the Mounted Police that 
 the royal advent was at hand, she rushed down 
 Mountain Hill behind them at a breakneck pace 
 which roused the plaudits of the watching crowd, 
 turned a corner or two, and came out upon the
 
 156 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 water front just in season to see the royal launch 
 approach the shore. 
 
 People, standing near her, wondered who could be 
 the buxom, smiling personage who beat her palms 
 together in such lusty welcome; but Mary Browne, 
 heedless of their glances, watched the show to its 
 formal finish. Then, the show ended and the Prince 
 upon colonial soil, her mind rushed swiftly forward 
 to her waiting pots and kettles, and she glanced down 
 at her dangling, moon-faced watch. 
 
 " Saints be good to us ! It 's past four o'clock, 
 and the soup not started ! " she ejaculated, more than 
 half aloud. " I '11 take a look at him, as he 's pass- 
 ing, and then I must just leg it home as fast as 
 ever I can trot." 
 
 Accordingly, she edged and elbowed her way land- 
 ward to the forefront of the crowd, which she reached 
 just in time to take to herself and answer one of the 
 random salutations of the Prince. 
 
 " For all the world like that nice little clerk at 
 Holden's ribbon counter, and not a bit more stiff ! " 
 was her verdict. " Well, I 've seen him and he 's 
 seen me, so now for home." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word with all her cus- 
 tomary promptness, she turned to follow along be- 
 side the royal procession, her eyes and mind too 
 intent upon the gorgeous spectacle to pay much heed 
 to the tricky nature of the sidewalks, or their ability 
 to support her weight. She took a dozen steps in 
 safety, thirteen, fourteen j then there came a crash
 
 JANET AT ODDS 157 
 
 of decayed boarding. An instant later, Mary Browne 
 felt a second crash, not of the boarding now, but 
 of something inside her ankle ; and, faint with pain, 
 she went pitching forward and sidewise, straight upon 
 the brief red coat-tails of one of the Northwest Police 
 who had that instant halted by her side.
 
 CHAPTER TWELVE 
 
 " T T 'S only his nonsense, Miss Janet dear, to get 
 J, himself a patient," Mary Browne averred, next 
 morning. " For why should I stay in bed, when 
 I 'm as well able as ever to sit with my foot in the 
 chair, giving orders ? Get me a girl that understands 
 English and has a pair of feet, and I '11 do the rest 
 of it with my head." 
 
 Girls, however, understanding English or other- 
 wise, were not to be found so easily as all that. Janet 
 had wellnigh worn out the telephone wire and com- 
 pletely worn out her patience, by the time she made 
 the discovery that a helper for Mary Browne must 
 come from inside the household, not from out. It 
 was Mrs. Argyle who first put the discovery into so 
 many words, Mrs. Argyle, too, who called a council 
 of war, and divided up the entire population of the 
 house, Mrs. Blanchard and the retinue of Lady 
 Wadhams alone excepted, into a series of watches 
 which were detailed to do the bidding of Mary 
 Browne whose orders were interspersed with lamen- 
 tations over her incapacity. 
 
 " It 's me that was a wool-gathering, staring idiot, 
 and brought it on myself entirely," she said dras- 
 tically. " If I was you, Miss Janet dear, I 'd pack 
 me off to the hospital. To think of a lady with a
 
 JANET AT ODDS 159 
 
 pair of hands like Mrs. Argyle mixing up the cakes 
 for tea ! " 
 
 Janet had betaken herself to the kitchen bright 
 and early, that morning, her heart in her boots and 
 her mind set upon planning breakfast. To her ex- 
 treme surprise, she had found Mary Browne en- 
 sconced in a chair beside the stove, her lame foot 
 upon another chair, and industriously beating 
 muffins. 
 
 " Mary Browne ! What are you doing here ? " 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 Mary Browne's smile was wide enough to cover 
 the traces of a sleepless night. 
 
 " I thought you 'd like some corn muffins, Miss 
 Janet. The poodle eats 'em, too." 
 
 " But the doctor said " 
 
 Mary Browne's answer has already been recorded. 
 
 " How did you get here, anyway ? " Janet de- 
 manded, when her objections had been set forth at 
 length. 
 
 Mary Browne's reply was terse. 
 
 " Hitched," she answered. 
 
 " Bravissimo ! " Rob's voice sounded from the 
 doorway. " I '11 try it, myself, next time I 'm laid 
 up." 
 
 "Rob! " Janet spun about to face him. " What 
 are you doing down here at this unholy hour ? " 
 
 Rob, smiling and his hands in his pockets, came 
 sauntering across the floor. 
 
 " I came to cook the breakfast, leastwise the best
 
 160 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 part of it. I have n't that confidence in your powers, 
 Janet, that leads me to leave it all to you. Besides, 
 it 's not the first time we 've put it through together. 
 How goes it, Mary ? Kather bad ? " 
 
 " It might be worse," she told him stoutly. 
 
 He nodded, as if in admiration of her courage. 
 
 " Yes," he said briefly ; " heaps. You can be 
 mended, and that 's more than all of us can say." 
 Then his accent changed. " Seems to me you Ve 
 slugged those muffins about long enough. Give them 
 to me, and I '11 put them in the pan." And, with 
 much hilarity and an occasional mischance, the 
 breakfast preparations went their way. 
 
 Janet left the breakfast things to Elsie, and de- 
 parted to the telephone. Mrs. Argyle, reading her 
 morning letters in the next room, could not well keep 
 herself from overhearing the one-sided talk, nor yet 
 the little sigh with which Janet hung up the re- 
 ceiver. Contrary to the habit of most women in her 
 social set, Mrs. Argyle had taken pains to teach her- 
 self to do all that concerned a house, and now she 
 resolved to put her lessons into use. The council 
 of war that followed, was brief, and Mrs. Argyle's 
 final words summed up its decisions. 
 
 " Then, as I say, we all will take a hand, till 
 Mary is about again. Day, you and Amy Browne 
 are n't worth a fig in the kitchen, so you 'd best 
 divide Elsie's work upstairs, and leave her for the 
 dining-room and for the cook's assistant. Amy Pope 
 can do the rest of the housemaid work; and Sidney
 
 JANET AT ODDS 161 
 
 and Irene and Janet and I can get on in the 
 kitchen." 
 
 " What about me ? " Kob queried meekly. 
 
 " You are like Day, too ornamental to be of much 
 use," Amy Browne assured him bluntly, while her 
 approving eyes, sweeping him from head to heel, 
 belied her tone. 
 
 " Much I am ! Ask Janet," he bade her. 
 
 " I can't get on without you," Janet responded. 
 " Come along and peel some 'taties ; that is, if 
 you Ve not forgotten how, in the last five years." 
 
 " Well, I like " Paul was beginning ; but Janet 
 cut him off. 
 
 " So do I. Eob and I have cooked before." 
 
 " Likewise squabbled," Rob reminded her. 
 
 She made a little grimace of disgust. 
 
 " Don't talk about that horrid day. It was a 
 storm, in every sense of the word; but we have 
 learned to behave better now. What a termagant I 
 was!" 
 
 "As you say, those days are over," Rob assured 
 her cheerfully. " What were you asking, Jack ? " 
 
 " Where my usefulness comes in." 
 
 " Keeping Lady Wadhams in good temper," Day 
 replied unhesitatingly. 
 
 He laughed. Then he shook his head, and dropped 
 his voice a little. 
 
 " No use. My star has set," he told her, while 
 the talk sprang up around them ; " or, rather, it 
 has turned into a bright brass button." 
 
 11
 
 162 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Jack ! " She gave him one keen, searching 
 glance. " What utter nonsense ! " 
 
 By the next morning, Mrs. Argyle had assumed 
 full command. 
 
 " I shall go on duty, this morning," she announced. 
 " If I chaperon you children, to-night, that is really 
 all I care to go out; and, after so much pageantry, 
 Mary Browne and a mixing-bowl will be a real re- 
 lief. Run along then, all you children, and put 
 your rooms in order, for you are due at the Plains 
 in just an hour." And, despite the chorus of re- 
 monstrance, she had her way. 
 
 Quite as a matter of course, the influence of Gladys 
 Horth had procured for all of Janet's friends cards 
 for the event of any hour which happened to be 
 transpiring. The event of that night was one of the 
 grandest of the state functions, and the city was all 
 agog over the destinations of the huge square cards 
 of invitation. Day alone had shown herself indif- 
 ferent. There was to be dancing, and Day, dancing, 
 was as light and tireless as a bit of thistledown ; yet 
 now and then she claimed that dancing bored her, 
 and demanded to be left at home. Rob, shrewd ob- 
 server of his sister's moods, had long since learned 
 that such demands never arose when he was out 
 of reach, or otherwise occupied. However, being 
 healthy and moderately unselfish, he could not see 
 any real reason why, merely because his own danc- 
 ing days had ended early in his lifetime, Day's 
 should be intermittent. Accordingly, he had taken
 
 JANET AT ODDS 163 
 
 her in hand, argued with her, called Jack to help 
 him in his argument, and then, himself, had tele- 
 phoned to Gladys Horth that Day, thank you, would 
 be very glad to get a card, after all. And the card 
 came. 
 
 None the less, when it approached the time to 
 begin dressing, Day balked again. Her face was 
 very grave and penitent, as she sought out Jack in 
 the library where he sat buried in the evening 
 paper. 
 
 " Jack," she asked him, as she halted beside his 
 chair ; " shall you be very cross at me, if I don't go, 
 to-night, after all ? " 
 
 There was no hint of crossness in his smile, as 
 he looked up at her. Nevertheless, he made his 
 protest, as in duty bound by his promise to Rob. 
 
 " I really think he does n't mind our leaving him, 
 Day." 
 
 " Not mind it, really. Still, it is very stupid for 
 him to be left alone. Besides, I 'd rather " She 
 hesitated, midway between her expressed loyalty to 
 Rob, and the fear of wounding this other friend 
 who stood so nearly in a brother's place. 
 
 Again he looked her through and through, with 
 searching, kindly eyes. 
 
 " Day, you 're very tired,"' he told her then. 
 
 She nodded, while the blood rushed to her cheeks, 
 as if at her confession. 
 
 " Yes," she admitted ; " I am. We Ve lived in a 
 perpetual tornado of events, all this past week, and
 
 164 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 to-day has seemed the finishing touch. I want to 
 get out of sight and sound of it all, for a while ; not 
 dance half the night in a hot, crowded room." 
 
 Again his steady gaze met hers. Then, rising, 
 he put her gently into a deep chair beside the open 
 window. 
 
 " You 're quite tired out," he said, a second time. 
 " I 'm going to turn out the lights, and you must 
 stop here and rest till time to go to bed." 
 
 Laughing up at him, she shut her hand upon his 
 arm, as if to stay him from carrying out his 
 determination. 
 
 " You dear old tyrant, I have n't the least idea 
 of stopping here," she told him gayly. " It 's en- 
 tirely too warm and too noisy. Jack, do you ever 
 think how quiet it is at Heatherleigh ? But, if you 
 truly, truly do not mind a bit, I 'm going to hunt 
 up Rob and tell him he must carry me off some- 
 where, where it is quiet." 
 
 " What should I mind, Day ? " 
 
 " The having me back out and leave you to go 
 alone." She laughed a little. " Yes, I know that 
 sounds conceited, when all the rest are going; but 
 you know you had promised to look out for me." 
 
 " Exactly what I intend to do. Meanwhile, 
 where 's Rob ? " 
 
 " In your room, I think. Do you mind telling him 
 to come down here a minute ? It 's time you went 
 up to array yourself." 
 
 " Thank you, I consider myself arrayed. What
 
 JANET AT ODDS 165 
 
 do you say to going out on the river for an hour or 
 two ? " 
 
 She sat up and faced him. 
 
 " Jack, you must n't give it up. If you do, I 
 shall feel sure I Ve spoiled your evening. Amy 
 Browne dances like a seraph, and has a brand-new 
 gown that she 's longing to flaunt before your eyes. 
 Go and make her have a good time, that 's a dear 
 old boy. Besides, you can tell us all about it, in 
 the morning." 
 
 His laugh filled the room. 
 
 " No use, Day. There '11 be such a chorus at 
 breakfast that I could n't make myself heard above 
 the rest. Moreover, on my honour, I hate the whole 
 thing, and only promised to go, when Hob made 
 such a point of my looking out for you. Up here, 
 I am always in mortal terror of asking some of my 
 former passengers to dance with me, and getting 
 properly snubbed for my pains." 
 
 " I 'd like to see them try it," Day made pugna- 
 cious answer. 
 
 " Very likely you may see it yet," he told her 
 composedly. " Meanwhile " 
 
 " Meanwhile, you '11 go with Amy Browne," she 
 besought him. 
 
 " Meanwhile, I go with you. Unless," he added 
 gravely, seeing the objection in her eyes ; " you 'd 
 rather go alone with Rob." 
 
 For a long moment, Day's eyes rested on the 
 alert, soldierly figure halting at her side, on the
 
 166 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 intent and questioning face. Then her smile wid- 
 ened, became full of mockery. 
 
 " Jack, it 's horrid manners to fish for compli- 
 ments," she reminded him flatly. 
 
 It was Rob who somehow or other gained the 
 promise of a launch to take them up the river. In 
 some fashion all his own, Rob always could accom- 
 plish things like that. Given a telephone and a little 
 leisure, he could have had the moon for the asking, 
 for he was past master of the art of wheedling. 
 ISTone the less, it was Jack, not Rob, who saved Day 
 from the storm of remonstrances that arose around 
 her, when her determination became known. 
 
 " Day 's tired out, with all this fuss and feathers. 
 She wants to go off somewhere with Rob, and rest. 
 I really would n't urge her, for I think her mind 
 is quite made up." That was all he said, and there 
 was no sternness in his tone. Nevertheless, the 
 clamour ceased. Uniformly quiet and controlled, 
 Jack Blanchard's manner matched his eyes. Both 
 of them could be a bit commanding now and then, 
 yet their commanding rarely aroused antagonism. 
 
 After the ceaseless noise and glare of Louis Street, 
 noise which lasted quite around the clock, glare which 
 only changed from electricity to sun and back again, 
 the still, dark river was a welcome relief to all their 
 nerves. Behind them and before, the heights of 
 Levis and Quebec blazed with long streamers of 
 electric lamps, arching the streets, outlining Laval, 
 the Chateau and the Citv Hall. Frontenac's statue
 
 JANET AT ODDS 167 
 
 wore a dazzling crown, and the Parliament Buildings 
 were festooned from tower to lowest coping. Be- 
 side them, the war ships were garlanded with lights, 
 and the reflections struck the water sharply, coating 
 with a coppery lustre the mysterious black depths 
 that lay beneath. From the terrace above their 
 heads, the music of a band came softly down to them, 
 to be lost in the answering crash of the band on 
 board one of the French frigates close at hand ; and 
 from somewhere, far across the city, a stream of 
 little rockets went shooting upward, to curve over 
 and go trailing lazily down across the ink-black 
 sky. 
 
 Rob stretched himself out luxuriously in the stern, 
 his head in Day's lap, his heels upon the rail. 
 
 " By Jove, Day, what a genius you were to think 
 up this thing ! " he said contentedly, as the launch, 
 leaving the fleet behind, went sliding up the dark, 
 still river. " I had no idea how sick I was of all 
 that bedlam, till I got away from it." 
 
 Day fell to patting and stroking his yellow hair, 
 as was her wont in times like this. 
 
 " It 's all fun, Rob, every bit of it," she assented ; 
 " only, with the heat and the crowd and Lady Wad- 
 hams, there 's rather too much of it. Besides, if 
 we 're to do the gala pageant, to-morrow, the little 
 change won't hurt us." 
 
 Rob stretched himself a little straighter. 
 
 " Not me, sure. I was expecting to mind my 
 book alone at home, and this is whole lots better."
 
 168 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Jack sighed heavily. 
 
 " I was expecting," he remarked, with a strong 
 accent on the pronoun ; "to plant my boot heels 
 through Mrs. Royal Somebody's frilly train. Day, 
 I too am grateful." 
 
 " Not really ? " she challenged him, while she 
 pointed upward to the fiercest glare of all, which 
 marked the sky above the Parliament tower. " Think 
 of the music there, and the pretty girls, and think 
 of Amy's new pink frock, all covered and smothered 
 in little real lace ruffles." 
 
 " She 's welcome to smother it in real hens* 
 feathers, for all I care," he answered callously. 
 " I 'd much rather be here with you." 
 
 "Not honestly?" 
 
 "Honestly, Day." 
 
 Abandoning Rob's hair, she planted her elbows 
 on her knees beside his head, clasped her hands 
 and surveyed Jack from over them, with dancing 
 eyes. 
 
 " Jack," she admonished him ; " this really is 
 deplorable. 1 must take your social education in 
 hand." 
 
 " Do," Rob urge'd her. " It may lead you to take 
 your elbow off my left ear." 
 
 Day laughed, moved her elbow for the fraction 
 of an inch, and then turned again to Jack. 
 
 " Jack, I really must have neglected your train- 
 ing," she persisted. 
 
 He shook his head. Then he clasped his hands
 
 JANET AT ODDS 169 
 
 at the back of his neck, and settled down deeper in 
 his chair. 
 
 " Forgive my sprawling, as long as it 's Rob who 
 sets the fashion," he said. " As for the training, 
 Day, I 'm overtrained. That 's what 's the trouble." 
 
 Day eyed him, for a moment. Then, 
 
 " I 'm afraid I don't pick up all the crumbs of 
 your meaning, Jack," she told him. 
 
 " Merely this," he answered and, beneath the in- 
 dolent lightness of his tone there came a little note 
 of gravity ; " that I began it all too late and had 
 too much of it all at once. I 've had about all that 
 I need." 
 
 " Bored, Jack ? " she rebuked him. 
 
 " ~Not bored, exactly. I only know too well just 
 what it amounts to, and I 'm not sure that, for me, 
 it 's quite worth while. At first, I enjoyed it ; that 
 is, after I learned the ropes. People were good to 
 me on your account; your friends, Amy Browne 
 especially, always saw to it that I had a good time." 
 
 " Then what was the matter ? " Day questioned, as 
 once more she attacked the task of beautifying Rob 
 whose arm, flung upward, rested around hers in a 
 cosy sort of knot. 
 
 Jack laughed a little. 
 
 " I preferred the substance to the shadow," he 
 replied. " I liked you better than I did your in- 
 fluence trickling around among your friends and 
 soaking back on me." 
 
 " Pretty metaphor, that ! " Rob made idle comment.
 
 170 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 "True, though," Jack retorted. "If it hadn't 
 been for you, I 'd have been nowhere. Yes, I mean 
 it, Day. Not in a business way, of course, but so- 
 cially. It was so in New York. It is even more 
 so, up here. People are decent to me, not as Jack 
 Blanchard, but as the Argyles' chum. Under these 
 conditions, I naturally prefer the Argyles to the 
 other people, as long as I really am lucky enough 
 to be the Argyles' chum." 
 
 " You bet ! " Rob assented fervently. " Your sen- 
 timent does you credit, Jack; but don't you think 
 it 's rather warm to be so much in earnest ? Next 
 thing you know, your collar '11 yield to your emo- 
 tions, and then where '11 you be ? " 
 
 " Hush, Rob ! " Day bade him. Then she pursued 
 her argument. " You can't live on Argyles, Jack." 
 
 " Can, too." 
 
 " Even shredded-wheat doormats, taken as a steady 
 diet, will give you an indigestion in time," Rob cut 
 in. " I know, for they tried it at our eating club, 
 last year." 
 
 Day laid her hand across his lips to silence him. 
 Rob nibbled at her fingers; but Day was too much 
 in earnest now to heed even her brother. 
 
 " Jack," she said, as simply as a little child ; " you 
 are our chum. Rob and I are the whole world to 
 each other, and yet we are not quite as well con- 
 tented, unless you are here with us. That does n't 
 mean, though, that we expect you to feel that way 
 about us. You need other friends, lots of them;
 
 JANET AT ODDS 171 
 
 else, you 'd get narrow. Even Rob and I are n't 
 enough for each other. We each of us have our 
 outside friends, too." 
 
 " Yes, I know," Jack nodded slowly. " But, with 
 you, it 's different You were born where you are. 
 I was n't." 
 
 " No ; but you 're adopted. What 's more, you Ve 
 proved your right to the place. Ask Amy Browne." 
 
 Jack unclasped his hands, clasped them again in 
 front of him and fell to studying his long, brown 
 fingers. 
 
 " Confound it, Day ! " he blurted out at length. 
 " There is a difference. You must see it, even if 
 you won't own it. With you and Rob, I 'm per- 
 fectly happy, for I know my ground. With all these 
 other people, no matter how decent to me they are, 
 I feel I 'm walking on eggs that may go smash at 
 any moment." 
 
 " All ? " Day asked him soberly. 
 
 " All, that is, but Sidney. I Ve talked it over 
 with her now and then, and she understands." 
 
 Day was a girl who had a heart and also her own 
 reservations; yet now there was no trace of reser- 
 vation in her smile, as she made cordial answer 
 
 " Sidney always understands." 
 
 The night was far spent, and Mrs. Blanchard's 
 patience was even farther spent, when Mrs. Argyle 
 brought her charges home, their frocks demolished, 
 but their eyes like stars. Last of all came Lady 
 Wadhams, who lumbered up the stairs, her gorgeous
 
 172 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 frock trailing after her and her head bejewelled like 
 a Fiji queen. Outside of Mrs. Blanchard's open 
 door, she halted to get her breath and unbutton her 
 long gloves. Her breath once found, she spoke. 
 
 " Mrs. Blanchard, that 's an amazin'ly good young 
 man, is your son. Really, I rather envy you." Then 
 unconsciously she heaved a little sigh. " I had a 
 baby boy once, myself," she added slowly and as if 
 in spite of herself. " He only lived, three days." 
 Then, turning, she went lumbering away after the 
 retreating figure of her maid.
 
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
 
 L)NG before the hour set for the beginning of 
 the pageants, next day, every approach to the 
 historic Plains of Abraham was blocked by a solid 
 mass of humanity, lined up in the streets, on the 
 curbs, on fences, on the verandas of the houses along 
 the route. The windows of the houses were full, 
 too, for the dwellers along the Grande Allee, by this 
 time become familiar with the appearance of the 
 Prince, shifted their interest to the motley throng 
 gathered to see his passing, for this was the gala day 
 at the pageants, and at five o'clock he was to enter 
 the royal box on the grandstand, and watch the 
 history of Quebec played out before him. 
 
 The crowd, eager, attentive, for the most part 
 waited with an orderly patience which yet was far 
 removed from apathy. Now and then they pushed 
 and jostled; now and then they burst into a little 
 scattered cheering. They were strangers mostly, 
 country people who had come into the city for the 
 day, laden with babies and with luncheons, to catch 
 at least a passing glimpse of the man who would 
 one day be their king. Their patient waiting was 
 less onerous than it seemed. They had come to see 
 the Prince; it was for his passing that they had 
 taken their stand, and the time to stand was very,
 
 174 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 very long. Nevertheless, there was much to interest 
 them while they waited, much to see in this un- 
 familiar Quebec whose sombre gray they had found 
 all ablaze with bunting. To many of them, too, the 
 sight was one for lawful pride of birth, as they 
 beheld their own lost flag, the tricolour, side by side 
 with the union jack and flanked with the less 
 familiar stars and stripes, silent witness of the two 
 guests most honoured at the ancient city's birthday 
 party. 
 
 Meanwhile, the actors themselves were getting 
 nervous over the prospect of their royal audience; 
 and, as scarcely a home throughout the city lacked 
 an actor, the city, outwardly calm, within its homes 
 was in a violent ferment. Especially was this true 
 of the Leslie house in Louis Street, where eight 
 actors were robing themselves in half as many rooms, 
 from across whose thresholds questions and lamenta- 
 tions and appeals for help issued in an unbroken 
 fugue. 
 
 " Oh, de-ar ! Where did I put my girdle ? " This 
 was from Amy Browne. 
 
 Day, from across the hall, responded. 
 
 " It 's here, on Janet's bed. Do come and hook 
 me up, that 's a darling." 
 
 " In a minute. This horrid crinoline " Amy 
 left the finish of her phrase to the imagination of 
 her hearers. 
 
 " What 's the matter, Amy ? Stuck in your door, 
 and can't get through ? " Rob's voice rang out cheerily
 
 JANET AT ODDS 175 
 
 from behind his own closed door. " You '11 have 
 to take a reef in your sails, to-day. There is n't room 
 for your skirt in any such crowd as this." 
 
 His last words were wellnigh drowned in a roar 
 of woe from Paul. 
 
 " Oh, one of you fellows ! Hurry up here ! I Ve 
 caught a hook-thing in the back of my lace necktie, 
 and it 's busting to all sorts of smithereens. Do 
 hurry up, before it 's wrecked entirely. There-e-e-e ! 
 Blanchard ! Argyle ! Somebody ! Do come ! " 
 
 " Can't. Sidney 's curling up my wig ; she '11 
 brand me, if I stir," Jack called back placidly from 
 his seat on the stair-head. 
 
 " What are you curling up your wig for, Jack ? " 
 And once again Rob gave evidence of the soundness 
 of his lungs. 
 
 " Because I put it in a chair beside the window, 
 last night, and then threw my coat on top of it. 
 It was all warped cornerwise, this morning, like a 
 chicken with shaking palsy. I 'm just beautiful 
 now, though." And Jack ducked his curly dark 
 head at Sidney in token of grateful appreciation. 
 
 Standing off a little, the curling tongs still in her 
 hand, she surveyed him from top to toe. 
 
 " You really do look rather well," she told him 
 then. 
 
 " Don't make me too conceited," he bade her, 
 laughing. 
 
 But she took the conceit out of him promptly. 
 
 " It 's only this court finery of yours, chiefly your
 
 176 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 wig. It is n't such a distressing mismatch as poor 
 Paul's bright orange one. This goes with your eyes, 
 and your new curls are princely." 
 
 " The last time I saw His Royal Highness, his 
 curls had been cut off, and the stubs were nearer the 
 hue of Paul's," Jack told her gravely. " Still, it 's 
 a comfort to be told you look princely, even if you 
 do happen to be a cat of another colour." 
 
 " I wish you would keep still, while I enumerate 
 your charms," she remonstrated. 
 
 Without stirring, he smiled up into her eyes. 
 
 " I 'd rather go about your own," he objected. 
 
 " Mine ? But really, Jack, you must have been 
 quite good-looking, before you undertook to keep 
 my small sister from being burned to death. And 
 yet," above her fantastic yellow gown, her face was 
 very earnest ; " do you know, I rather miss the scar, 
 now it is out of sight ? " 
 
 Jack's hand went to the side of his face, and his 
 colour came. 
 
 " A good miss," he told her. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Day and I call it your badge of honour," she 
 answered quietly. " To us, it stands for the the 
 very Jackishness that makes you what you are." 
 Then, drawing back before something in his level 
 eyes, she cast aside her gravity. " No use, Jack. 
 Your red velvet clothes and your curly wig are wholly 
 adorable ; but you must make the very most of them 
 while they last. Next week, you '11 have to come
 
 JANET AT ODDS 177 
 
 down again to plain blue serge and a cropped head. 
 Meanwhile " 
 
 " Meanwhile ? " he queried, smiling once more into 
 her gray eyes. 
 
 " Oh, do go to thunder with your mooning, Tids ! " 
 Paul adjured her in a stentorian sort of bellow. 
 " I 'm all tangled up in my cape, and one of those 
 fuzzybugs has ripped off my shoe. Come and sew 
 me up, quick! " 
 
 " Coming, Paul. Pull out your ruffles a little bit 
 more, Jack, and be sure your feather does n't wobble. 
 There ! That is really perfect. Yes, Paul. Do wait 
 till I can get my cap on." 
 
 " Wait ! With this infernal cape all in a mess, 
 hind side before and under my chin like a baby's 
 bib! If you can't come, do send a substitute." 
 
 " Day ! Day ! Day ! Au-ro-ra-a-a-a ! " It was 
 Rob's voice that cleft the air. " I Ve gone and 
 pulled the puckering string all out of my left trou- 
 serlet. I can't wear it, all slopping about like this. 
 What shall I do?" 
 
 " Irene," Wade queried, in the hall below, where 
 they were waiting for the actors to array themselves ; 
 " has it ever occurred to you to be thankful that I 
 have no dramatic aspirations ? " 
 
 "Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Oh, dear! 
 Oh de-ar ! " Amy Pope was heard in comprehen- 
 sive lamentation, before Irene could answer. 
 
 Nodding expressively at Wade, she called up the 
 stairway, 
 
 12
 
 178 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 "What is it, Amy?" 
 
 And the melancholy of Amy's answering tone was 
 proportioned to the greatness of the tragedy, 
 
 " I 've caught my crinoline on the corner of my 
 trunk and broken it to bits. Whatever shall I do ? 
 It 's almost four now, and I look exactly like a 
 punctured tire." 
 
 And Irene, leaving Wade to enjoy his own smug 
 reflections, rushed up the stairs, two at a time, to 
 offer help and consolation, for were not Amy and 
 Paul promoted to the main group of the pavane, 
 exactly in the middle foreground before the royal 
 box? 
 
 With Sidney and Irene to work, and the other 
 girls to stand about and advise, the mischief was 
 speedily repaired, and it was only a little after four, 
 when the group went down the steps. Rob stared 
 rather ruefully along the car-less street. 
 
 " There are certain minor inconveniences about 
 having a prince on board," he remarked. 
 
 " Rob ! " Janet's remonstrance betrayed the fact 
 that she was shocked at his flippancy. 
 
 Heedful of her nerves which by now were show- 
 ing a little tightness, as result of the past two days 
 of domestic struggle, he amended his phrase. 
 
 " For a poor football cripple, I mean. The rest 
 of you can show your loyalty by walking humbly in 
 the dust of the road. Myself, I find it mighty dis- 
 concerting, this trick they have of stopping all the 
 cars, every time His Eminence goes somewhere."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 179 
 
 " What do they do it for ? " Amy Pope queried, 
 with a grimace of disgust at the empty tracks. 
 " There 's nothing particularly anarchistic about a 
 street car." 
 
 " They are n't respectful, ma'am. It 's a belt line, 
 too, you see, and so he 's bound to tie the whole 
 plant up, every time he walks abroad. You were 
 observing, Paul ? " 
 
 " That, if you fellows had any sense at all, you 'd 
 telephone to have your mounts, and Day's, sent here 
 for you. The rest of us can walk. It will get our 
 muscles into training ; besides, it 's good fun to see 
 the Amys bowl over everything in sight, as they go 
 past." And Paul turned his back upon the afore- 
 said Amys, while, with much flirting of his cape 
 and swinging of his white-plumed hat, he sent a 
 killing bow and smile across the street to Gladys 
 Horth. 
 
 She interpreted the smile as invitation, and 
 promptly joined their group. 
 
 " May I go out with you," she asked, as she gave 
 her hand to Paul and then to Jack. " I 've been 
 waiting for a car for ever so long; I suppose we 
 all will have to walk. How I envy you proud horse- 
 men ! " And she smiled straight up into Jack's eyes, 
 as she stood beside him in the sun, a dainty vision 
 of pale blue and silver filigrees. 
 
 For the life of him, he could not keep from smil- 
 ing back at her, so open was her admiration for 
 his changed appearance. Nevertheless, remembering
 
 ISO JANET AT ODDS 
 
 their first meeting, he felt with her now, as before, 
 that could he see below the surface of her nature, 
 he might find it flawed with a curious little streak 
 of something, disloyalty, or snobbery, which to his 
 honest eyes would make her seem a thing quite apart 
 from girls like Sidney or like Day, girls he could 
 trust from start to finish of their lives. Later on, 
 much later, he reproached himself for this mistrust. 
 In the meantime, he smiled at her; but his smile 
 was fully as superficial as was her obvious coquetry 
 with him. A moment later, her glance had moved 
 on to Janet. 
 
 " You do look tired, dear," she said, and now her 
 voice rang true and free from coquetry. " We 're 
 all so sorry for the bad time you are having. Still, 
 we could n't spare you now, and I 'm so glad you 
 have decided to go on with it. Yours is the best 
 part of it all, of all the women. It would have 
 been a shame to miss doing it for the Prince." 
 
 For, only that morning, Janet had shut her teeth 
 askew and sought the telephone. So intent was she 
 upon the errand for which she had been bracing her- 
 self throughout a sleepless night, that she was totally 
 unconscious of Lady Wadhams' cumbersome step 
 upon the stairs. 
 
 " Is that Mrs. Horth ? Is Gladys in ? I 'm Janet. 
 May I speak to Gladys ? Oh, Gladys, I am so sorry ; 
 but I 'm afraid I shall have to go out of the 
 pageant. Things are getting worse here, all the time. 
 Mary Browne really is in bed, to-day ; and the poodle
 
 JANET AT ODDS 181 
 
 has indigestion ; and there 's nobody to cook 
 What did you say ? Xo ; the poodle did n't do the 
 cooking ; but Really, I can't, Gladys. Will you 
 tell " 
 
 She was stopped by a hand upon her shoulder, a 
 fat hand and beringed, but kindly. Then another 
 fat hand shut on the receiver. 
 
 " Let me speak a minute," the owner of the hands 
 said swiftly. " Miss Gladys, this is Lady Wadhams 
 that 's speakin'. Miss Leslie will go on with her 
 part. She can't be spared. I was tellin' the Prince 
 about her, only last night. We don't need any 
 cookin' ; we can eat cold things for a day or two. 
 The poodle ? He is better, thank you very much. 
 He ran away into the kitchen and stole the onion- 
 stuff they 'd been fryin' for the soup ; but I think 
 he '11 pull through, all right. And you understand 
 the message : Miss Leslie 's keepin' on with the part 
 as Madame Champlain ? " Then, having played out 
 her own part as providence quite to her satisfaction, 
 Lady Wadhams went her tranquil way. 
 
 On the stairs she met the poodle, convalescent and 
 sauntering forth in search of exercise and entertain- 
 ment. Boredom was in his eyes and in the droop of 
 his apology for a tail. Lady Wadhams bent down 
 to greet him, her pudgy hand extended. 
 
 " Takie ittie hindie poottie," she said, as cooingly 
 as her waist measure and her natural impassiveness 
 would allow. 
 
 And the poodle obediently turned himself about
 
 182 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 until he faced her cornerwise. Then he lifted one 
 small hind paw and laid it courteously within her 
 Ladyship's outstretched and pudgy hand. A moment 
 later, the greetings ended, her Ladyship passed on- 
 ward up the stairs. 
 
 From her bed in the room above, Mary Browne 
 had been an interested listener to the little scene. 
 
 " Holy mother of all the afflicted orphans ! " she 
 made comment to Amy Pope who stood beside her, 
 smothering her amusement as best she might. " To 
 be talking such palaver as that to a fuzzy poodle 
 without a soul to his name! If she feels like that 
 about it, she 'd best be adopting a child and done 
 with it, not wasting all her baby-talk on a senseless 
 mop of a heathen dog." 
 
 Amy Pope, like Lady Wadhams, departed on her 
 way. Going, however, she carried in her brain the 
 germ of a new idea, and the idea, in time, was des- 
 tined to spring up and bear much fruit. 
 
 But so it came about that Janet Leslie, notwith- 
 standing her misgivings on the domestic score, had 
 arrayed herself with the utmost degree of care and 
 sallied forth to join the rising tide of a procession 
 moving out to meet the Prince. 
 
 Punctually at five he came, a quiet, yellow-headed 
 little gentleman, seemingly far too simple in his 
 tastes to care about the official clamour which ac- 
 companied his appearing. Nevertheless, there was 
 the inevitable clatter and dash of the Mounted Police, 
 the inevitable band in the near distance braying out
 
 JANET AT ODDS 183 
 
 God Save the King, the inevitable running up the 
 royal standard on whatever flagstaff chanced to be 
 above the royal head. The Prince shook hands with 
 his companions in the royal box and took his 
 seat, and then the show began, the culminating 
 pageantry for which the rest had been the mere 
 rehearsal. 
 
 Jacques Cartier and his sailors had come and gone, 
 taking Donnaconna with* them; and, with a few 
 swift evolutions of the Jackies from the fleet, the 
 stage was set for Fontainebleau. Bits of white rail- 
 ing sprang up from nowhere in particular; strings 
 of gorgeous blossoms transformed wild bushes into 
 shrubbery, and out of a humdrum little thicket in 
 the foreground a fountain suddenly came leaping 
 up to dance in the lengthening rays of sunset. Then, 
 from a distant woodland far off to the westward, 
 there came riding the long train of mounted cour- 
 tiers, gorgeous in plumed hats and party-coloured 
 silks and satins, their jaunty capes and skirts and 
 winged sleeves dangling softly about their horses* 
 shining flanks. Well in the lead came King Francis 
 and his queen to take their stand beneath the canopy 
 before the royal box, and behind them rode a slender 
 figure whose appearing called forth a murmur of 
 enthusiasm from the Quebeckers in the audience. 
 Even Janet, awaiting her turn outside the stage, so 
 far forgot her decorous training as to joggle Paul's 
 elbow excitedly. 
 
 " Is n't she lovely ? " she demanded.
 
 184 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Corking," Paul replied profanely. " Who is 
 she?" 
 
 " She 's Mrs. Bertie Seward-Harlitt." 
 
 Paul whistled. 
 
 " That all ? " 
 
 " It 's quite enough," Janet said a bit severely. 
 " She 's related to everybody that counts, all over 
 the whole Dominion, and she 's just frightfully " 
 the word seemed squeezed out of her, as if her throat 
 were congested by its own effort to express her em- 
 phasis ; " exclusive. It 's always the question, when 
 new people come here, whether " 
 
 " You don't say ? " Paul cut in unfeelingly, and 
 a bit too soon for Janet's liking, for Janet, in such 
 moods, had scanty attraction for his boyish mind. 
 " I say," he added, in quite another tone ; " here 
 come the Argyles. Look at Day ! Is n't she a beauty 
 in that green of hers ? She 's no end prettier than 
 Madame Hyphen." 
 
 Then they fell silent, as the cavalcade came sweep- 
 ing past them, the horses stepping carefully among 
 the flock of sheep that cropped the grass directly 
 in their pathway. Slowly the long line circled be- 
 fore the royal box, divided and came to a stand on 
 either side of the canopy beneath which, still mounted, 
 sat their king and queen. Once in position, they 
 fell to chatting idly, as courtiers will, while pages 
 ran about, offering their heaped-up baskets of fruit 
 and their goblets of wine, while before them danced 
 along a band of white-robed nymphs, followed by a
 
 JANET AT ODDS 185 
 
 bevy of tiny satyrs, with vine leaves trailing through 
 their hair and across their tunics of brown beast- 
 skins. The dancing ended and the chatter ceased, 
 though, when Jacques Cartier came, bringing his 
 captive with him, and the courtiers crowded round 
 to listen to the tales of wonder that he told. At the 
 end, though, the attention wavered, and it was with 
 a manifest pleasure that the courtiers saw the sturdy 
 mariner made over to a bishop, and King Francis 
 preparing to ride on once more. 
 
 Once more, then, the long cavalcade circled past 
 the grandstand. Once more, every eye in the pro- 
 cession, even those of King Francis himself, fur- 
 tively rolled upward to the royal box. Side by side 
 and not far behind the king came Rob and Day, 
 with Jack slightly in the lead. Among the other 
 courtiers, many of whom were plainly at the mercy 
 of their mounts, the riding of the three young 
 strangers caused some comment. The Argyles, 
 trained in the best of New York riding schools, were 
 able to manage anything that wore a saddle; while 
 Jack, riding since his little childhood, and accus- 
 tomed to skurry across the African veldt on any 
 half-broken pony that he chanced to meet, cared 
 little whether his mount moved on four legs or on 
 two. Accordingly, all three of them were giving 
 comparatively free rein to their horses, fretted by 
 long standing in the face of dancing beast-skins and 
 of applauding crowds. 
 
 " All right, Day ? " Rob queried, as her
 
 186 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 kicked, and then fell to advancing corner.wise, pranc- 
 ing coquettishly as he came. 
 
 " All right," she answered, as she bent down to 
 pat the pony's neck. " He only feels a little funny. 
 I don't wonder. I do, myself, and I rather envy 
 him the chance to frisk." 
 
 Rob rode as close to her as he dared, by reason 
 of the sense of humour of his own mount. 
 
 " Observe the haughty lady down in front," he 
 bade his sister ; " the one they all made such a row 
 about, when she came on ! She 's getting her come- 
 uppance now, for sure." 
 
 Day's glance followed the direction of his eyes. 
 Then, heedless of the eccentric evolutions of her 
 own horse, she laughed outright. 
 
 " Poor lady ! " she said. " I am rather afraid " 
 
 "So's she," Rob interrupted. "There! She's 
 off. Well, by Jove!" 
 
 For the come-uppance, by some unkind Fate, had 
 happened just in front of the royal box. Mrs. Bertie 
 Seward-Harlitt's steed had grown used to bands by 
 now ; but he saw no especial reason to expect to meet 
 a symphony orchestra sitting about, out-doors, and 
 he shied violently, as the violins took up a merry, 
 strident theme. Mrs. Bertie Seward-Harlitt, as it 
 chanced, was more accustomed to a landau than a 
 saddle; and, accordingly, it was the inevitable that 
 happened. The horse assumed the pace of an antic 
 crab, and the rider parted with all of her haughti- 
 ness and a good deal of her charm, as, hunched up
 
 JANET AT ODDS 187 
 
 and clinging to the horse's mane, she looked about 
 her frantically in search of succour. 
 
 The moment lengthened; pace and hunchiness 
 both increased, for all the lackeys were busy with 
 other restive horses, and no one of them thought to 
 cast a glance towards the haughty figure whose com- 
 ing had seemed so full of resourcefulness and power. 
 The haughty figure, hunchy now and correspondingly 
 humble, closed her eyes and foresaw her finish. An 
 instant later, she opened her eyes with a jerk. A red- 
 velvet arm was steadying her to position. A com- 
 panion hand, slim, brown and muscular beneath its 
 covering ruffles, was shut upon her curb rein. Two 
 level eyes were looking at her kindly, with no hint 
 of mirth in their brown depths. 
 
 " He 's a little frightened and very hard-bitted," 
 the owner of the eyes said tranquilly. "If you 
 don't mind my joining the ranks of the upper no- 
 bility, I think I 'd better lead him off for you. He 's 
 ugly now, and needs a man's hand on him." 
 
 The rest of the pageants went their way: the 
 flocking of the citizens to meet the Ursulines; the 
 long line of civic and churchly pomp which went 
 out to meet de Tracy; the Frontenac defiance, and 
 then, last of all, the coming of the two royal armies, 
 marching and countermarching side by side in per- 
 fect amity upon the very field where, a century and 
 a half before, they spilled each other's blood. Now 
 at length, their hatred ended, before an audience of 
 their mingled races and in the city which they both
 
 188 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 had helped to build, they halted to salute the man 
 who would one day be their king, while bands and 
 orchestra united in playing Canada and then the 
 Sauve le Eoi. 
 
 The last salute was given, the armies broke and 
 scattered, the royal standard fell from above the 
 royal box. The pageants were ended, and the climax 
 of the celebration was already in the past. It had 
 meant study and work and care almost unending, 
 yet not a person of all those present at the final 
 tableau would have denied that it all had been quite 
 worth the while. 
 
 Crossing the dusty field behind the grandstand, 
 Janet halted, as she heard her name. Turning, she 
 found Mrs. Bertie Seward-Harlitt beside her, and 
 Mrs. Bertie Seward-Harlitt's hand was held out to 
 hers. 
 
 " Miss Leslie, I think ? I used to know your 
 Aunt Mabel, when we were in the convent; I ought 
 to have known you, long ago. Are you willing to 
 introduce your friend to me, the one in red ? I want 
 to thank him." 
 
 Five minutes later, Mrs. Bertie Seward-Harlitt 
 turned away. Her final words, 
 
 " And remember, Mr. Blanchard, that I am always 
 at home on Tuesday afternoons," were plainly heard 
 by all the group but one. 
 
 That one was Jack himself. With a hasty " Beg 
 pardon ! " he had sprung forward and jerked a baby 
 backward out of the path of an approaching motor
 
 JANET AT ODDS 189 
 
 car. It was a detail noticed by no one but Amy 
 Pope that the baby wore a blue satin coat that had 
 seen better days. Another detail noted by her 
 friendly eyes was the look of utter, abject weariness 
 upon the face of the baby's elderly companion. In 
 the chorus of talk which followed, however, she was 
 too much interested in the pageants to remember to 
 mention either of these details to Paul.
 
 CHAPTEE FOURTEEN 
 
 THE next Monday found everybody's nerves on 
 edge, everybody as near to being cross as gen- 
 eral training and individual disposition would allow. 
 
 A month of preparation, a week of actual achieve- 
 ment and a day which is a glorious climax to all 
 which has gone before: these things are exhausting 
 in themselves. Add to them a state of domestic 
 upheaval when meal hours are irregular, the cook 
 ill in bed and household work in arrears ; add again 
 a raw, cold day when the clouds hang gray and 
 heavy, and the wind, sweeping up the river, seems 
 to eat to the very marrow of one's bones: add these, 
 and you have the main essentials of a nervous crisis. 
 Everybody was tired out, a few were decidedly cross, 
 and Amy Browne was sneezing until she had scant 
 leisure to eat her breakfast. And the worst of it all 
 was that there was another performance of the 
 pageants scheduled for that same afternoon. 
 
 Amy Pope led the mutiny. 
 
 " I won't go a step to their old pageant, such a 
 day as this." 
 
 Paul finished scooping out his grapefruit, one of 
 a box which Wade, foreseeing famine, had thought- 
 fully added to his luggage. 
 
 " Then where '11 be I ? " he queried then.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 191 
 
 " You can take Sidney." 
 
 Sidney laughed. 
 
 " Thanks, dear. I decline to be took as second 
 fiddle, even if Paul is my cousin. Besides, I hap- 
 pen to have a partner of my own. Beg pardon, 
 Amy ? " 
 
 It was Amy Browne, this time, and she was offer- 
 ing remonstrance. 
 
 " Sidney Stayre ! You won't think of going out 
 to those Plains on such a day ? You '11 blow off into 
 the river, and get a galloping consumption." 
 
 Sidney laughed again. 
 
 " Don't worry. I 'm tough as a pine knot, and I 
 never have a cold. Pound up, Rob, when you knock 
 on wood ; else, it does n't work the charm. Besides, 
 I have a New England conscience. It 's not fair 
 to keep in all the fun, while royalty is looking on, 
 and then drop out and spoil it, when the common 
 herd can afford to buy their tickets." 
 
 " I thought you did n't believe in our class dis- 
 tinctions, Sidney," Janet rebuked her. 
 
 Sidney put her elbows on the table, for Lady Wad- 
 hams and the poodle were breakfasting in their room, 
 that morning. 
 
 " I don't, after a fashion. At least, after a fashion, 
 I do," she said luminously. 
 
 " What I love, Janet," Day said, too thoughtfully 
 intent upon her subject to heed the little frown on 
 Janet's brow ; " is the sweet human courtesy of your 
 British upper classes."
 
 192 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Janet's eyes flashed. Only Mrs. Argyle saw the 
 flash, however, and she was too far from Day to 
 check her speech without an obvious effort which 
 would only increase the strain by bringing to bear 
 upon it the general attention of the table. 
 
 " What do you mean, Day ? " Janet's voice was 
 elaborately polite. 
 
 Day laughed, as at some amusing recollection. 
 
 " It was on the reviewing stand, Friday ; at least, 
 one of it was. It was one of the named species, a 
 lusty young giant of twenty or so, and he stood up 
 on his seat and then opened his umbrella to keep off 
 the sun. Of course, I 'm used to the laws that govern 
 college games at home; but, even allowing for my 
 American bigotry, it did seem to me he was a 
 little " 
 
 Jack interposed, and gravely. 
 
 " I was beside Day, and I 'm British. Neverthe- 
 less, it did- seem to me he was very big." 
 
 Day swept on with her arraignment. 
 
 " And I asked the way of a man, the other day. 
 He looked a gentleman, and he had a wife with him, 
 and he surely was old enough to be discreet." 
 
 " Was he rude ? " Kob queried, in sudden pug- 
 nacity. 
 
 " He was n't anything at all. He gazed at my 
 hat, and then at my shoes; but not at me. Then 
 he turned his back and walked off, without answer- 
 ing a word." 
 
 " Up here, we don't speak to people till we have
 
 JANET AT ODDS 193 
 
 been introduced," Janet said, a little too pointedly 
 for Rob's taste. 
 
 " That 's not speaking," he retorted. " It 's just 
 the sort of notice you give a corner lamp post. No- 
 body that was n't an utter cad would take such a 
 thing as an attempt at conversation." 
 
 " Customs differ," Janet said briefly. 
 
 Rob's reply was equally brief. 
 
 " Thank the Lord, they do ! " 
 
 By this time, Paul, as well as Mrs. Argyle, was 
 watching Janet's face. What he saw there led him 
 to remonstrate. 
 
 " When I was a little chap," he observed at no- 
 body in particular ; " my mother taught me I must n't 
 criticize the pudding, when I went a-visiting." 
 
 Day's laugh was free from any animosity. 
 
 " If that 's aimed at me, I was criticizing the 
 upper crust of the pie," she corrected gayly. 
 
 Amy Browne suppressed a sneeze, before she 
 spoke. 
 
 " Day, you 're positively underbred," she argued. 
 " It 's only the submerged tenth who admit there 
 are such things as classes." 
 
 " I do," Janet said flatly, and the two crisp words 
 once more disturbed the surface of the talk which 
 Paul and Amy had been at such pains to smooth. 
 
 No one answered her, however, and the meal went 
 on in silence to a hasty end. As they left tl^e table, 
 Rob linked his arm in that of Day with a manifest 
 air of protection. The gesture was not lost on Janet, 
 
 13
 
 194 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 who gave a hostile sniff and betook herself in the 
 direction of the kitchen. Paul overtook her in the 
 butler's pantry. 
 
 " What 's your hurry ? " he asked as casually as 
 if Janet's eyes had not forestalled the answer to his 
 question. 
 
 " I have things to do." 
 
 " What 's the use of getting busy, so early in the 
 
 morning ? " 
 
 " It is almost ten o'clock," she argued, more for 
 the sake of opposition in general than for anything 
 else. 
 
 " Suppose it is ? Let it be almost noon, if you 
 choose. We 're only just through breakf ast, and 
 breakfast time is always early. Let the busy wait, 
 and come and play with the rest of us for a while, 
 before we all go at it." 
 
 " Mary needs me," Janet answered briefly, and 
 Paul could not gainsay her, for Mary Browne, down- 
 stairs again in spite of the doctor's orders, might 
 well be in need of almost any sort of help. 
 
 " All right. I '11 come, too," he said tranquilly. 
 
 But Janet shook her head, although her injured 
 dignity could not wholly repress her smile. 
 
 " I don't want you, thank you." 
 
 His honest gray eyes half mirthful, half anxious, 
 Paul took the bull by the horns and hung on. 
 
 " Janet, you 're cranky, to-day." 
 
 She nodded, in swift decision. 
 
 " I know it. What 's more, I 'm cross."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 195 
 
 " At me ? " 
 
 "No, never!" 
 
 The heartiness of her voice surprised him, and his 
 face cleared a little. Manlike, he leaped the next 
 point entirely. 
 
 " Honestly, I don't think Argyle meant to be a 
 beast," he urged her. 
 
 " Perhaps not," she admitted grudgingly. " Still, 
 he was." 
 
 Paul undertook to argue. 
 
 " Not really. He would n't ; he 's not the sort. 
 It 's only that he worships Day, and gets a little hot 
 when anybody disagrees with her. It isn't you 
 alone. I have noticed it before. And you did dis- 
 agree with Day, you know." Paul's accent might 
 have proceeded from the lips of his own great 
 grandsire. 
 
 " I should have been ashamed of myself, if I 
 had n't," Janet responded testily. 
 
 " May be. May be." Paul dismissed that phase 
 of the question in all haste. " Anyhow, you did ; 
 and that brought him to the rescue, for he was in 
 earnest at first. But that did n't last, you know." 
 
 Janet bent on him a glance of withering scorn. 
 
 " What bats you men are, Paul ! You mean well, 
 I suppose; but you don't mend matters much, when 
 you try to patch up a peace. I 've known Rob Argyle 
 longer a good deal than you have." 
 
 " Well ? " Paul asked her, for her pause betokened 
 a desire to have him say something, and he was a
 
 196 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 little at a loss to know what that something ought 
 to be. 
 
 Janet silently traced a pattern on the shelf before 
 her, silently drew her forefinger through and through 
 the pattern. Then she looked up and spoke, and 
 her voice was unsteady. 
 
 " It 's not the first time I Ve had a fuss with Rob 
 on that same subject. I know what he thinks of this 
 country. I know what he thinks of us Canadians. 
 And I can't sit by, the only Canadian among you 
 all, and hear our ways made fun of and despised." 
 
 " Blanchard is Canadian, too," Paul suggested, 
 from sheer lack of anything else to say. 
 
 This time, his suggestion went all wrong. Janet's 
 chin lifted itself in its well-known gesture of ex- 
 treme hostility. 
 
 " A Canadian ? Yes, of course. But not of my 
 sort, though," she said, with a crisp finality which 
 made Paul blink as at a physical blow, for he had 
 long since forgotten that, once upon a time, he had 
 uttered similar sentiments in talking to Amy Pope. 
 
 And it was Jack himself who unwittingly pre- 
 cipitated the next crisis, not Rob at all. Rob was 
 on his guard, warned by Paul who had come striding 
 into his room, a half-hour after breakfast. 
 
 " I did n't hear you say ' Come,' " he observed, 
 as he cast himself into a chair before his host. 
 
 " Naturally not," Rob retorted. " I did n't hear 
 you knock." 
 
 " I did n't" Paul chuckled. " I came by stealth
 
 JANET AT ODDS 197 
 
 and on a secret mission. I say, Argyle, you'd best 
 be a little careful in your walk and conversation. 
 Janet is getting on her nerves." 
 
 " Quite the contrary, she 's already got," Rob cor- 
 rected cheerfully. " I found that out for myself, 
 this morning." 
 
 " So I noticed. Later, I pursued investigations 
 on my own account." 
 
 " Get stung ? " Eob queried. " No ; you need n't 
 sit up and get huffy, old chap. I 've known Janet 
 longer than you have." 
 
 Paul rose, crossed to the window, faced about. 
 
 " I knew her first, though, knew her in their 
 palmy days," he answered doggedly. " I know the 
 things she 's had to step down from. What 's more, 
 knowing her, I know the way 't was bound to rasp 
 her feelings. Argyle, I like Janet Leslie; like her 
 a whole lot." 
 
 Eob sat staring up at him lazily. He liked Paul, 
 heartily admired Paul's championship of the absent 
 Janet. Nevertheless, still being Rob Argyle, he was 
 bound to tease. 
 
 " I like Janet, too ; but I can't say I like her little 
 tantrums," he remarked. 
 
 Paul stuck his hands into his pockets. 
 
 " Then what makes you stir them up ? " he asked 
 shortly. 
 
 " I stir ? I would n't stir a pussy-cat," Rob argued. 
 " Still, I can't well sit by and hear her slanging 
 Day. You could n't, if you had a sister."
 
 198 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Unwittingly, Rob had delivered a home thrust. 
 Paul did have a sister, as it chanced, a sister daintily 
 superior to all his boyish interests and concerns. He 
 would as soon have thought of championing the 
 Queen of Sheba as of rising up to the defence of 
 pretty Judith. 
 
 " IST-no," he admitted. " I suppose not. Fact is, 
 I honestly have n't much idea what started the row, 
 in the first place. The main thing is that we 've 
 got to go easy, or we shall bust up again. Janet 's 
 tired out, poor little soul, and cranky. When 
 she gets cranky she always did, you know, even 
 when we were at Grande Riviere she' gets all 
 sorts of queer notions into her head. Just now, 
 she thinks we 're all in league against her and her 
 Canada." 
 
 Rob nodded. 
 
 " Exactly. It 's quite chronic. Proceed." 
 
 " That 's all. I tried, just for argument," Paul 
 laughed, notwithstanding his recent protestations of 
 loyalty ; " to point out to her that Blanchard was 
 also Canadian. I thought I was rather clever to 
 think it up ; but the idea did n't seem to please her 
 in the least. She turned and rended me, and like- 
 wise rended him." 
 
 The laugh died out of Rob's blue eyes. 
 
 " She did ; did she ? " he asked crisply. 
 
 Paul sought to excuse the situation. 
 
 " Janet is a good little soul, even if she is cranky," 
 he urged again. " Besides, I know what her family
 
 JANET AT ODDS 199 
 
 used to stand for here. No wonder now and then she 
 turns a little snobbish." 
 
 There was a pause. Then, 
 
 " Oh," Rob made comprehensive comment. 
 
 And Paul, hearing, decided it was time for him 
 to leave the room. Outside the door, however, he 
 freed his mind. 
 
 " Hang it, Janet always was a little Tartar ! " 
 he observed. " After all, though, I 'm for her, right 
 or wrong. A girl like that is never half so cranky, 
 once she finds out she 's got somebody to help fight 
 her battles for her." From which, it was obvious 
 that Janet Leslie was by no means the only girl 
 whom Paul had known. 
 
 Left to himself, Rob digested his warning, made 
 mental note of thankful liking for the boy who had 
 come to offer it, resolved to abide by it as best he 
 could, and then forgot the matter utterly. Of course, 
 had he taken the affair in all seriousness and sought 
 out the path of sanctity, he would have hunted up 
 Janet and gone about making peace. Instead, he 
 hunted up his stick, for these strenuous days had 
 been telling on his knee ; and, stick in one hand, cap 
 in the other, he sallied do\vn the stairs in search of 
 pleasure. He found his pleasure by way of Sidney 
 and the upper terrace. Heedless of the biting wind, 
 they loitered there through half the morning, leaning 
 on the rail, watching the war ships, and talking of 
 the endless interests they shared in common. Rob's 
 existence might have been cloyed with too many girls.
 
 200 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 They would have been willing to do the cloying, for 
 they one and all were eager to be friends with the 
 great, jovial boy with the limp in his knee and the 
 rollicking fun in his blue eyes. However, they failed 
 in their endeavours. Rob smiled cheerily upon them 
 all, then went his way with Day and Sidney and, 
 now and then, Janet. But Janet, he confessed to 
 Day, was like curry; a little of her went a long, 
 long way. Day, on the other hand, was merely half 
 of himself; and of Sidney he never tired. No 
 matter how long the intervals between their talks, 
 they began just where they had left off. Her fun 
 matched his own; and no one, not even Day, could 
 be more strongly, sanely helpful in his graver 
 hours. 
 
 Jack, meanwhile, completely heedless of the 
 weather, had gone faring forth with Day and Amy 
 Pope. The roughness of the river, all choppy with 
 the wind, had tempted them, and they had taken 
 themselves off by the Island boat. They returned, 
 wind-blown and hilarious, to meet on the steps Rob 
 and Sidney, as hilarious as themselves and far more 
 blown; and, with the slightest possible delay to 
 smootK their plumage, the five went trooping in to 
 luncheon, full of ozone and jokes, and hungry as a 
 group of bears. And Janet had spent the morning 
 in the kitchen; and, just at noon, her tea cakes had 
 fallen flat. 
 
 Nevertheless, until the meal was nearly over and 
 Lady Wadhams had left the table, there was no out-
 
 JANET AT ODDS 201 
 
 ward sign of friction. True, Janet was quite obvi- 
 ously blighted, quite obviously in a frame of mind 
 to take the hilarity of the others as an insult directed 
 at herself. However, Amy Browne was also blighted, 
 by reason of her cold, and Irene Jessup, by reason 
 of Wade Winthrop's approaching departure ; so, from 
 being in such good and reasonable company, Janet's 
 attitude escaped all notice. The actual meal ended 
 by the consumption of everything in sight, Janet sat 
 tapping her fingers restlessly on the cloth, in token 
 that she wished the others would push back their 
 chairs and end their talk. The others did nothing 
 of the kind. Instead of that, heedless of their man- 
 ners, they pushed back their plates, plumped their 
 elbows on the table and fell into animated discus- 
 sion. Janet ceased her restless tapping, pushed back 
 her chair an inch or so, and sat aggressively, rebuk- 
 ingly erect, while she smiled disdainfully at nothing 
 in particular. 
 
 " What gets me," Rob turned slightly in his chair, 
 and flung one arm across the corner of its back ; " is 
 the amount of gray matter that has gone into this 
 thing. Take the two armies by themselves, I sup- 
 pose the dress is accurate in each little detail. It 
 would be less work to costume an entire play." 
 
 Jack, across the table, looked up at his friend. 
 
 " Do you know, Rob," he said thoughtfully ; " noth- 
 ing in the world has made me realize how I am get- 
 ting Americanized, like that final scene." 
 
 Janet shot one swift glance of hostility at the
 
 202 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 speaker, whose level eyes were fixed on Rob. Then 
 she resumed her disdainful smiling. 
 
 " As to how, old man ? " Rob asked. 
 
 " The way it strikes me. Everybody else thinks 
 it a beautiful piece of allegory. I suppose I should, 
 too, if I 'd kept on living here ; but, for the life of 
 me, I can't help seeing the funny side." 
 
 " Me, too," Paul murmured ; but no one heeded 
 him, for Janet was speaking now, and hotly. 
 
 " I can't see anything at all funny in it." 
 
 Strange to say, in all his past experience of Janet, 
 Jack had never seen her really roused. Accordingly, 
 he had no notion of what her accent portended, and, 
 after a glance at her, he went on, just as he had 
 begun. 
 
 " Do what you will, you can't make the audience 
 forget that they 're supposed to be the armies that 
 butchered each other on that very spot. Under those 
 conditions, it is a little comic, their marching up 
 and down together for a while, and then just fading 
 out into space once more." 
 
 Rob laughed. 
 
 " Where 's your sentiment, Jack ? It 's the peace 
 of nations, and all that." 
 
 Day always said that Jack was never half so likable 
 as when he smiled. He smiled now, and the lighting 
 of his face took from its intentness and added the 
 boyish charm which now and then came back to him, 
 despite his seven and twenty years. 
 
 " When I was a little chap in school," he argued ;
 
 JANET AT ODDS 203 
 
 " and got licked for fighting, I had to shake hands 
 wit J. the other chap to prove I 'd made it up again. 
 Why don't they do that, too, while they 're about 
 it?" 
 
 " I think it would be a very pretty scene," Day 
 stated gravely ; " if Mr. Montcalm and Mr. Wolfe 
 fell on each other's necks and kissed." 
 
 " Like Mr. Pig ? " Kob asked her in a swift aside, 
 since no one else but Day could be expected to share 
 his memory of their childhood's classic. 
 
 Jack's smile widened to a laugh. 
 
 " By Jove, you had it, too ! " he exclaimed. " ' My 
 best and dearest son ! ' Mr. Pig fits the case exactly." 
 
 Curiously enough, Janet's self-control, which would 
 have stood out against any amount of argument, went 
 down before an epithet. She turned on Jack her 
 angry eyes. 
 
 " Thank you, Jack Blanchard," she said crisply. 
 " I 've been waiting for some time to find out what 
 sort of a Canadian you called yourself, and now I 
 know. What 's more, I am obliged to you for the 
 information. Up here, my friends and I have a 
 disagreeable name for the Canadians who go / into 
 the States to live, and then come back again to laugh 
 at us, and call our heroes pigs." 
 
 Hasty, illogical, unmerited, the words flew across 
 the table, sharp as arrows, and, from their very 
 sharpness, as full of hurt. For a moment, Jack 
 stared in blank amazement at the girl whom he had 
 judged almost a woman, turned now to the likeness
 
 204 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 of an angry child. Then his smile came back to him, 
 full of its old friendly kindliness. 
 
 " You did n't understand me, Janet," he said 
 lightly. 
 
 But Janet, angry at him for rousing her antagon- 
 ism, angry at herself for losing her self-control, angry 
 at the others for pausing in their talk to stare at her 
 in wonder for her outbreak, tired out in body and 
 in nerves and feeling herself alone at bay before 
 them all, Janet proceeded to lose her head entirely. 
 
 " I don't know any especial reason I should under- 
 stand you," she answered shortly. " Even if we did 
 happen, both of us, to have been born Canadians, 
 you must admit it is the only thing we have in 
 common." 
 
 There was an instant of utter silence. Then Amy 
 Pope rose briskly to her feet. 
 
 " Jack," she said, calling him by his given name 
 for the first time in their acquaintance ; " don't you 
 remember you said you were going to take me up 
 the glacis to watch the regattas ? " 
 
 And Jack followed her, his honest nature for the 
 once rejoicing in a fib.
 
 CHAPTEE FIFTEEN 
 
 IT was a meeker Janet who sought Jack out, next 
 morning, and offered him her hand. 
 
 " I 'm the child who had to be licked for fighting," 
 she quoted, with an attempted joke. " I 've come to 
 shake hands and say I 'm sorry." 
 
 His hand shut on her fingers, clammy with her 
 nervousness. 
 
 "That's all right, Janet," he said kindly. "I 
 dare say I was n't quite polite in what I said. I 
 did n't mean to be rude, though." 
 
 " I did," she made unexpected response. 
 
 " I 'm sorry," he said. " After all, though, it must 
 have been a bit my own fault ; there 's generally 
 fault on both sides, when there 's a row. I hate 
 .rows, Janet." 
 
 Steadily, kindly, his level brown eyes were look- 
 ing into hers. There was no reservation in their 
 friendliness, no rebuke; yet Janet's eyes fell away 
 from before them. 
 
 Again her response was unexpected, the more so 
 in its very seriousness. 
 
 " I don't," she said slowly. " I wish I did ; but 
 now and then I rather like them." 
 
 His hand still holding hers, he appeared to be 
 considering intently.
 
 206 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I don't see why," he said at length. 
 
 " I do," she said shortly. " Unreasonable as I am, 
 I don't always like to fight for nothing. But now 
 and then it is such a relief to speak out and say 
 just what you think. Don't you ever get tired of 
 smirking along through life, pretending you like 
 things that you utterly hate ? " 
 
 So tempestuous was this new outbreak that Jack 
 prudently suppressed the laugh which wellnigh 
 choked him. And yet there was some truth in 
 Janet's words. 
 
 " I don't mean to do that sort of thing," he an- 
 swered, with the gravity that somehow matched his 
 wide, straight shoulders and his level eyes. 
 
 " How do you keep from doing it, I 'd like to 
 know ? " she demanded. 
 
 " By not hating things," he told her quietly, and 
 then despised himself for taking refuge in his years 
 to give her the rebuke she yet so richly deserved. 
 
 Janet missed the rebuke in studying the fact. 
 
 " Don't you ever hate things ? " she demanded, for 
 a second time. 
 
 " Not often. What 's the use ? " 
 
 " How do you help it ? " 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " By dodging them, before they come within hating 
 distance," he assured her gayly. 
 
 " But you can't, always," Janet persisted. 
 
 He hesitated for a moment. Then, honestly and 
 briefly, he spoke out his creed.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 207 
 
 " When it comes to a grip at close quarters, Janet, 
 things are n't ever so beastly as we think they 're 
 going to be." Once his words were spoken, he paused 
 to allow them to sink into her mind, sure from his 
 three-year study of her character that she would 
 recall them later. Then he changed the subject 
 abruptly and harked back to her former phrase. 
 " Was the licking bad ? " he inquired, with inten- 
 tional lightness. 
 
 Her mind was too intent upon the later phases 
 of their talk to remember what had gone before. 
 
 " The licking ? " she queried blankly. 
 
 " Yes. The one you said you had to take for get- 
 ting into a row," he reminded her. 
 
 Janet's face lost its intentness, darkened. 
 
 " Yes," she admitted shortly ; " awful. The ones 
 you give yourself always are, you know." 
 
 Janet's words contained the truth, yet not the 
 whole truth. Her worst discipline, perhaps, had come 
 out of her own conscience ; but the first came by way 
 of Mrs. Argyle. 
 
 " Janet, dear." And a tap on Janet's door, the 
 previous evening, had added explanation of the pur- 
 pose of the words. 
 
 " Come in, Mrs. Argyle," Janet had answered 
 listlessly. 
 
 Mrs. Argyle turned the knob and opened the door. 
 Janet, weary and dejected, was taking off her pageant 
 costume. She looked up at Mrs. Argyle with a forced 
 and uncertain smile; but the snap had all gone out
 
 208 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 of her and, with it, all her girlish poise. The day 
 had been cold, the pageant long, and Janet, tired 
 with the reaction from her last week's triumph, was 
 yet more tired with the reaction from her broken 
 self-control. Beneath her high-piled hair, her face 
 looked wan and pitiful, as it turned to Mrs. Argyle. 
 And Mrs. Argyle, womanly, motherly, had been a 
 tempestuous girl, herself, and not so very long ago. 
 
 " Janet child," she said quietly ; " you 're too tired 
 to dress and go down again, to-night, and so am I. 
 Slip on a kimono, and cuddle down here on the couch 
 with me, and have a little talk." 
 
 For a moment, Janet stiffened with the innate 
 resentment she always showed to any offer of unasked 
 affection. Mrs. Argyle, busy with folding up the 
 purple satin frock, had turned her back to the girl, 
 and was, to all seeming, quite unconscious of the 
 momentary chill in Janet's manner. The chill was 
 only short-lived, for, at heart, the girl was longing 
 for a word of understanding, longing yet more for 
 an opportunity to talk out all her bitterness down 
 to its very dregs, to pour her troubles and her tired- 
 ness and her irritation into a sympathetic ear. More- 
 over, she knew from past experience that Mrs. Argyle 
 was always quick to see both sides, even where her 
 own children were concerned. 
 
 " After all, though, Janet," Mrs. Argyle said at 
 last, when bit by bit the matter had been talked out 
 between them ; " it 's my impression that, both as 
 hostess and as woman, you can't very well get on
 
 JANET AT ODDS 209 
 
 without an apology to Jack. I see your side of it, 
 dear child: that you were tired out and cross, and 
 that now and then we Americans, all of us, are a 
 little too outspoken as to what we think of things 
 up here. Still, the fact remains that you were rude, 
 cuttingly rude to a guest in your own house." 
 
 " Jack 'a not my guest," the girl mutinied swiftly. 
 
 " What is he, then ? " 
 
 " Why, he he just came. I supposed you asked 
 him, or else Day," Janet said vaguely. 
 
 " I did propose it. Still, you are the hostess, in 
 a sense, for the party is in your house." Mrs. Argyle 
 let a little pause fall before her next words. " Be- 
 sides that, Jack was not at all to blame." 
 
 Again the girl mutinied. 
 
 " You just think so, Mrs. Argyle, because you like 
 him." 
 
 " Don't you, Janet ? " The question came quietly. 
 
 " Yes, sometimes. Not when he is so everlastingly 
 smug, though." 
 
 " Jack is n't smug, Janet." Mrs. Argyle spoke 
 with quick decision. " That is the very last word 
 to apply to him." 
 
 " Not smug, exactly ; but I do wish, just now and 
 then, he would distrust himself a little." 
 
 " Why should he ? More than you, or I, I mean ? " 
 
 Janet's smile spoke volumes. Her reply, though, 
 was short. 
 
 " I think, Mrs. Argyle, we neither of us need to 
 put it into words," she said. 
 
 14
 
 210 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " I think, perhaps, we 'd better," Mrs. Argyle an- 
 swered her. " We 've gone too far now, Janet, to 
 be able to dodge the point." 
 
 " I 'm not dodging," the girl replied perversely. 
 " It only seems rather like criticizing you to say it 
 out. Still, if I must, I must. It 's only this : if you 
 choose to swallow Jack Blanchard whole, brass but- 
 tons and all, you 're welcome. I can't do it." 
 
 Rob Argyle's sense of humour came straight from 
 his mother. Now she struggled bravely to down the 
 share of it she still held as her own, for Janet's pic- 
 ture was vivid, albeit somewhat sketchy. Moreover, 
 simply as Mrs. Argyle w y as prone to take her social 
 situation, there was yet something approaching the 
 ludicrous, to her mind, in Mrs. John Argyle's having 
 a social creed dictated to her by a girl in her teens. 
 A glance at Janet's face, however, showed but too 
 plainly that, in this present mood of perversity, 
 neither smiles nor arguments would avail with Janet. 
 Mrs. Argyle was too wise a woman to waste words 
 in a discussion that could only end in increased an- 
 tagonism. Instead, she rose and faced Janet, hold- 
 ing out her hand. 
 
 " Good night, child," she said quietly. " Have a 
 good long sleep, and you '11 feel rested in the morn- 
 ing." And, bending, she kissed the passive, unre- 
 sponsive cheek. 
 
 The summary close of the discussion led to a sleep- 
 less night. The sleepless night led, next day, to 
 apology. Mrs. Argyle's peaceful exit had left Janet
 
 JANET AT ODDS 211 
 
 with no one in range to fight with but herself. Her 
 fighting mood was still upon her and, lacking any 
 other adversary, she took it out upon herself with 
 vigour. She went to bed, feeling herself an ill-used 
 individual against whom all the rest of the world 
 was banded, its warpaint on. The long, quiet hours 
 of darkness brought reflection ; and Janet arose, next 
 morning, somewhat chastened. She still believed her- 
 self ill-used; but, if she were to pose as candidate 
 for universal sympathy, she must see to it that her 
 skirts were free from blame. And she really had 
 been somewhat to blame. She assured herself of 
 that in the intervals of wondering why Day and 
 Sidney did not come to bed. For Mrs. Argyle had 
 bidden both the girls to share her room, that night, 
 and so prevent renewal of discussion. 
 
 Janet arose, then, after long hours of discussion 
 with herself alone. Lacking an adversary to state 
 the other side of the case, her own side strengthened. 
 Persecuted, misunderstood, a bit ill-used, she yet had 
 been much, very much to blame. Her first duty, 
 then, was to annul that blame by offering contrite 
 apology. With that end in view, she sought out Jack. 
 A good deal to her secret annoyance, he did not in 
 return abase himself nearly as much as she deemed 
 fitting. However, the tragedy was in the background, 
 wiped out by apology and courteous penitence. All 
 but Janet proceeded to forget the matter absolutely, 
 as one forgets the indigestion caused by last week's 
 over-feasting, and life within the Leslie house, the
 
 212 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Prince and poodle both departed and the pageants 
 done, took up its normal course of summer idleness. 
 
 It was quite the result of chance that the Argyles 
 went away for a few days, directly after the tiffs 
 and tribulations of that black Monday. An old school 
 friend of Mrs. Argyle, unseen for more than twenty 
 years, was summering at Lake Massawippi. She 
 had heard that Mrs. Argyle was in Quebec, and had 
 written to demand a visit. Mrs. Argyle, answering, 
 had begged an invitation for her children whom she 
 was anxious to show off to her old comrade. The 
 visit was to last for ten days. Then Mrs. Argyle 
 would join her husband at Heatherleigh, while Rob 
 and Day returned to finish out their Canadian 
 summer. 
 
 Wade had already gone, and the announcement 
 of this second departure caused consternation in the 
 little group, a consternation which broke out into 
 open lamentations on the part of Jack who saw 
 them off. 
 
 " Do hurry back," he urged forlornly, as he left 
 them in the train. " Without you, we '11 fall into 
 shreds and tatters and, what 's worse, we '11 get the 
 shreds and tatters into no end of a snarl. I never 
 thought you 'd bring me up here and abandon 
 me like this ; and I 've a grim presentiment that 
 things will all go bad, the hour your backs are 
 turned." 
 
 " Not with Sidney," Day assured him valiantly. 
 
 He shook his head.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 213 
 
 " Sidney is Sidney, not you," he responded. Then, 
 smiling bravely, he dropped her hand. 
 
 Nevertheless, he stood long upon the platform, 
 staring after the empty perspective where there once 
 had been a vestibuled doorway framing two yellow 
 heads ; and, when at last he turned away and sought 
 the ferry, his heart was unreasoningly heavy. 
 
 In the days that followed, he missed the Argyles 
 increasingly. During their long separations, here- 
 tofore, he had been in New York, and busy. Now, 
 idle and lacking them, he missed them to a curious 
 extent, missed them in ways that the others were 
 powerless to make good. Strange to say, no one so 
 filled the emptiness around him as did Paul. This 
 was by no means merely because Paul's was the only 
 other masculine point of view in the diminished 
 house-party; but because Paul's nature, albeit far 
 more boisterous, yet held the same elements of big- 
 hearted kindliness as did Jack's own. Little by little, 
 then, they two drifted into a sort of intimacy, talk- 
 ing together in one room or the other until late at 
 night, exchanging experiences and digesting each 
 other's opinions on whatever question the day had 
 brought forth. All in all, despite the seven-year 
 separation in their ages, the opinions varied far less 
 than did the experiences which had gone to form 
 them, and, night after night, they parted . better 
 friends than they had been, the night before. Irre- 
 sponsible in his hilarity, totally unsuppressible in his 
 slang and quaint conceits, Paul was showing his true
 
 214 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 self to Jack in those long talks, and the true self was 
 winning even conservative Jack's approval. 
 
 Their talks ranged over all subjects upon the earth, 
 under the heavens and beneath the Leslie roof, so it 
 was no especial wonder that now and then they 
 touched upon Janet. Jack was forgiving, Paul loyal ; 
 yet neither one of them could deny that Janet was 
 still upon her dignity, and that that dignity was still 
 a little bit aggrieved. Curiously enough, the girl was 
 taking her grievance out upon the other girls who, 
 all but Day, had been silent spectators of the little 
 fray. Paul was avowedly her champion. She had 
 avowedly made her peace with Jack. Under all these 
 conditions, she was tacitly pledged to friendship with 
 them; and, feeling the need for manifesting her 
 displeasure with things in general upon some one in 
 particular, she chose the Amys, Sidney and Irene 
 as her especial objects. There was no open friction, 
 but something infinitely worse, a sense of general 
 discomfort, like the heavy oppression which goes 
 before a thunder shower in the next township. 
 
 Among themselves, the girls discussed it in moods 
 varying from merriment to hot, hot wrath. The two 
 Amys were for packing their trunks and taking the 
 first train for home; but Irene, and, still more 
 strongly, Sidney counselled patience. A break-up now 
 would lead to a permanent breach. Janet's moods 
 were never very lasting. Once she came out of them, 
 she was prompt to see and admit their absurdity. 
 Besides, after all, they really were not guests, in
 
 JANET AT ODDS 215 
 
 the strictest sense of the word. And besides again, 
 the Argyles would be back, next week. IBest wait 
 for them, and then with them discuss the matter 
 fully. From all accounts, they had seen Janet before 
 under similar conditions. Moreover, they were the 
 instigators of the whole party; as a mere matter of 
 courtesy to them, the party could not be allowed to 
 break up in their temporary absence. 
 
 And, meanwhile, more and more the four girls 
 were left to themselves to talk the matter over. 
 Janet was showing an increased desire for the society 
 of Gladys Horth; and into that society, willy-nilly, 
 she dragged with her Paul and Jack. 
 
 The Argyles had gone away, on Friday, the day 
 of the last pageant. On Wednesday of the follow- 
 ing week, this cheery state of things was still in 
 evidence, in evidence and, Sidney confessed to her- 
 self with grim forebodings, rapidly becoming worse. 
 The four girls had taken themselves to Saint Joachin 
 for the day. The plan had developed suddenly in 
 the fertile brain of Amy Pope, when, the night be- 
 fore, Janet had chanced to mention that Gladys and 
 she, with Paul and Jack, were going up the river to 
 visit the year-old ruins of the fallen bridge. 
 
 Gladys lunched at the Leslie house, that day. 
 Directly after luncheon, they started off, to all seem- 
 ing the most jovial of quartettes, for the day was 
 fine, the luncheon had been hilarious and the expedi- 
 tion promised something on the score of novelty. 
 Jack and Gladys were in the lead, as often happened
 
 216 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 in those days; but Paul and Janet were so close 
 behind as to overhear their talk, overhear, too, a 
 wholly unexpected greeting that met Jack on the 
 Breakneck Stairs. 
 
 " Mist' Blanchard ! Glad to see yuh, suh ! Yuh 
 lookin' fine." 
 
 For one instant, Jack stared blankly at the sable, 
 grinning face. Then he held out his 'hand. 
 
 " Norman ! I 'm glad to see you. How have you 
 been, all these years ? And are you still on the same 
 old run?" 
 
 Gladys, hearing, looked horrified, mystified, sus- 
 picious; but Janet, after one glance at Jack and 
 the negro, clasping hands in welcome, another glance 
 at Gladys, had turned scarlet, then grown very white. 
 
 " Come," she said shortly ; " we 'd best go on, and 
 let him 'overtake us." 
 
 But Paul, interested and amused and totally un- 
 moved by what seemed to him a bit of comedy, uttered 
 a protest. 
 
 " No hurry. We Ve any amount of time." 
 
 But Janet, still white and unaccountably nervous, 
 hastened down the steps at such a pace that they 
 were half way to the wharf, before Jack overtook 
 them. 
 
 " Norman was a capital chap," he remarked un- 
 concernedly ; " altogether the best porter I ever had." 
 
 " Porter ? " Gladys echoed, and the question, al- 
 though brief, was in italics. 
 
 Jack's unconcern decreased no whit. In fact, there
 
 JANET AT ODDS 217 
 
 was no reason that it should. To his downright 
 mind, he had nothing to conceal. 
 
 " Yes. He was porter on my old run to Spring- 
 field. We were together, all one winter, and he never 
 once shirked in all that time, took the best possible care 
 of his car, and his passengers, and even," he laughed, 
 as at some sudden recollection ; " even his conductor." 
 
 Gladys flashed one glance at Janet. Then she 
 queried sweetly, 
 
 " How long since you had seetf him, Mr. Blan- 
 chard?" 
 
 Jack stuck his fists into his pockets, and consid- 
 ered. He looked a veritable boy, as he tramped on 
 beside the pretty young Canadian, for the unex- 
 pected meeting had brought with it all sorts of merry 
 memories of what had really been a hard-working past. 
 The hard work was all forgotten now, however; 
 there only lingered the thought of the occasional 
 good times, the hearty liking of his old companions, 
 the loyalty of his many porters, the favourite of 
 whom had but just now gone on up the stairs. 
 After the sultry atmosphere of the past few days 
 inside the Leslie house, all this came back to Jack 
 like a long-wished-for whiff of ozone. Face and 
 bearing betrayed the exhilaration it had brought to 
 him, an exhilaration which added ten-fold to his 
 attractiveness. And, by his side, the pretty young 
 Canadian felt the attraction, felt it could atone for 
 certain other things almost. Not quite, however. 
 
 But Jack had finished counting time.
 
 218 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Three years," he said. " No, by Jove ! It 's 
 four. It does n't seem so long as that, since I went 
 off the run." 
 
 Gladys made careless assent. 
 
 " Four years ? The man must have a good mem- 
 ory; or else, you must have made a strong impres- 
 sion." Then, smiling still, she turned to Janet. 
 " But, Janet," she said, speaking quite slowly and 
 distinctly ; " I was sure you told me " 
 
 Purposely she allowed her sentence to die away, 
 unended. Gladys Horth might be outspoken, might 
 be a little too conservative in drawing her social 
 lines. Nevertheless, it would have been quite un- 
 thinkable to her, the needless wounding of any man, 
 least of all, such a man as Jack Blanchard had 
 proved himself to be. For Gladys Horth, knowing 
 Jack better, liked him unfeignedly, however regret- 
 table she regarded certain aspects of his past existence. 
 
 Bravely, defiantly Janet sought to meet the eyes 
 of Gladys ; but her glance wavered, fell, then turned 
 away, while once again her colour changed to dark, 
 dark red and then to ashy white. An instant later, 
 she gave a queer, smothered little laugh, and, step- 
 ping forward, caught Jack by the sleeve. 
 
 " Come, Jack, do hurry ; we 're going to miss the 
 boat," she said, with a forced briskness. 
 
 But, as she spoke, her eyes, shifting uneasily, met 
 the gray, steady eyes of Paul ; and Paul's gaze was 
 perplexed, full of trouble.
 
 CHAPTEE SIXTEEN 
 
 OTJITE naturally, Paul sought Sidney out, that 
 night, told her of the little scene, and de- 
 manded explanation. Paul, like most boys, hated 
 gossip. Still, Sidney was his cousin, and it was 
 never really gossip to talk things over with one's 
 cousin. Moreover, he felt the situation needed to be 
 explained. The sweetness of Gladys, all that after- 
 noon, had been no less ominous of ill than was Janet's 
 evident abstraction. Thanks to Jack's complete un- 
 consciousness of any cause for a situation, the after- 
 noon had passed off with apparent smoothness. Still, 
 to Paul's watchful eye, it was manifest that the two 
 girls were only waiting to be alone together, in order 
 to say Things to each other. Lacking all clue to the 
 mystery which seemed surrounding him, Paul was 
 conscious of a masculine curiosity to know what it 
 was those Things would be. 
 
 When Sidney did supply the clue, Paul's disgust 
 knew no bounds. By birth, by home training, and 
 by his school and college life, Paul Addison had 
 been nourished in too wholesome an atmosphere to 
 have much sympathy for the reported strictures of 
 Gladys Horth. His own early utterances of similar 
 import had been made half in jest; they had been 
 repented entirely, once he had come into real con-
 
 220 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 tact with Jack. Moreover, lacking sympathy with 
 Gladys, he also lacked all toleration for Janet's in- 
 tentional deception, and his gray eyes blazed angrily, 
 the while he listened. 
 
 " The blasted little sneak ! " he burst out hotly, as 
 soon as Sidney paused in the story which, of set 
 purpose, she had softened all she could. 
 
 " Don't be too hard on her, Paul," she begged 
 him. 
 
 " I could n't. She deserves every bit she 's get- 
 ting," he returned a little roughly, for his boyish 
 code of honour included even certain reservations 
 among lies. " I hate a liar, and I hate a snob, and 
 I hate a sneak; and she's all three." 
 
 Sidney's face was full of trouble; but Paul was 
 far too angry now to heed. In fact, his anger 
 mounted, as he grasped the details involved in the 
 affair. 
 
 " Do you realize," he demanded suddenly, as he 
 turned on Sidney with a savageness he might have 
 shown the culprit ; " that, all this summer long, she 
 has been calling herself friends with Jack, going on 
 from day to day, letting him trust her and talk to 
 her and about her as a friend; has been letting his 
 mother play propriety for us all, and, all this very 
 time, has been ashamed to acknowledge the fellow 
 for what he really is? Sidney, it makes me " 
 No word seemed strong enough for him. Silently 
 he ran his fingers through his short, thick hair until, 
 as once more he turned to face her, it stood wildly
 
 JANET AT ODDS 221 
 
 erect, a stubby halo around his flushed and freckled 
 face. 
 
 However, girls at best are never very logical. In 
 theory, Sidney demanded careful grooming of her 
 friends. As a matter of fact, her cousin in his even- 
 ing state array had never been so dear to her, never 
 so absolutely likable as now when, his collar slowly 
 wilting and his hair in tousled spikes, he faced her, 
 red with anger upon Jack's behalf. None the less, 
 according to her code which demanded the defence 
 of any girl to any boy, she sought to allay his 
 wrath. 
 
 " Remember, Paul," she bade him ; " that you don't 
 quite get Janet's point of view." 
 
 " Do you, Tids ? " he questioned hotly. 
 
 " Not exactly," Sidney made confession. " We 
 can't, you know, you and I. We 're Americans, in 
 the first place, and the lines we draw don't fit into 
 theirs. Besides, your mother and my father are just 
 about alike. They both of them have taught us what 
 the things are that really, truly count." 
 
 Paul swung around on his heel and stalked to the 
 window. 
 
 " I should hope they had," he answered then. " I 
 hate the ground she takes, Tids, hate it like poison. 
 Still, I could forgive all that, if she hadn't lied to 
 Gladys." 
 
 " She did n't really lie," Sidney reminded him. 
 
 " Really, she did ! " And as, reversing her accent, 
 Paul flung her own words back at her, Sidney felt
 
 222 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 another, stronger throb of pride at owning such a 
 cousin. 
 
 There came a pause. Then, 
 
 " Do the Argyles know ? " Paul asked at length. 
 
 Sidney looked up, and there came into her voice 
 a note of dignity which matched his of the moment 
 before. 
 
 " The mischief was done, before I knew it," she 
 answered. " I was too late to help it ; but, at least, 
 I could help their knowing it had happened. There 
 was no need for them to know. It would have been 
 hurting them for nothing; and they never, never 
 would have forgiven Janet." 
 
 " The others know ? " 
 
 " The girls ? Yes. We all were there, when Janet 
 told us." 
 
 Paul looked up in surprise. 
 
 " She told you ? Told you, herself ? " 
 
 Then the first note of bitterness came into Sidney's 
 voice. 
 
 " Yes. She appeared to think she had done rather 
 a clever thing." 
 
 " Oh ! " Paul on^ce more fell silent for a space. 
 When at last he spoke, his voice had lost all its ani- 
 mation. " Well," he said slowly ; " party 's over, 
 mischief 's made. Tids, what 's doing next ? To 
 make the best of it, I mean ? " 
 
 " Just that," Sidney told him gravely ; " make the 
 best of it, and say as little about it as possible. I '11 
 tell the other girls, to-night, and warn them to keep
 
 JANET AT ODDS 223 
 
 still. Mercifully, Rob and Day are n't here. Maybe 
 we can keep it from them altogether." 
 
 " Unless it leads to bitter complications," Paul 
 suggested. " Mrs. Blanchard is nothing but a mole ; 
 she '11 never catch on to anything. Meanwhile, though, 
 what about Jack himself ? " 
 
 But, meanwhile, Jack himself was the most uncon- 
 cerned member of all the little party. This fact was 
 made evident, next morning at breakfast, when Paul 
 was glum and silent, Janet nervously pugnacious, and 
 the other girls voluble in their anxiety to forestall 
 an awkward situation. Jack alone talked on accord- 
 ing to his wonted steady fashion. Then, as he rose 
 from the table, he turned to his mother. 
 
 " I 'm so sorry I can't go out with you, this morn- 
 ing," he said regretfully ; " but Norman told me, 
 yesterday, that Savarin was down on his luck, ill or 
 something. He was the French fellow who used to 
 alternate the run with me, the best little chap that 
 ever lived, and always doing me a good turn. I think 
 I '11 look him up, this morning. He 's down at the 
 Jeffrey Hale, and, from what Norman told me, rather 
 forlorn." And, totally unaware that he had cast a 
 stone into the pool on which the four girls had been 
 busy pouring oil, he nodded his farewells and went 
 striding away out of the house. 
 
 Jack gone, Janet shut up in the library with 
 Gladys Horth, and Paul in the dumps, the morning 
 dragged perceptibly. The drag was by no means 
 lessened by Jack's telephoning up at noon that he
 
 224 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 had been detained by business, and would not be 
 home to luncheon. It was late afternoon, when he 
 did appear, so late that Janet was just wondering 
 whether she might as well not ring for Elsie to take 
 away the tray. Moreover, when he came, he was 
 too much absorbed in other things to care for tea. 
 
 " Give an account of yourself, you truant," Amy 
 Browne demanded gayly, as he crossed the threshold, 
 for, during the past three winters in New York, she 
 and Jack had grown to be excellent friends. 
 
 His nod and smile were at Amy; but his words 
 were for Janet. 
 
 " I 'm sorry to be so beastly late," he said con- 
 tritely. " I had no idea how the time was going. 
 Don't keep the tray for me. I was late about my 
 lunch. Besides, I 've been too busy to care much 
 about tea." 
 
 Deliberately Janet filled his cup, dropping in the 
 proper number of lumps with the unquestioning pre- 
 cision on which she prided herself so much. Then 
 she offered him the cup. 
 
 " You found your friend ? " she asked, and her 
 interest was plainly perfunctory, as of one who 
 washed her hands completely of any share in the 
 answer. 
 
 Jack stirred his tea. 
 
 " Yes, poor little chap ! " he said slowly. " It 's 
 worse than I supposed. He is down with enteric. 
 They say the city 's full of it." 
 
 " Really ? I had n't heard." Again Janet spoke
 
 JANET AT ODDS 225 
 
 with courteous remoteness, just as she might have 
 spoken to Tolstoi, or Count Okuma, or to Mary 
 Browne's fourth cousin once removed. 
 
 " It 's mainly in one quarter ; they 're tracing it 
 to an old well they tapped, the day the main burst, 
 two weeks ago. So they told me at the hospital, that 
 is. Anyway, it 's caught poor Savarin." Then he 
 turned to Sidney. " You may remember him, a little 
 brown-haired chap in glasses. He took you up, that 
 first summer you were here. I know, for he remem- 
 bered Bungay." 
 
 Sidney shook her head; but her denial was far 
 more personal and full of interest than Janet's 
 questions. 
 
 "Is he very ill?" 
 
 " No ; not so very. He 's a good deal uncomfort- 
 able, and more worried. I can't say I wonder, though. 
 Since I 've seen him, the fellow 's married ; he has 
 a wife and baby, somewhere in the Townships. 
 There 's nobody else to look out for them, and the 
 people at the hospital tell me he is in for a long 
 pull." And Jack fell silent, fell, too, to stirring his 
 untasted, cooling tea. 
 
 Sidney watched him intently for a minute or two. 
 Watching, she was quite well aware that Jack had 
 something on his mind; that his story was by no 
 means all told ; moreover, that the final chapter, yet 
 untold, was bound to be the most important one of 
 all. Scenting a possible crisis, her mind leaped this 
 way and that to discover the direction whence it was 
 
 15
 
 226 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 to come. Then she gave it up, unable to fathom the 
 working of Jack's mind. She gave it up ; but she 
 prayed secretly that Jack, with masculine obtuseness, 
 might not have blundered upon any plan fated to 
 antagonize Janet still more. And, meanwhile, Janet 
 sat and smiled inscrutably at the tea-pot. 
 
 At last Jack lifted his eyes, such honest, steady 
 eyes, so true and kindly, and swept them around the 
 little group. He saw Janet's inscrutable smile, his 
 mother's adoring gaze, the friendly faces of the 
 Amys and Irene; then he looked back to Sidney. 
 She always understood. To her, accordingly, he ad- 
 dressed the final chapter of his story. 
 
 " You see," he blurted out, unaccountably embar- 
 rassed at finding himself the centre of so much at- 
 tention, especially when he had a tale of such sort 
 to tell ; " it really is hard on the chap. He has 
 nothing at all but his salary, and that 's mighty little, 
 as we know. Eh, mother? And the nurse tells me 
 he 's down for at least six weeks ; that is, until he 's 
 fit to run again. All that time, you see, he 's got 
 to lie out of his salary, even if he keeps his place." 
 
 Amy Pope sat bending forward, her hands clasped 
 loosely around her knees, her eyes on Jack's face. 
 
 " I see," she assented, as he paused. " You mean 
 he 's ill and will have to hire a substitute ; the sub- 
 stitute will have to have his salary; and, in the 
 meantime, his wife and baby will have nothing at 
 all to live upon." 
 
 " Exactly." Jack's eyes left Sidney's face and
 
 JANET AT ODDS 227 
 
 went to rest on Amy. It was not the first time, by 
 any means, that he had been roused to honest admira- 
 tion for this keen-witted, outspoken girl. Now, all 
 at once, he determined to throw his plan into her 
 hands and see if she would rise to its defence. " Ex- 
 actly," he repeated ; " and so, to help him on what 
 I can, I 'm going to take his run for him, the next 
 week or so, without salary, of course. It 's not much ; 
 but " 
 
 With a bounce, Amy Pope slid forward to the 
 extreme edge of her chair, where she sat erect. 
 
 " Jack ! You dear, magnificent old trump ! " she 
 burst out breathlessly. " If that is n't just exactly 
 like you ! " 
 
 Before Jack could make reply, Janet's voice had 
 cut across the silence, low, but with a hard, rasping 
 little note vibrating in it. 
 
 " Have you consulted Mr. Argyle about this 
 this plan of yours ? " she asked. 
 
 Amy Pope turned upon her sharply. 
 
 " What utter nonsense, Janet ! Why in the world 
 should he ? It 's his vacation." 
 
 But -already Jack was answering. 
 
 " I telephoned him, this noon. That was what kept 
 me out so long, waiting to get a clear wire." 
 
 " And ? " Janet asked crisply. 
 
 Jack's laugh was jovial, for, now that his story 
 .was out, the fun of the whole adventure came rush- 
 ing back to him. 
 
 " He told me to go ahead, and take his blessing,
 
 228 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 while I did it," he made contented answer. " I 
 knew my asking him was bound to be nothing but 
 a mere matter of form; he was sure to approve." 
 
 Once more Janet spoke crisply. 
 
 " I am glad Mr. Argyle is so broad-minded. How- 
 ever, there are others who may not share his views." 
 And, rising, she rang for Elsie sharply; then she 
 faced about without another word, and left the room. 
 
 Out of the silence which followed her going, Mrs. 
 Blanchard spoke. 
 
 " My son," she asked, with gentle gravity ; " are 
 you sure you 've done a wise thing ? " 
 
 Jack faced her, saw the trouble in her eyes, the 
 anxious pucker in her brow. Crossing the room to 
 seat himself on the arm of her chair, he flung his 
 arm across her shoulders. 
 
 " I know I have done the only thing, Mother," he 
 told her, with a quiet decision she could not dispute. 
 " It 'a not a case for wisdom ; it 's just simple human- 
 ity. The fellow used to be my friend, has done me 
 many and many a good turn, when we were working 
 side by side. Now he is knocked out; the worry 
 about the mere money end of things would only 
 make him worse. And here am I up here on the 
 spot, knowing his run from end to end, and not a 
 thing in the world to do! Really, I couldn't help 
 myself." 
 
 " Do you mean that he asked it of you ? " Mrs. 
 Blanchard inquired a little severely. 
 
 Apparently unmoved by his mother's disapproval,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 229 
 
 Jack laughed at the suggestion, and his laugh was 
 good to hear. 
 
 " Asked me ! The fellow nearly had a fit, when 
 I went back and told him I 'd clinched all the ar- 
 rangements, down to borrowing a misfit uniform." 
 
 Curiously enough, the mention of the uniform 
 was the final straw in the old lady's burden. 
 
 " Jack ! " she lamented. " You don't mean you 
 will put on a uniform again ? " 
 
 " Of course. Why not ? " And Jack's arm 
 dropped, while he stared at her in complete surprise, 
 for now and then his nature showed itself too large 
 to take the measure of his mother's petty whims. 
 
 As if in despair, she clasped her lace-frilled hands 
 in her black-silk lap, and shook her head. 
 
 " You really can't," she said plaintively. " I 
 think I could n't bear it, if you did." 
 
 " But why ? " he urged her, bending down to pat 
 her cheek. 
 
 " Because it it it is n't gentlemanly," she 
 faltered. And then she sought her handkerchief, 
 and, a little later, sought her room. 
 
 Jack saw her to the foot of the stairs; then he 
 returned to the waiting group, closed the door and 
 stood at bay. 
 
 " Next ? " he said, as lightly as he could ; but his 
 kind brown eyes were grave and troubled. 
 
 Sidney rose and crossed the floor to join him. 
 
 " You poor old boy ! But don't go and get your- 
 self worried," she besought him. " Things do look
 
 230 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 a little snarly, I confess; but come and sit down 
 and take it easy, while we try to straighten them 
 out." 
 
 For a moment more, they stood there, he in dis- 
 turbed anxiety, she tall, lithe and earnest, smiling 
 into his dejected eyes. Then Jack yielded to her 
 smile, threw back his shoulders and crossed the room 
 to take the unoccupied sofa corner at her side. 
 
 In the end, the two chief dissenting voices being 
 absent, the talk resolved itself into a discussion of 
 the grounds of their dissent. It was Jack himself 
 who opened the discussion. 
 
 " How could I know she 'd object ? " he queried 
 of the carpet, and the four girls, listening, knew by 
 instinct that his question referred, not to his mother, 
 but to Janet Leslie. 
 
 Amy Pope sought to turn the question to a joke. 
 
 " Janet always leads the opposition," she said 
 lightly. " She 's a born conservative." 
 
 But Irene, reading in Jack's eyes that he was 
 in no mood for joking, took another ground of 
 explanation. 
 
 " After all, you know, you men are such rash 
 beings that now and then you do put us hostesses 
 into hot water," she chid him. " No one knows 
 what plans Janet may have been making for this 
 next week. You probably have upset them all, and 
 that 's the reason your own pet scheme has called 
 down her wrath." 
 
 Irene spoke guardedly, yet with the hope that Jack
 
 JANET AT ODDS 231 
 
 might accept her explanation as the true one, and 
 the trouble yet blow over. Sidney, however, knew 
 both Jack and Janet far better than Irene did. 
 Knowing them both, she felt that the only safe course 
 lay in speaking out directly. Evasions would only 
 lead to further and more complex misunderstandings. 
 None the less, it would be hard to speak out and run 
 the risk of hurting Jack. Still, it must be done. She 
 turned to face him bravely. 
 
 " There is no especial use in beating about the 
 bush, Jack," she said quietly. " Whatever we may 
 say, we know it 's Janet's social nerves that are on 
 edge." 
 
 He nodded gravely. 
 
 " I know. In a way, my mother feels it, too." 
 
 " Yes. She showed she did. She belongs to an 
 older generation, when such things counted more. 
 As for Janet, she 's a Canadian, and " 
 
 " So am I," he interrupted. 
 
 " Yes ; but you 're a man, and don't stop to fuss 
 about such pernickety little trifles." It was Paul now 
 who was blazing away from his corner, quite regard- 
 less of the fact that, once on a time, he too had 
 fussed. 
 
 Slowly, regretfully Sidney shook her head. 
 
 " It 's not altogether pernickety, Paul. And be- 
 sides, it 's only fair to see Janet's side, especially 
 now that she is n't here to show it off, herself. Janet 
 is as fond of Jack as any of us are " 
 
 " Doubted ! " Amy Browne put in hastily, and
 
 232 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Jack forgot his trouble long enough to fling her an 
 answering smile. 
 
 " Yes, Janet is really loyal to Jack ; loyal, that 
 is, as she counts loyalty," Sidney corrected hastily, 
 in deference to the dissenting murmur that arose 
 around her. " Still, we must remember that she 's 
 been brought up inside some strict traditions. What 
 did you say, Paul ? " 
 
 " Time she kicked them over and climbed out," he 
 growled. Then, coming out of his corner, he faced 
 them, frowning and his fists in his side pockets. 
 " Oh, go to thunder, Tids ! You take too long. Now 
 look here, you fellows," he said swiftly ; " you listen 
 to man-talk. I agree with Tids; but she takes too 
 many words to say her piece. Janet is a snob, born 
 so, trained so. She 's not to blame ; but she 's a 
 beastly little snob, all same. I like Janet; as long 
 as I could, I fought for her. Now I '11 be hanged, 
 chivalry or no chivalry, if I '11 fight for any girl 
 that lies. As for Blanchard, he is victim of a plot 
 that circumstances have hatched up. Being the fel- 
 low he is, he could n't help taking the place of an 
 old friend who was knocked out. I 'd have despised 
 him, if he had. So far, we all agree. But the rock 
 Janet split on, the rock we every mother's son of 
 us are shying at now is this: as a rule, we don't 
 chum around with fellows that run on trains. Jack 
 is an exception, and there 's, enough of him, himself, 
 to make the exception count. As long as he 's Jack 
 Blanchard, we can't get on without him, whether he
 
 JANET AT ODDS 233 
 
 stokes, or grinds the handle of a brake." He paused 
 for breath. Then, blushing furiously, he swung 
 around to Jack. " I say, old man," he added ; " I 
 hope you won't think I 'm quite a brute. The thing 
 has been inside us, all along, inside you, too, and I 
 thought it was about time we had it out and done 
 with." 
 
 So downright had been Paul's manner, so kindly 
 and so free from any hint of apology that Jack's 
 steady eyes never wavered, and now they looked back 
 at him without a trace of hurt. Before Jack could 
 speak, however, Amy Pope had bounced to her feet 
 and seized Paul's hand. 
 
 " Good for you, Paul ! You 've said it out at 
 last. Moreover, for my part, I can say that, as long 
 as he stays Jack Blanchard and my friend, he 's 
 welcome to chop wood, or grind a hand organ." And, 
 turning, she held out her other hand to Jack. "Jack," 
 she said impulsively ; " I think you 're splendid, and 
 I 'm glad you 've done it." 
 
 And Jack, looking at his two champions, the sturdy, 
 honest boy, the enthusiastic young girl in her dainty 
 frills and furbelows, felt that the uncomfortable dis- 
 cussion had been well worth the while, if only for 
 the sake of proving that he possessed such friends. 
 And, curiously enough, it was those same two friends 
 who, weeks before, had plotted how, in quite another 
 sense, they might make the pampered hero aware 
 of their existence. Their foresight had been as short 
 as now was their memory.
 
 234 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " And yet," Irene said to Sidney, when they went 
 to their rooms to dress for dinner ; " I can't help 
 wishing he had n't had to do it. Of course, he 
 could n't well avoid it, being Jack. Still, it is bound 
 to make all the difference in the world, up here. Not 
 for us. I don't care if it does. But for him. People 
 here, who are only just getting to know him, won't 
 take the trouble to find out what sort of a man he 
 really is. They will just see his shiny buttons and 
 his cap, and stop there. In a way, too, it will make 
 it hard for Janet And yet," she broke off illog- 
 ically, as they halted outside of Sidney's door ; " I 
 can't help being rather glad he 's done it." 
 
 When Janet came down to dinner, her cheeks were 
 blazing with excitement. As if in justification of 
 her own strictures, to emphasize her right to act as 
 social censor, she had dressed herself elaborately, and 
 piled her hair in intricate coils on top of her head. 
 She looked older than usual, and very brilliant, and 
 her poise was perfect, as she quietly assumed direc- 
 tion of the talk. The poise did not fail her, even 
 on the one occasion when she led the talk away frofn 
 the impersonalities to which she had been holding it. 
 
 " By the way, Jack," she asked, with apparent 
 carelessness, as she served the pudding ; " I never 
 thought to ask you before. Did you have a pleasant 
 call on Mrs. Bertie ? " 
 
 " I did n't go," he answered quietly. 
 
 Janet lifted her brows. 
 
 " Not go ? How did that happen ? " she inquired,
 
 JANET A.T ODDS 235 
 
 and Mrs. Bertie herself might have been glad to 
 copy the little accent of tolerant surprise. 
 
 " I saw no need." 
 
 " She asked you." 
 
 " Yes. She asked me as reward of merit, because 
 I happened to save her from a spill exactly under 
 the nose of the Prince. Otherwise, she never would 
 have been aware of my existence. For myself, I 
 don't care to accept an invitation of that sort." 
 
 " Really ? " Janet laid down the spoon. " I 'm 
 very sorry. I like to have my guests know only the 
 nicest sort of people, especially in my own city." 
 
 Then it was that Paul cast back at Janet's feet 
 the allegiance which he had been holding for her. 
 
 " The only question is, which are the nicest," he 
 observed. Then, scarlet at the intentional rudeness 
 of his own voice and manner, he brusquely pushed 
 his chair back from the table. " Hang it all, Blan- 
 chard, come along and have a walk ! " he added 
 gruffly. " Excuse us, Janet." And, an instant later, 
 the street door banged behind him.
 
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
 
 " T ET the fellow try it for a while," Mr. Argyle 
 1 -J wrote to his wife at Massawippi. " It was 
 honourable of him to wait to get my permission; 
 and I confess that I rather liked his doing it. It 
 won't hurt him a bit in the eyes of any sensible 
 being; and, once for all, it will settle any question 
 of his getting spoiled and soft. Don't tell Rob and 
 Day yet. Best leave him to give them his reasons, 
 himself; but be sure you remember to tell me just 
 how they take it. Jack 's every inch a man ; this 
 new departure of his may be a shock to their feel- 
 ings, but it 's bound to be a fine lesson to them both. 
 It takes the best sort of a judge to forget the frame, 
 when he is looking at a picture." 
 
 And Mrs. Argyle, reading, held her peace, and 
 then burned the letter. She agreed with her husband 
 completely. It was best to wait and leave Jack to 
 tell the story for himself. 
 
 Janet came down to breakfast, the next morning, 
 robed in a brand-new mantle of superiority, un- 
 creased, untorn at any point. From her smile, an 
 outsider would never have imagined that the house 
 held cause for friction; her level voice had just 
 the proper degree of courteous interest, as she met 
 the others and asked the usual polite questions about
 
 JANET AT ODDS 237 
 
 their health, that morning, their rest, the night be- 
 fore. In a swift aside, Amy Pope expressed to Paul 
 a malign wish to test Janet's calmness with the point 
 of a hat pin; however, beside the manifest and 
 pink-nosed depression of Mrs. Blanchard, even Janet's 
 superiority was a relief, and the others, as they seated 
 themselves at table, returned thanks that no fresh 
 scene was likely to occur immediately. 
 
 Contrary to her usual custom of late, Janet's talk 
 disregarded Paul completely, and focussed itself upon 
 Amy Browne whom she had been wont to disdain 
 as a vain and fluffy worldling, brainless and to be 
 tolerated only on account of Day. Like too many 
 girls who are launched into the thick of college life 
 before they have had a chance to absorb its best 
 traditions, Janet was a bit of a Pharisee just then. 
 Apart from her Quebec friends who, by reason of 
 their nationality, were exempt from criticism, Janet 
 was inclining to sort out minds according to their 
 training in dead languages or calculus. Amy 
 Browne's knowledge of the world, her year or two 
 in a Dresden school, her fluent mastery of Spanish 
 and Italian counted for little in the eyes of Janet. 
 She ranked these things as mental frills, and put 
 them side by side with the Paris frocks, as needless 
 and unproductive luxuries. The last lesson that 
 Janet Leslie would ever learn was the one which 
 concerns the duty of graciousness of living, a duty 
 which can be fulfilled in any home, however 
 simple.
 
 238 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Now, though, above the coffee cups, she turned to 
 Amy with effusion. 
 
 " By the way," she said ; " Gladys telephoned to 
 me, late last night, about this afternoon. She wants 
 all of us girls to come down there, directly after 
 luncheon. She has some plan on foot; but I don't 
 know what it is. Anyway, if she plans it, it is sure 
 to be worth doing, so I accepted promptly for us all." 
 
 Amy Pope looked up from her plate. 
 
 " I 'm sorry, Janet ; that is, if it includes me, for 
 I can't go." 
 
 " Why not ? There 's nothing else on hand ; is 
 there ? " 
 
 " Paul and I are going across to see Jack off." 
 
 " Jack ? " Janet echoed, in polite surprise ; but she 
 did not turn her glance in that direction. 
 
 " Yes. He begins his work, to-day," Amy an- 
 swered for him. 
 
 " Really ? I am sorry." Janet's sorrow expressed 
 itself in unruffled calm. " We shall miss you, Jack. 
 Still, I suppose we shall see you back again, before 
 the party breaks up entirely." 
 
 " He will be here, you know, over two nights, each 
 week," Irene reminded her. 
 
 The pause grew long. Everybody else was wait- 
 ing for Janet to speak ; but she merely consumed her 
 breakfast with an air of complete detachment. At 
 last, just as the nerves of the other girls were ready 
 to give way, Jack broke the silence. 
 
 " All in all," he said, with a quietness which failed
 
 JANET AT ODDS 239 
 
 to match the hurt look in his eyes ; " I think it may 
 be better for me to take a room at the Saint Louis. 
 My hours will be irregular, the next week or so ; and 
 there 's no especial sense in my stirring up all your 
 plans. This other way will be better." 
 
 Janet glanced up from her plate. She spoke 
 carelessly. 
 
 " I 'm sorry," she repeated. " We shall miss yo . 
 of course. Still, as you say, it really may be better 
 for you not to be tied down to our regular hours for 
 things." Then airily she dismissed the subject. 
 " Amy, can't you really go to Gladys ? I am afraid 
 she won't take it nicely, if you don't." 
 
 Amy faced her, hostility written on every line of 
 her face. 
 
 " Then she can take it badly. Not all the Gladyses 
 in creation can keep me from going across with Jack. 
 Paul and I have been counting on it, all night long." 
 
 They did go across with Jack. When he came 
 downstairs in his uniform and with his suitcase in 
 his hand, he found them waiting in the hall, to all 
 seeming as jolly and as irresponsible as if the three 
 of them had been starting for a picnic. Moreover, 
 they allowed no break to come in their mood, no 
 break in the conversation, while they went down 
 through the city streets, crossed the ferry and waited 
 beside the train where Jack, after his old fashion, 
 took his stand at attention beside the sleeper steps. 
 And Jack, heavy-hearted by reason of his parting 
 from his mother whose disapproval had been fretful
 
 240 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 and aggrieved, by reason, too, of Janet's attitude which 
 had hurt him far more than he would have felt it 
 manly to confess, even to himself, Jack was well 
 aware that their presence tided over for him what 
 otherwise would have been a dreary half-hour. Once 
 his work absorbed him, regrets would cease, although 
 even now the regrets were not at all for the coming 
 work, but for the antagonism he had left behind him. 
 This little time of waiting, though, would have been 
 a forlorn one, had it not been for these two loyal 
 friends who were standing by him, to fill up all the 
 gaps left by his old familiar routine. Passengers 
 were few, that day. What few there were, however, 
 lingered for a moment on the platform, while they 
 wondered what could be the possible connection be- 
 tween the stalwart young conductor and the well- 
 groomed, well-bred boy and girl, so obviously of the 
 world's elect. Asked, however, the boy and girl 
 would not have found it hard to tell them. 
 
 The train conductor gave the signal, the porter 
 took away the step, and the train slid up the grade, 
 carrying Jack with it. He lingered on the platform 
 to look back at them, smiling slightly, and a world 
 of gratitude shining in his steady, friendly eyes. 
 
 " But what I want to know," Paul said slowly, as, 
 at Amy's side, he turned away ; " what I want to 
 know is this : where 's Tids ? " 
 
 " I do know." Amy spoke with deliberation. 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "At Gladys Horth's."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 241 
 
 " Yes, I know that," Paul said impatiently. " But 
 why on earth is n't she here ? I thought better of 
 Tids than all that." 
 
 " Keep on thinking better of her, then," Amy bade 
 him fearlessly. " She deserves every bit of it and 
 more. I happen to know that she was coming with 
 us, only Jack begged her not to, this very morning." 
 
 " Hm ! " Paul's grunt was expressive. " Why 
 not?" 
 
 "I heard him saying to her that it would only 
 just make matters worse all round. Then I removed 
 myself promptly. From the way he was looking at 
 her, I thought I'd best leave them all alone." 
 
 Paul shook his head in supreme disdain. 
 
 " Tids is n't that sort. Neither is he," he said, in 
 two crisp sentences. 
 
 " Perhaps not. Still, I did n't stop to see." 
 
 Paul went off on a fresh tack. 
 
 " Why do you suppose he did n't go for us about 
 it, too ? " 
 
 The thoughtfulness left Amy's face, and her laugh 
 was saucy. 
 
 " Because he probably had the sense to know it 
 would n't do the slightest bit of good. Have n't you 
 learned by this time, Paul, that there are seasons 
 when it is a distinct advantage to be considered 
 unreasonable ? " 
 
 Whatever Paul had learned from his experience, 
 Sidney, that noon, had discovered to her full dis- 
 satisfaction that it was no advantage to be considered 
 
 16
 
 242 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 open to reason. Jack had reasoned with her at great 
 length, that morning. Sidney had rebelled, then 
 yielded to his logic. Indeed, she would have yielded, 
 just then, to almost any request Jack made, so piti- 
 ful was she for the hurt look in his eyes, his brave 
 attempt to act as if nothing were amiss. Neverthe- 
 less, it had been a hard experience for the girl, this 
 going off with Janet and abandoning her loyal friend 
 just at the time when he seemed to need her most. 
 However, Jack would consent to no other course. 
 
 " Sidney," he had said to her gravely, as he met 
 her on the stairs, soon after breakfast ; " I have a 
 favour to ask of you." 
 
 She tried to break his gravity. 
 
 " What is it ? " she inquired. " I know, from the 
 look of you, it is something that 's sure to go against 
 the grain." 
 
 " It is. I want you to promise me you '11 go to 
 Gladys Horth's, this afternoon." 
 
 "I won't," she said flatly. Then she dropped 
 down upon the stairs, prepared to defend her position. 
 
 Deliberately he seated himself at her feet, then 
 turned to face her, while a little spark of pleasure 
 came into his heavy eyes, belying the persuasiveness 
 of his smile. 
 
 " I wish you would," he urged. " There 's every 
 reason for it ; but I 'm asking it just as a personal 
 favour to myself." 
 
 Sidney rested her elbows on her knees; then she 
 put her chin on her tight-shut fists.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 243 
 
 " Jack, it 's not of the slightest use to wheedle me 
 like that," she told him quietly. " I would do almost 
 anything else for you; but not that. It would be 
 like siding with Janet, and I don't. I argued for 
 her, last night, all I could, because there wasn't 
 another person there to say a single word for her; 
 but the fact is, I am mad, mad all down my spine. 
 Angry does n't half express it. Jack," she unclinched 
 her right fist for an instant, while she touched his 
 hand, lying along the stair above him. Then she 
 resumed her old position ; " the more I think about 
 it, I think you 're very splendid in this thing." 
 
 " I 'm glad, Sidney," he said simply. " I could n't 
 do much else, though." 
 
 " Perhaps. Perhaps not. Anyway, I intend to 
 go to see you off and publicly bestow my bless- 
 ing on you," she declared, with a swift suppression 
 of her momentary emotion. " It 's the least thing 
 I can do, to show just where I stand in this 
 matter." 
 
 Jack put his foot on the stair where he was sitting 
 sidewise, clasped his hands about his bent knee, and 
 fell to considering the opposite wall. Sidney, above, 
 considered him intently. The years of prosperity 
 had trained him in a certain sort of social ease ; but, 
 after all, he was very much the same old Jack who, 
 years before, had looked out for herself and Bungay, 
 and carried Rob safely through one bitter day and 
 night of storm. Moreover, too, Sidney felt sure 
 that, whatever came, he would always remain the
 
 244 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 same old Jack, steady, reliable and loyal to the very 
 death. 
 
 " Confound it all, Sidney ! " Jack broke out at 
 length. " I can't argue ; I 'm no lawyer. But see 
 here. Anybody that knows the two of us, knows, I 
 hope," his glance sought hers for a moment, and then 
 fell away ; " that, in a thing like this, we are bound 
 to stick together. We always have seen things more 
 or less alike. People who really know us, know that. 
 The others don't count, so there 's no especial use 
 in trotting out the fact for dress parade. I had no 
 notion that I was going to bring this hornet's nest 
 around my ears; I thought Janet had better sense, 
 and I supposed she stood my friend. However," 
 again his eyes sought hers, and, this time, they held 
 a gleam of fun ; " I rather think I should have gone 
 ahead with it, just the same." 
 
 She caught swiftly at the sign that his mood was 
 lightening. 
 
 " You always were obstinate," she reminded him. 
 
 "Perhaps. Perhaps we get it in the army; per- 
 haps it is in the Blanchard blood," he told her whim- 
 sically. Then once again he grew grave. " Sidney, 
 I 'm older than the rest of you, old enough to hate 
 fusses of any sort. I have n't had so very many 
 in my life. I am sorry to have been the reason for 
 this one. We came up here to be together as chums ; 
 it would be a bad, bad thing for the party to break 
 up in a. row. It might even last for always, and it 's 
 a pity to run the risk of getting to be bad friends."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 245 
 
 " I know that, Jack." Sidney's voice, filling the 
 pause he left, was now as grave as his own. " Still, 
 there are some things that are enough to break any 
 friendship." 
 
 " Not this," he told her quickly. " Some day, we 
 all shall be laughing at the whole affair. Only 
 it will be a good deal better to laugh together than 
 apart. That 's the reason I am begging you to do 
 all you can to hold things together here; at least, 
 until the Argyles come back." 
 
 " Why me ? " she asked him quietly. 
 
 " Because," he rose and stood facing her, looking 
 down at her with level, kindly eyes which were full 
 of friendship for her, of trust in her friendship for 
 him ; " because there is n't anybody else who can see 
 all sides of the question, and knows so well how to 
 keep the whole situation from going to everlasting 
 smash. Will you do it ? " 
 
 "But '" 
 
 " For my sake," he urged her. 
 
 And then Sidney gave in and yielded to his will. 
 She did not go to see him off from Levis. She did 
 go to Gladys Horth. 
 
 In the days that followed, Sidney had all she could 
 do to hold the little party from entire disruption. 
 Without the support of Jack's steady, sturdy per- 
 sonality, Rob's fun, and Day's gay tact, it seemed 
 again and again that the task would be beyond her 
 strength. The cause of war removed with Jack's 
 departure, there was no more open outbreak; but
 
 246 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the relations were strained wellnigh to the point of 
 breaking. Irene and Amy Browne, at Sidney's ex- 
 pressed request, maintained an armed neutrality. 
 Amy Pope's hostility, however, was quite unsuppress- 
 ible, while Paul announced, a dozen times a day, that 
 he would start for home, next noon. Janet, mean- 
 while, was apparently unconscious of any sense of 
 strain. She went her accustomed way among the 
 girls, with Gladys Horth. The only alteration in her 
 manner lay in her unbroken attitude of superiority, 
 and in an increased deference towards Mrs. Blan- 
 chard, whether to show sympathy in their common 
 disappointment in Jack's social evolution, or to atone 
 for her recent bitterness towards Jack, it was not 
 altogether easy to determine. 
 
 And yet, unchanged as Janet seemed to any casual 
 observer, Irene Jessup, looking deeper and more 
 closely, thought she could make out a difference in 
 the girl's appearance and manner. She was more 
 nervous and excitable than she had been, earlier in 
 the summer, less reticent in small details, more 
 given to breaking pauses in the talk with careless, 
 eager chatter. Her face was more animated now, 
 more brilliant; but her eyes, instead of lighting 
 now and then, glittered like winter stars, and be- 
 neath them, morning after morning, there lay 
 dark lines of shadow. For three or four days, 
 Irene watched Janet and held her peace. On the 
 fifth afternoon, tea over, she went in search of 
 Sidney.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 247 
 
 " Sidney," she said, without preface ; " I 'm wor- 
 ried over Janet." 
 
 Sidney shook out her dinner frock, tossed it on the 
 bed, then unbuttoned her blouse. 
 
 " So am I," she agreed tranquilly. 
 
 "But I don't mean her temper; I mean her 
 health," Irene persisted. 
 
 Sidney laughed. 
 
 " I don't see signs of dissolution," she replied a 
 little callously. 
 
 Irene crossed the room, put her two brown hands 
 on Sidney's bare shoulders and looked straight into 
 her eyes. 
 
 " Don't let your loyalty to Jack make you too 
 bitter against Janet, Sidney," she urged her friend. 
 " He would n't like to have it ; it 's not like you to 
 be so hard. I 've been watching Janet edgewise 
 lately. The child is n't at all well, nor like herself." 
 
 Sidney bent her head to rub her cheek on Irene's 
 arm, token that the rebuke, deserved, had been taken 
 in all good part. Then, 
 
 " Conscience, most likely," she made laconic an- 
 swer. 
 
 " It probably helps on the situation. Still, I im- 
 agine the cause is the other way about. Now see 
 here, Sidney: I stayed outside the pageants and 
 looked on. They were magnificent to watch; but 
 they must have been a fearful nervous strain to 
 go through. Even before he went away, Wade was 
 predicting they 'd be the cause of more than one
 
 248 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 family jar. Everybody was tired out and a little 
 cornerwise as to his temper. You none of you 
 nor I escaped the general epidemic. And, as for 
 Janet, remember that she took it all on top of the 
 care of this great house, of the extra work she had 
 when Mary Browne was ill " 
 
 " We all helped," Sidney reminded her. 
 
 "After a fashion, yes. Still, in the end, it all 
 came back on her. And then there was Lady 
 .Wadhams." 
 
 " And the poodle," Sidney added, and both girls 
 laughed. " Well ? " Sidney asked, after a pause. 
 
 " This," Irene answered ; " that Janet was off her 
 nerve and cross; that she knows she lost her temper 
 and acted like a dunce, and now it only makes 
 her worse. There 's a perverse little streak in Janet 
 Leslie that makes it almost impossible for her to 
 admit it, when she 's in the wrong." 
 
 Sidney considered the matter for a time. 
 
 " You think ? " she inquired slowly then. 
 
 " That, in her heart of hearts, Janet would give 
 anything in the world to be friends again with 
 Jack." 
 
 " She can, if she wants to. Why does n't she write 
 him a note and tell him so?" 
 
 Irene shook her head. 
 
 " That is n't Janet," she said despairingly. " Once 
 she makes her bed, she '11 lie in it, wrinkles and all, 
 till it breaks down under her and lets her tumble 
 out on the floor."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 249 
 
 " Then what 's to be done about it all ? " Sidney 
 asked impatiently. 
 
 And Irene answered, 
 
 " Wait till it does break down ; that 's all." 
 
 Meanwhile, in the library downstairs, Janet still 
 lingered by the tray, sorting over the spoons and 
 casting furtive glances, the while, at the boy loung- 
 ing in the farther window-seat. 
 
 " Just one more cup, Paul ? " she urged him. 
 
 " Thanks, no," he answered a little curtly. 
 
 " What 's the matter with you ? " she asked him, 
 with forced gayety. " You seem dejected." 
 
 His reply was blunt. 
 
 "Worse than that, I'm bored." 
 
 Her own depression was too great to allow her to 
 resent the slander to her hospitality. 
 
 " I am sorry," she said slowly. " Can I do any- 
 thing to prevent it, Paul ? " 
 
 Again his bluntness downed his manners. 
 
 " Send for Blanchard to come back, and beg his 
 pardon," he said shortly. " That is about the only 
 thing that will set things right, I fancy." 
 
 Janet paled, started to speak. Then her colour 
 came, and she raised her head proudly. 
 
 " Paul ! " Amy Pope's gay voice from the thresh- 
 old came like a cry of rescue to the shipwrecked 
 mariner, swimming beyond his depth in an angry 
 sea. " What in the world have you been doing now ? 
 Here 's a minion of the law in the hall, with a letter 
 addressed to you. Do come, quick ! I foresee events."
 
 250 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 With the shortest possible nod to Janet, still seated 
 by the tray, Paul crossed the floor and vanished in 
 the direction of the hall. He found there, obviously 
 awaiting him, a fat little French policeman who 
 held in his hand a letter with Paul's name on the 
 outside. 
 
 Glancing askance at Amy, Paul nodded to the 
 man and took the letter, square, thin, and bearing 
 0. H. M. 8. along its upper margin. He broke the 
 seal, read the few words it contained, and then burst 
 into a roar of laughter that wellnigh shook the pic- 
 tures from the walls. 
 
 " Here, catch ! " He tossed the note to Amy. 
 " This is yours, as much as it is for me." 
 
 Amy caught the note and glanced at it. Her 
 laugh echoed Paul's own, as she read the brief 
 missive, 
 
 " P. ADDISON, 
 
 " SIR, - 
 
 " The infant child that you aforetime stole, it now is at 
 your disposal, so long as you still so desire. 
 
 " JEAN TREMBLAY : Capt. of Police."
 
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
 
 I THINK perhaps," Paul said guardedly to Amy 
 Pope, next morning ; " that we 'd best stop at 
 the Saint Louis to annex Blanchard, and take him 
 along with us as interpreter." 
 
 Amy nodded. 
 
 " If he '11 go. He may be tired, or have some- 
 thing else to do." 
 
 " He '11 go, all right. He 's always pining for 
 chances to be useful. Besides, he has a sneaking 
 fondness for our society, in spite of himself." Paul 
 chuckled. " What 's more, we '11 trot him round past 
 the Horths', parade him under Gladys' windows." 
 
 " What 's the use ? He won't have on his uniform." 
 
 " No matter. He 's it, just the same. How long 
 before you can be ready for a start ? " 
 
 Nothing could have been more eloquent, as a com- 
 ment upon the disruption of the Leslie household, 
 than the fact that Paul and Amy had not seen fit 
 to acquaint the others with the subject of Paul's letter 
 of the night before. Paul had dismissed the man 
 with a nod, a curt " All right. I '11 see him in the 
 morning," and the man had gone his way before 
 the others had even been aware of his arrival. 
 Then, - 
 
 " I say, this is mighty strange," Paul had observed 
 to Amv.
 
 252 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Rather. What do you suppose it means ? " 
 
 " Blest if I know ! Don't you ? " 
 
 " How should I ? " 
 
 Paul chuckled. 
 
 " You were in it, too." 
 
 " But how did they get your name ? " 
 
 Paul's chuckle grew. 
 
 " On the police court records, of course." 
 
 Amy recoiled from the idea. 
 
 " Paul ! Not really ? That would be terrible." 
 
 " Most likely yours is there with it," Paul reminded 
 her unkindly. 
 
 " You 're not in earnest ? " she protested. 
 
 " Sure ! That 's what comes of being took for 
 petty larceny." But, by this time, his laugh betrayed 
 him, and Amy's face resumed its normal look of 
 supreme content. 
 
 " But, Paul ! " She had started to go upstairs ; 
 but she paused, as a new thought struck her. " Do 
 you suppose it is the same baby? It may be just 
 a plot to work off a child on us. I never could be 
 sure it was the same." 
 
 " I could, though," Paul asserted confidently ; " I 'd 
 know him by his barking, every time. Still, what 's 
 the difference? You don't propose to adopt him; 
 do you ? " 
 
 " No ! " Amy made hasty answer. " Never ! 
 But " 
 
 Once more she turned away to mount the stairs. 
 Once more she halted.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 253 
 
 " Shall we tell the others, Paul ? " 
 
 " Not till we have something to tell. Like Blan- 
 chard, I 'm getting to fight shy of discussions. Later 
 on, we can do as we like. Now, though, we 'd best 
 hold our peaces till we discover what comes of 
 it all." 
 
 " What could come ? " Amy questioned. 
 
 And Paul answered in a hollow tone, 
 
 " The baby." 
 
 Then he went his way, giving opportunity for no 
 more plotting or discussion until, dinner done, he 
 and Amy departed for the terrace. 
 
 Next morning, directly after breakfast, they left 
 the house once more. They vouchsafed no explana- 
 tion of their coming absence; but Sidney straight- 
 way connected their going with the thought of Jack, 
 and yearned acutely to be with them. She was not 
 jealous in the least of Amy's place with either boy. 
 Down in her heart of hearts, she knew that the care- 
 less, conscienceless, warm-hearted Amy was no match 
 for herself in the estimation of either one ; yet that, 
 in the present crisis, her happy-go-lucky hilarity ren- 
 dered her a good comrade for both the boys. Still, 
 it would have been very good to have been included 
 in their quartette, wherever it was going. If Rob 
 had only been there, he would have taken her out, 
 as Paul was doing Amy, to meet Jack upon neutral 
 ground. Without him it all was different. Sid- 
 ney's gray eyes clouded. Without Rob, things were 
 always different, anyway. And a letter from him,
 
 254 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 in that morning's mail, bad said that it might be a 
 full week more before be and Day returned. 
 
 By common consent of the four girls and Paul, 
 it had been agreed that their letters to the Argyles 
 should hold no mention of Jack's absence, none of 
 the season of storm that lay upon the house. At 
 that distance, neither Rob nor Day could do anything 
 to alleviate the situation. There was no need to spoil 
 their visit, all for nothing. Besides, it would be hard 
 to say anything at all without saying far too much. 
 Best wait till they returned, unless, as was very 
 likely, Jack wrote them all the tale, himself. And 
 so the days must drag along, each one less comfort- 
 able than the last had been, until Day and Rob were 
 back again, to put some end or other to the whole 
 ugly situation. For, as the hours crept slowly past 
 her, wearing her patience and her nerves to shreds, 
 Sidney almost ceased to care what the end would 
 be, so long as the Argyles, she and Jack could only 
 run away back to dear old American New York. 
 For the time being, Janet's shadow was hanging 
 over her so near and imminent as to blot out the 
 rest of Canada, its traditions and its point of view. 
 
 As Paul had foreseen, Jack flung himself into 
 their plan with characteristic energy, and, barely 
 waiting to snatch up a cap, he joined them in the 
 street where Amy, pacing to and fro, looked up to 
 hail his coming. 
 
 " All right ? " she asked him gayly. 
 
 " Right as can be."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 255 
 
 " Where are your shiny buttons ? " 
 
 " Upstairs. Do you expect me to wear them, when 
 I'm off duty?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " They make you look very grand and official, they 
 and the stiff cap. I can almost imagine you 're in 
 your old uniform again." 
 
 " So I am." 
 
 " No ; I don't mean that. I imagine this one 
 is better groomed; but I was talking about the 
 khaki one. Still, I suppose this is more becoming 
 to your colour. What do you think we 're after 
 now ? " 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 " Paul told me. Have you any idea what it all 
 may mean ? " 
 
 " Not a bit. That 's what we 're after now, to find 
 out. It may be some dire plot to inflict belated 
 justice. That 's why I wanted you to be in uniform." 
 Her laugh was full of gay mockery. " What do you 
 advise us to do ? " 
 
 " Just what you are doing : go down to Saint 
 Sauveur and find out what they want. Will you 
 walk, or take the car ? " 
 
 Amy considered, her head on one side. 
 
 " When I was a little girl and had a plummy bun," 
 she said at length ; " I used to eat it in little teeny 
 bites, to make it last a long, long time. I think 
 inasmuch as we 've got you to go with us I 'd 
 rather walk."
 
 256 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 And notwithstanding the lazy mockery of her tone 
 Jack reddened with pleasure at her words. 
 
 Side by side, then, that sunny August morning, 
 the three friends tramped away together, around the 
 Ramparts, along Rue Richelieu, down the rambling 
 old Cote d' Abraham, bordered on either hand with 
 sharp-nosed houses and shabby shops, and then, turn- 
 ing northwest, on into Saint Sauveur. So elated 
 were they with the crispy morning air around them, 
 with the sharp lights and shadows of the streets and 
 of the distant hills, most of all with the pleasure 
 of once more setting out together in their old, familiar 
 fashion which already had come to seem a part of 
 a remote past : so intent were they on all these things 
 that they quite forgot the main purpose of their 
 errand, and they looked up in surprise when Jack 
 brought them to a halt outside a police station in 
 Saint Sauveur. 
 
 " Hanged if I did n't forget all about what we 
 were after ! " Paul said a little ruefully, as they pre- 
 pared to enter the official-looking door. Then, hat 
 in hand, he dodged aside. " Pardon me ; ladies 
 first," he said to Amy. 
 
 But Jack, albeit laughing, held her back. 
 
 " I think I 'd best go in ahead," he told her. 
 " Nobody knows what it is they may be after, and 
 you surely will need my French, once you do get 
 inside. No ; it 's bound to be all right, Amy." He 
 smiled in answer to her dubious glance. " Else, you 
 know, I never would have let you come down here
 
 JANET AT ODDS 257 
 
 with us." And, as so many others had done before 
 her, she cast aside her uneasiness, relying completely 
 on his eyes and smile. 
 
 Moreover, it was just as Jack had told them. They 
 assuredly did not know the purpose of the letter; 
 just as assuredly they did have sore need of his 
 French. Inside the station, the colloquy was long 
 and animated; yet not one word did Paul or Amy 
 understand, save now and then a vehement negative 
 from Jack. When at last there came a silence and 
 Jack turned to face them, pity, amusement, con- 
 sternation were written on his honest brow. 
 
 " Had it ever occurred to either of you," he asked ; 
 " to care about adopting a lusty baby boy of thirteen 
 months ? " 
 
 " What ! " Paul shot off the exclamation like a 
 bomb. 
 
 " Exactly," Jack made composed reply. " That 
 is what I told the officer on duty." 
 
 " But what cheek ! What blasted cheek ! What 
 does he think I 'd do with a baby, anyhow ? " 
 
 " I also asked him that. He assured me that he 
 did n't know ; but that, a few weeks ago, monsieur 
 appeared to covet the baby for his own." 
 
 Paul turned on Amy, after the fashion of man- 
 kind from Father Adam down. 
 
 " You did it," he reminded her. " 'T was you who 
 suggested making off with it, in the first place." 
 
 " I ? " The single syllable nearly cracked with 
 the amount of scorn compressed into it. Then Amy 
 
 17
 
 258 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 turned her back on Paul. " But, Jack, what makes 
 them so willing to give away the child ? " she asked. 
 
 " Apparently because there 's nothing else to do 
 with him." 
 
 " Where 's the grandfather ? " 
 
 " Dead, of typhoid." 
 
 Amy's face changed, in swift pity for the little 
 waif. 
 
 " Has n't he any other relations ? " 
 
 " Only an aunt-in-law who kept the house. And 
 it seems she also died of typhoid, a day or so ago." 
 
 " Dreadful ! What will become of the baby ? " 
 
 Jack shook his head. 
 
 " That is the question this man apparently expects 
 you to answer. I can't seem to get out of his head 
 the notion that you and Paul really did have some 
 sort of designs upon the infant. He keeps sticking 
 to it that now your time has come." 
 
 But, for once in her life, Amy Pope refused to 
 see the humour of a situation. Instead, 
 
 " Where is the baby now ? " she demanded. 
 
 " A neighbour took him for a day or two ; but " 
 
 She interrupted. 
 
 " Paul, lend me some money, please. I have only 
 sixty-three cents to my name." 
 
 " Millions for defence ! Still, he 's a presenta- 
 tion copy. There 's no especial sense in offering to 
 buy him." 
 
 " I 'm not going to buy the child," Amy protested. 
 " I just want to hunt up the neighbour and give it
 
 JANET AT ODDS 259 
 
 to it for it. It 's pitiful : first its mother, then its 
 grandfather, then its aunt." 
 
 " In-law," Paul supplemented, as he handed her 
 his purse. " There 's my little all, Amy. Take it 
 with my blessing; spend it freely, yet without ex- 
 travagance." Then his jolly face grew grave. " After 
 all, though, it is hard lines on the little chap. I 
 don't sec what is going to become of him." 
 
 " I do," Amy said promptly. " Where is the 
 neighbour, Jack ? Do you suppose we could find the 
 place and take a look at the baby, to make sure it 's 
 all right ? " 
 
 Jack laughed a little. 
 
 " I was about to say, when you cut in," he told 
 her ; " that, last night, the neighbour landed here, 
 baby and all, and told the officer on duty that she 
 could n't keep him, another minute." 
 
 " Why not, the horrid thing ? " Amy demanded. 
 
 Again Jack's eyes grew merry. 
 
 " Force of character," he answered. " The little 
 chap appeared not to fancy her, and was n't back- 
 ward about expressing his views." 
 
 " Most likely she spanked him," Amy made vindic- 
 tive retort. " Where is he now, Jack ? " 
 
 " They let him stop on here, until they heard from 
 you." 
 
 " Jack ! In a police office ! That baby ! Have 
 them get him, quick ! " 
 
 " Oh, I say ! " Paul objected. 
 
 " Quick ! " Amy repeated.
 
 260 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Once more Jack faced the officer. There was a 
 hasty, energetic colloquy in French; and then an 
 attendant left the room and vanished down the hall. 
 A little later, sounds were heard from afar, angry 
 sounds and strident withal, and increasing in volume 
 as they came nearer. Paul listened, lifted his head, 
 listened again intently. 
 
 " He 's it," he said. " I 'd know him by his bay. 
 I 'd swear to that larynx in a dozen." 
 
 A moment later, the attendant came back to the 
 office, bearing on his shoujder the shrieking child, 
 blue-satin coated no longer, but clad in dingy flannel, 
 its face thin and of a chalky white. As Paul's eyes 
 rested on the child, the laugh went out of their gray 
 depths and in its place there came a great, boyish 
 tenderness and pity. 
 
 " Poor little chap ! " he said slowly. " He 's 
 all gone to pieces, and I 'd hardly know him." 
 
 Something in the slow, deliberate accent caught the 
 attention of the shrieking baby. He gulped back an 
 unfinished roar and turned his head to look. Close 
 beside him was a face he liked, a stranger face, yet 
 friendly, with a look in its gray eyes he had encoun- 
 tered but too rarely in his baby life. He looked again, 
 gulped back the beginnings of another roar; and 
 then, before the group around him could guess at his 
 intention, he had stretched out to Paul his meagre, 
 grimy little fists. 
 
 " Well by Jove ! " As if in spite of him- 
 self, Paul's hands went out in answer. " I '11 be
 
 JANET AT ODDS 2G1 
 
 hanged, Amy, if the little chap does n't remember 
 me." 
 
 But Amy only nodded, too much absorbed in the 
 practical issues of the case to heed the purely sen- 
 timental. Leaving Paul to beam benevolently at the 
 smudgy fingers clasped about his thumb, she faced 
 back again to Jack. 
 
 " Eeally, what will become of the child ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Eeally, Amy, I don't know." 
 
 " Has n't he any people that belong to him ? Not 
 anywhere ? " 
 
 " They can't get on the track of any." 
 
 " And the neighbour would n't keep him ? " 
 
 " She said not." 
 
 " Awful ! Just a poor little human white ele- 
 phant ! Jack, do you suppose they '11 keep him here, 
 if we give them money to pay for things ? " 
 
 " Not likely. A police station is n't a day nursery." 
 
 " I say, look here, you two ! " Paul broke in, as 
 he sawed his thumb, clasping fingers and all, up and 
 down through the air. " Just see the way he hangs 
 on. A fellow can't help rather taking to the little 
 beggar." 
 
 " Where can he go, then ? " Amy asked desperately. 
 
 " I suppose there must be asylums, or something 
 of that sort," Jack was beginning vaguely; but Amy 
 interrupted him. 
 
 "Yes, and be a pink-calico child, with a number 
 and not an ounce of personality ! "
 
 262 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " But, if it 's the best we can do for the little 
 chap ? " Jack urged. 
 
 Into Amy Pope's eyes flashed the light of a new 
 idea, magnificent and daring, magnificent because it 
 was so daring. 
 
 " Jack," she said abruptly, as she straightened up 
 her shoulders and looked into his eyes with eyes 
 which were not so far below his own ; " I 'd like to 
 go at this thing delicately and by degrees; but un- 
 fortunately there is n't time. I 'm going to wait a 
 little bit, before we stick this child into an asylum. 
 Maybe we can find a better home for him, if we 
 have a few days to look around us. In the mean- 
 time, just for a few days, a very, very few, do you 
 suppose your mother " 
 
 Jack hesitated. Then, 
 
 "I well er yes, perhaps," he assented 
 vaguely. And then, a moment later, " But what 
 about Janet ? " he queried, with a smile which held 
 no hint of mirth. 
 
 Amy shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " ' Let the heathen rage,' " she answered. " I 'm 
 not afraid of Janet. Paul, if you can detach your- 
 self for a single instant, will you please run over to 
 the cab-stand on the corner, and get a carter ? " 
 
 Thus did Amy take the helm. 
 
 To the surprise of all the three, the baby mani- 
 fested a calm pleasure in the long drive to Upper 
 Town. Jack left them at the Saint Louis. Much 
 as he regretted the loss of seeing his mother's face
 
 JANET AT ODDS 263 
 
 at sight of her new charge, he felt it best, all things 
 considered, not to drive on with them to the Leslie 
 door. Besides, it was now high noon, and time that 
 he once more donned his uniform. Had he decided 
 otherwise, he not only would have looked on at a 
 meeting which held its own share of humour, but 
 he would have learned that Rob, in a letter received, 
 that morning, had announced a change of plan 
 whereby Day and he were to arrive in Quebec, two 
 days later. And Paul and Amy, too much absorbed 
 in the varied welcomes accorded to their charge to 
 think of other things, neglected until too late to tele- 
 phone down to the Saint Louis the exciting news. 
 
 It was a full week now since Jack had started upon 
 his self-sought task; and, in all that week, not one 
 word had come to him from Rob and Day. Jack 
 had watched eagerly the coming of the mails, sure 
 that these two best friends of his would write to 
 him as soon as they heard from their father of his 
 new plan. At the first, he had longed acutely for 
 their letters, sure that they would give him their 
 full sympathy. Then, as two days and then three 
 went past him and no message came, he was con- 
 scious of a little ache in what it was conventional 
 to call his heart. Did they also disapprove? It 
 would be hardest of all to stand out against their 
 opinion, after being so very sure that they would 
 take their stand upon his side. And worse than 
 their disapproval was their utter silence. Of course, 
 it would have been easy for him to write to them
 
 264 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 and tell them all the story ; but an unwonted shyness, 
 a self-distrust born of Janet's strictures, held him 
 back. Besides, it rarely was wise to set things down 
 in ink. Best wait, and talk it over with them, face to 
 face. Only the time of waiting seemed unduly long. 
 
 It was a raw and rainy dawn, two mornings later, 
 when Rob and Day boarded the north-bound train. 
 The porter showed them to their section, for the 
 conductor was having his allotted four-hour sleep, 
 and it was not until a good hour afterward that the 
 curtains of his section stirred. A little later still, 
 he made his appearance in the car where Rob and 
 Day sat facing him. Unconcernedly enough, he came 
 striding along the narrow passage past the smoking- 
 room, paused to ask a question of the porter, then 
 came striding on again. Just inside the doorway of 
 the main division of the car, he halted, his shoulders 
 thrown back, his chin lifted, his eyes and lips both 
 smiling a little, as his gaze wandered down the car 
 before him. It was an old, old trick of his, that 
 characteristic pose of kindly interest in the people 
 entrusted to his care, a pose so well remembered by 
 one at least among his morning's passengers. 
 
 And the passenger, seeing, remembering, sprang 
 to his feet alertly, dragging his companion with him. 
 
 " Day ! Day ! " he burst out excitedly. " Hanged 
 if it is n't Jack ! " 
 
 And, with Day close at his heels, he dashed down 
 the car, his hand stretched out in eager welcome.
 
 CHAPTER NINETEEN" 
 
 WITH Rob sitting opposite, and Day curled 
 up by his side, Jack told them all his story ; 
 all, that is, which he knew: told of his plan, of the 
 opposition which it had created, of Janet's acquies- 
 cence when he had proposed to leave the house. Bit 
 by bit, it all came out ; not willingly, but in response 
 to Rob's incisive questions. Bit by bit, as they lis- 
 tened, Rob's jovial face grew dark, and Day's clear 
 eyes grew overcast and sad. 
 
 " Poor old Jack ! " she interrupted once. " It 
 could n't have been much worse. And to think we 
 never knew ! " 
 
 He smiled at her for a moment, without speaking. 
 Her girlish sympathy touched him to the quick, 
 touched him the more in comparison with those long 
 days when he had vainly waited for a message from 
 her. 
 
 " You did n't know, Day ? " he asked her. 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Do you suppose wild horses would have kept us 
 down there, if we had ? " she demanded. " But 
 go on." 
 
 And Jack went on to the very end, while Rob asked 
 the questions and Day listened. Over the final chap- 
 ters of his story, his steady eyes drooped a little, and
 
 266 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 the others heard him out in utter silence. AVhen he 
 had finished, Day gave a long sigh. A moment later, 
 she moved a bit closer to his side, while her hand 
 stole across his arm. His breath held short, he 
 awaited her verdict. It was prompt in coming. 
 
 " From start to finish, you have done the only 
 thing possible, Jack," she told him. " But, to my 
 dying day, I shall regret I was n't here to fight on 
 your side." 
 
 " It 's not too late yet," Rob reminded her grimly. 
 
 But Jack interposed, and begged for peace. Too 
 bad to turn a skirmish into open war. Now he was 
 out of the way, Janet would calm down again and 
 be friends. He really was very comfortable at the 
 Saint Louis. Now Rob and Day were within reach 
 once more, nothing else counted very much, after all. 
 
 " But," he rose, as he spoke, for the train was 
 slowing up for Sherbrooke, rose and stood smiling 
 down at them in his old way ; "I do want you to 
 know one thing: Paul and Amy Pope have stuck to 
 me like a pair of burrs. A fellow could n't have more 
 plucky champions to fight for him. They were on 
 my side from the start, right or wrong; and they 
 were n't always too tactful in suppressing their opin- 
 ions, either." Then, for the porter was waiting, he 
 left them alone. 
 
 " Rob," Day spoke a little sadly ; " did you sup- 
 pose Janet had it in her ? " 
 
 And Rob's answer came as gravely, 
 
 "No, Day; I didn't."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 267 
 
 There was a pause. Day spoke again. 
 
 " Poor dear old Jack ! " she said. " This has taken 
 it out of him badly. He won't admit he is hurt; 
 but the snap is all gone out of him." 
 
 ISTone the less, she was smiling blithely at him, 
 next time he came down the car. 
 
 " What an adorable thing you are in your but- 
 tons, Jack ! " she told him- gayly. " You know I 
 never saw you so dressed up before. Do let your 
 porter do things, and you come back and stay with 
 us. I want to hear about Mr. Savarin, and all the 
 rest of it. Besides," heedless of the other passengers, 
 she laid her hand on his and smiled straight up into 
 his watching eyes ; " remember I 've been short a 
 brother, for almost two weeks. Now I 've found him 
 again, I want to make the most of his society." 
 
 Rob dodged the little splash of sentiment. 
 
 " How long do you stop over in Quebec, Jack ? " 
 
 " Till to-morrow afternoon." 
 
 " Jack ! " Day started up in consternation. " You 
 don't mean you 're going off again ? " 
 
 Rob laughed. 
 
 " I say, Day, did you think this was a special trip 
 made in our honour ? " he inquired. 
 
 " But now we have come back ? " she urged. 
 " Must you go, Jack ? " 
 
 " Every trip I make means just so much more 
 for Savarin," he told her. 
 
 Unexpectedly, Hob ranged himself upon Jack's 
 side.
 
 268 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Moreover, every trip you make shows you are 
 acting from a set purpose, not a whim," he added 
 gravely. " I don't know how long you 're in for, 
 Jack ; but, in your place, I think I 'd stick it out." 
 
 Day shook her head forlornly at her fingers, where 
 they lay shut over Jack's. 
 
 " So would I, I hope. I 'm not too sure. Still 
 I do believe this thing will make me prouder than 
 ever of you, Jack, even if I could n't well be fonder." 
 
 " I 'm glad," he answered. " I was a little wor- 
 ried, Day, to know just how you were going to 
 take it." 
 
 She faced him, rebuke in her eyes and on her 
 tongue. 
 
 " Jack ! How could you ? " 
 
 Again Rob interposed. 
 
 " Apropos of boots, when do you get in from your 
 next expedition ? " he asked. 
 
 " To-day 's Tuesday ? Friday noon, then." 
 
 " And are off again, next day ? That 's a fine pros- 
 pect for me." Rob sighed ostentatiously. " Day, I 
 want to go back to mama. In all your hen-party, 
 who '11 play with me, when Jack is gone ? " 
 
 " There '"a Paul." 
 
 " Paul ! He 's nothing but an infant." 
 
 But Jack looked up sharply. Then he shook his 
 head. 
 
 " Not a bit of it, Rob. On the contrary, he 's very 
 much a man." 
 
 And a man he showed himself, that night, every
 
 JANET AT ODDS 269 
 
 inch of him. He, with Amy Pope, Sidney and the 
 two Argyles, had joined Jack on the terrace. Then, 
 finding the crowd too thick, the band too strident to 
 allow much conversation, they had climbed far up 
 the glacis in search of a quiet spot. There, settled in 
 a close ring on the short, crisp grass, they alternated 
 between talking all at once, and allowing the pauses 
 to grow long, while they stared down on the panorama 
 of lights spread out beneath. By common consent, 
 they one and all avoided the subject of the recent 
 warfare, the participants because they were weary of 
 the ugly. theme and glad to turn to the fresher in- 
 terests of Rob and Day; the Argyles because they 
 supposed that, hours since, they had been put in 
 possession of all the facts. 
 
 Rob was the first to find out his mistake. He 
 found it out by way of Paul, that very night. It 
 was long after the echoes of the evening gun had 
 died away in the still distance that the group came 
 down the glacis; it was long, long after that that 
 the group in the Leslie drawing-room disbanded. 
 Paul followed the rest upstairs, exchanged a last 
 good-night or two, then lingered irresolutely in the 
 upper hall. Rob, limping across the floor of his room 
 to throw the casement wider open, stood for a mo- 
 ment, looking thoughtfully down into the gray old 
 street beneath. When he turned away, it was to see 
 Paul lingering outside his door. 
 
 " Come along in," he bade him. 
 
 " Are n't you sleepy ? "
 
 270 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Not a bit. Fact is, I miss Jack. We used to 
 talk till all hours." As he spoke, Rob moved a chair 
 forward, then dropped into another chair, clasped 
 his hands behind his head, straightened out his weak 
 knee and prepared for a comfortable gossip. 
 
 " Beastly shame about him ! " Paul strolled across 
 the floor and dropped down in the chair awaiting 
 him. " By Jove, Argyle, it 's good to have you back 
 again ! " he observed contentedly. 
 
 Rob laughed. 
 
 " On the principle that any old thing is better 
 than nothing ? " he inquired. 
 
 " Yes, when it 's masculine. I like girls with 
 intermissions ; but not too many all at once, nor yet 
 when they are on their nerves." 
 
 " It 's been a little murky now and then ? " 
 
 " Rather ! I never would have stayed it out, you 
 know, if it hadn't been for Tids, coupled with a 
 general desire to see fair play." 
 
 "You think the fault " 
 
 " Was Janet's," Paul said conclusively. " Of 
 course, Jack brought the matter to a direct issue. 
 Then, what made it whole lots worse, the girls all 
 turned hysterical and argued round and round the 
 subject, till Jack and I both were half dazed by the 
 delicate things they did n't say." 
 
 "Hm! Well. Then?" 
 
 Paul laughed shortly, while he rubbed his fingers 
 through and through his hair till it was all on end. 
 
 " Then I gritted my teeth and had it out in plain.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 271 
 
 Saxon: that we cared enough about the fellow him- 
 self not to mind it, if he were stoker, barring a 
 natural regret for his complexion. It was rather 
 like slugging your dearest friend in the face; but 
 it was best to have it over and done with. Now we 
 know where we all stand." 
 
 " Including Janet," Kob assented, with a chuckle. 
 
 " Not she." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Too unreliable," Paul answered briefly. 
 
 Rob sat up abruptly and unclasped his hands. 
 
 "Hang it, Paul! That's not fair," he made 
 remonstrance. 
 
 " It is, then. If lying does n't make a girl un- 
 reliable, then I don't know what does. And you 
 know, yourself, that Janet lied, to all intents and 
 purposes, to Gladys Horth." 
 
 " I don't know anything of the sort," Rob con- 
 tradicted him just a little sternly. " Please tell me 
 where Gladys Horth comes in." 
 
 Suddenly Paul turned scarlet and clapped his 
 hands across his mouth. 
 
 " Oh. thunderation ! " he exclaimed, through the 
 muffling barrier of his fingers. " Tids told me that 
 you were n't to know, and here I 've been and made 
 a mess of the whole thing ! " 
 
 " I think perhaps," Rob told him gravely ; " you 'd 
 best go on now and tell me what you mean. You 've 
 gone too far to make it quite fair to anybody to stop 
 just at this point."
 
 272 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Paul heaved a sigh, ostensibly of remorse, really 
 of relief. 
 
 " As you say," he answered meekly. " I suppose 
 I ought to be a pulp of penitence, after the break 
 I 've made ; but it really will be a comfort to talk 
 the whole mess over with another chap. Of course, 
 there was Jack; but he was a little bit too nearly 
 concerned to be the best sort of dumping ground for 
 one's reflections. If you really want to know the 
 whole blamed business, then here goes." And 
 straightway he launched into the story. 
 
 Before they separated, that night, Rob was in full 
 possession of all the facts. Before breakfast, next 
 morning, he had imparted them to Day. Breakfast 
 over, the brother and sister sought their hats and 
 gloves. Then they sought Gladys Horth. 
 
 They found her on the strip of lawn before her 
 house, and Day lost no time in coming to the point. 
 Instead of that, she waved aside Gladys' salutations 
 rather brusquely, and followed her hostess to the 
 house. 
 
 " No ; I 'd rather come inside, if you don't mind," 
 she answered the suggestion of Gladys that they sit 
 down on the lawn where they could enjoy the view. 
 " We can talk better there, without being afraid of 
 being interrupted." 
 
 % Accustomed as, by this time, she had become to 
 American directness, Gladys yet looked a little 
 startled. For once, Day Argyle was too much in 
 earnest to pay much attention to such small ques-
 
 " They found her on the strip of lawn before her house." 
 Page 272.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 273 
 
 tions as that of tact, and her manner was unduly 
 pugnacious. 
 
 " Certainly," Gladys assented, with becoming 
 meekness. Then she led the way inside the drawing- 
 room. 
 
 " I came," Day announced directly, as soon as they 
 were seated ; " to have a little talk with you about 
 Jack Blanchard." 
 
 " Mr. Blanchard ? " Gladys echoed, plainly mysti- 
 fied. In her mystification, she glanced at Rob. 
 
 Day intercepted the glance, and made her own 
 interpretation of it. 
 
 " My brother feels as I do," she said quickly. 
 " And, of course, what one of us knows, the other 
 is sure to. We came back here, yesterday, to find 
 there had been some grand misunderstanding about 
 Jack, and we thought we 'd better come to the point 
 at once. Before he was in my father's office, for 
 a few years he was conductor of a sleeping-car, a 
 splendidly efficient conductor, they all say. Rob knew 
 him then. Now he is my father's secretary. More 
 than that, though, he makes his home with us, and 
 is our Rob's and my best friend." 
 
 Concise and uncompromising as a declaration of 
 war, she threw the words at Gladys Horth. Gladys 
 received them unflinchingly. 
 
 " Well, what of it ? " she inquired. 
 
 " What of it ! " Day stared at her in stupefaction. 
 " Janet Leslie told our girls that you all you 
 Canadian girls would cut him, if you knew it." 
 
 18
 
 274 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Gladys shook her head. 
 
 " Oh, no," she said serenely. " He 's quite too 
 nice for that. We like him, all of us." Suddenly 
 her serenity broke into something as much like ani- 
 mation as Gladys Horth could show. " Was that the 
 reason Janet " She paused, seeking a word which 
 should be both polite and accurate. 
 
 " Fibbed ? " Day saw no need for mincing mat- 
 ters. " Yes, it was." 
 
 "Keally? How very funny!" And to Kob's 
 amusement and to Day's supreme disgust, Gladys 
 went off into a peal of laughter. When she could 
 speak again, " If that is n't Janet all over ! " she 
 observed. 
 
 This time, Day veered round to the support of the 
 absent Janet. 
 
 " Not as I have ever known her," she responded. 
 
 " Then you 've really never known her," Gladys 
 retorted flatly, yet with no hint of bitterness in her 
 tone. " I 've been friends with Janet, since we were 
 babies. Every now and then she does this kind of 
 thing. When she 's very tired, she seems to lose her 
 balance, and think things about people, distrust them 
 a little bit. It has made some frightful quarrels, 
 while they lasted; and yet," she added generously; 
 " when it is all over, there is n't a girl in the whole 
 world quicker to admit she 's wrong and say she 's 
 sorry than Janet Leslie." 
 
 "No," Day answered quickly. "No; there 
 isn't"
 
 JANET AT ODDS 275 
 
 " Besides that," Gladys spoke thoughtfully, her 
 eyes upon the carpet ; " I suppose it does change the 
 looks of things, the side from which you look at 
 them. If you and I had to to give up a good 
 share of our fun, and pinch and scrimp and grind 
 to get along, and, all the time, watch our old friends 
 having things and doing things and Really, I 
 fancy we 'd get to thinking things as Janet does." 
 
 Rob had sat silent heretofore, listening and study- 
 ing the two girls so totally unlike, thanking provi- 
 dence that Day was the one to be his sister. Now, 
 his blue eyes fixed on Gladys' face in manifest ap- 
 proval, he came to her support. 
 
 " Miss Horth, you 've hit the nail on the head. 
 We don't know much about it ; but, if we 've any 
 common sense, we must admit that Janet Leslie is 
 a plucky little chap, and deserves to have her sins 
 forgiven, for the sake of the way she 's trying to 
 make the best of a bad matter." 
 
 " And she does try, too," Gladys assented swiftly. 
 " She 's worked like a little slave, all summer long. 
 I know more than you do about that. When she 
 begged off from going out with you, it usually was 
 because she had to go into that hot kitchen or help 
 Elsie upstairs. It 's a huge house, and there were 
 a small army of you to look out for. As a natural 
 consequence, she was all tired out, and cross, and 
 discouraged. The summer has n't come out, anyway, 
 just as Janet hoped. She had been counting so much 
 on Paul, and, when he came, they did n't hit it off
 
 276 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 together at all. That fretted her, in the first place, 
 and, just as that was getting over the worst, Lady 
 Wadhams appeared and upset her again. Finally, 
 Mr. Blanchard ran against one of her pet prejudices 
 for the Leslies always did draw their lines a little 
 closer than the rest of us did. That was the reason 
 she took it all out on him so." 
 
 " And made you the cat's paw ? " Rob queried, 
 with a bluntness that was belied by the liking in his 
 eyes. 
 
 Gladys laughed lightly. 
 
 " Me ? I don't mind. I know Janet, and that 
 her growl is the most dangerous thing about her. 
 She never really bites." 
 
 Day shook her head. 
 
 " I am afraid she has, this time. What is more, 
 she has hurt." 
 
 Gladys' face changed instantly. 
 
 " You think Mr. Blanchard knew about it ? " 
 
 Day stiffened a little. 
 
 " He came up here to spend the summer with us 
 all. He is boarding at the Saint Louis now, when- 
 ever he is in town," she said incisively. 
 
 " But if he likes it better ? " Gladys urged. " Of 
 course, I thought it was a queer thing for him to 
 do ; but if he really felt it was more convenient ? " 
 
 Day's answer was uncompromising. 
 
 " I don't see how it could be much more conven- 
 ient. The houses are only two blocks apart ; and his 
 quarters were certainly quite as comfortable at Janet's
 
 JANET AT ODDS 277 
 
 as at the hotel. As far as his liking it better is con- 
 cerned, though, he naturally would prefer not to stay 
 where he certainly was n't wanted." 
 
 Gladys hesitated. Then, 
 
 " I am afraid I don't quite understand about it, 
 after all," she said a little plaintively. " It all seems 
 very much mixed up." 
 
 There was a little pause, while Day looked across 
 at Rob. He nodded, and then they set to work to- 
 gether to make her understand. 
 
 When, an hour later, the Argyles rose to take their 
 leave, Day held out her hand to her hostess with 
 a better liking than she ever had thought it possible 
 to gain towards this young Canadian girl whoso 
 reticence rendered her seemingly so smug. Together, 
 they had talked the situation over to its very founda- 
 tions, had discussed in detail and in singular agree- 
 ment Jack's place among them, Janet's character. 
 Now and then Rob put in a word ; but, for the most 
 part, he sat back and left the talk to the others. 
 Liking Janet and adoring Jack, he yet felt he could 
 safely leave them both in the just hands of the two 
 young girls. 
 
 " I am sorry," Gladys told them, as they rose to 
 go ; " if I 've been at all to blame in this thing. I 
 did n't mean to ; I supposed Janet knew me better. 
 Now I think it over, though, I can see how I may 
 have started the whole trouble by my asking where 
 you first picked Jack up." 
 
 Day laughed.
 
 278 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Really, now you think of it, you must admit it 
 was n't a complimentary phrase," she said, with all 
 her old, gay directness. " No wonder Janet took it 
 all askew." 
 
 " No," Gladys admitted frankly ; " I don't wonder 
 in the least. I don't think I ever realized till now, 
 though, just how much trouble a phrase like that 
 could make. Mr. Blanchard was a stranger to me; 
 I was sure I recognized him, and I was curious to 
 know how he came to be with you all. I used the 
 first words that popped into my head, just as I 'd 
 have done with any stranger I was n't likely to see 
 again. By the time I was acquainted with him, I 
 had forgotten all about it. You will believe so much ; 
 won't you ? " Her glance included them both. 
 
 Day held out her hand impulsively. 
 
 " So much so that I can't be glad enough we came," 
 she answered. " It was Rob's idea. I thought we 
 did n't know you well enough ; but he was bound to 
 go to the bottom of the thing, before he attacked 
 Janet." 
 
 Gladys shook her head a little. 
 
 " Be as gentle as you can," she urged. " Remem- 
 ber how tired she is, and all the rest." 
 
 " I will," Day promised gravely. " But then, you 
 see, there 's Jack." 
 
 " I know." Gladys spoke swiftly. " And there 
 is also myself. I was a good deal to blame for the 
 whole thing, even if I did n't mean it. I knew Janet, 
 how she dwells on things the rest of us forget all
 
 JANET AT ODDS 279 
 
 about. I ought to have been more careful about my 
 words. But one can make so much trouble, without 
 intending it in the very least; and I suppose I did 
 sound snippy." She shook her head at the rug, as 
 if it had been the culprit. " Really, I believe I have 
 been about as much to blame as Janet. I only wish 
 I could do something now to help mend matters." 
 Suddenly she looked up, her eyes alert with a new 
 idea. " When does he get through with this thing ? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Not for a week longer, at the very least." 
 
 " A week. Let me see. When do you all go 
 back?" 
 
 " The first of September. At least," Day laughed ; 
 " it depends on circumstances." 
 
 Gladys understood, as her answering laugh be- 
 tokened. 
 
 " As far as that goes, I hope it will be a good 
 deal later," she said heartily. " What 's more, I 
 think it may be. I saw Janet, yesterday, and it 
 seemed as if her superiority was breaking up a little 
 bit; I thought she even seemed a bit depressed. 
 That has always been the sign the worst was over. 
 But, to go back to Mr. Blanchard: do you happen 
 to know what are his nights in town ? " 
 
 " Happen we do," Rob answered promptly. "He 's 
 here on Tuesday and Friday ; you '11 get him at the 
 Saint Louis, when he is n't with us on the terrace." 
 He laughed, as he raised his yellow brows in mute 
 suggestion. " You might come, too," he added.
 
 280 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Thanks. Perhaps I will. Tuesdays and Fridays ? 
 Very well, I '11 remember. Must you go ? " She 
 gave her hand to Day and then to Rob. " I 'm glad 
 you came to talk it over," she said simply. " I find 
 it always best." 
 
 Side by side, the* brother and sister left the house, 
 turned southward and went loitering around the 
 Ramparts. When they were safely out of hearing, 
 
 " Day," Rob said, with slow deliberation ; " that 
 is a girl."
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY 
 
 MEANWHILE, inside the Leslie house in Louis 
 Street, a new interest had arisen, threatening 
 at times to obliterate even the thought of Jack. 
 After all said and done, the skirmishing once ended, 
 there was a certain monotony in what Amy Browne 
 termed the Blanchard crisis. The newer, interest 
 never at any single instant held in its make-up the 
 germ of monotony. It was far-reaching, absorbing; 
 it engrossed them one and all, destroyed their leisure, 
 modified their comfort, and always and ever it in- 
 sisted upon holding their attention, whether they 
 would or no. Its source was the stranger baby; its 
 circumference was measured by the outside limits 
 of the entire household, including Mary Browne. 
 
 From the hour of his advent, shrieking and trying 
 to stand on his head in the arms of Paul, Amy Pope 
 had stoutly maintained that she merely had borrowed 
 the child for a few days, in order to fit him to some 
 seemly garments. The fitting, however, took a vast 
 amount of time, the more so as all the garments 
 obtainable in the shops at once became unseemly, 
 viewed in the critical eyes of a quartette of girls 
 brought up in French lingerie nighties with real lace 
 frills. Janet sniffed, pronouncing anything good 
 enough for a Saint Sauveur baby. Sidney merely
 
 282 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 laughed and held her peace. The others, treating 
 the squirming child as a vast and unwieldy sort of 
 doll, ransacked the shops for baby finery, tried it on, 
 despite the remonstrances of the child who seemed 
 loath to part with his single outing flannel garment, 
 shook their heads and proceeded to find objections. 
 And this state of things, beginning at noon, four days 
 before, was showing no sign of cessation when Rob 
 and Day came strolling homeward from their call 
 on Gladys. 
 
 " Paul's infant prodigy is tuning up again," 
 Rob offered observation as, at his sister's side, he 
 rounded the corner out of Garden Street. " Jove, 
 Day, what a hurdy-gurdy that kid's lungs would 
 make!" 
 
 " Or bagpipes," she amended. " It 's a good deal 
 more like that. What do you suppose Amy means 
 to do with him ? " 
 
 " She said she only borrowed him long enough 
 to " 
 
 " Equip him with a wardrobe," Day struck in. 
 " Yes, I heard that fable, yesterday. I also saw a 
 heap of clothes in Amy's room, clothes enough to 
 stock an infant class in Sunday school. That will 
 do to tell; but what she really means to do with 
 him is a mystery." 
 
 Rob lifted his brows. 
 
 " She can't covet him for his charm of manner," 
 he remarked. " Moreover, from my own memory of 
 the quarter where he has been residing, the last few
 
 JANET AT ODDS 283 
 
 weeks, I have an impression that frilly clothes are n't 
 a necessity, if she means to send him back." 
 
 " Asylums provide their own clothes," Day added. 
 " "What can she be going to do with him ? " 
 
 " Something wild and different," Rob predicted. 
 " You can't do much foretelling, when it 's a case 
 of Amy Pope ; but at least, you can be mighty cer- 
 tain there 's something bound to be doing, whenever 
 Amy takes a hand. Meanwhile, have you heard the 
 Dame offering any observations ? " 
 
 " Not about him. She 's terribly chastened and 
 sniffly about dear old Jack. In fact, I rather think, 
 from her general air of penitential meekness, that she 
 accepts the infant as a special, back-handed punish- 
 ment meted out to her to make up for Jack's sins." 
 
 " I say, Day," Rob spoke reflectively ; " has it ever 
 occurred to you to rejoice and give thanks that our 
 mother stands, heels down, and also has some sense 
 of humour ? " 
 
 Day turned the white of one eye on him. Then 
 she thrust her hand inside his arm. 
 
 " Rob ! How disrespectful ! But has n't it till 
 now to you ? " 
 
 " Bet ! " Rob answered concisely. Then he pointed 
 to the upper windows with his stick, for by now they 
 had reached the Leslie house. " Party 's going on, 
 up there," he added. " What 's more, it seems to 
 be a strenuous sort of session. I say, Aurora dear- 
 est, what if we pass by on the other side, and go 
 take a little drive ? For my taste, this infant's sing-
 
 284 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 ing is rather too much after Wagner. In fact, I 
 begin to think that Wagner may end by getting 
 licked." 
 
 " I wish the child would," Day said vindictively. 
 
 Meanwhile, within the house, the scene indeed was 
 waxing strenuous ; yet, for all that, it was not unique. 
 The past four days had taught Paul and the girls 
 a good many new lessons in infant psychology; and, 
 the worst of it was, the psychology appeared to them 
 to be one enormous, concentrated joke. Bewashed, 
 becurled, befrilled, the baby had ceased to be soggy 
 and unattractive-looking; he was undeniably clever, 
 and his force of character was astounding, astound- 
 ing, too, his skill in setting forth in intelligible, al- 
 though wordless, phrases the results of his infant 
 meditations. Just why he should repine for his old 
 surroundings it would be hard to say, for he was fed 
 and clothed as never before, and he was constantly 
 surrounded by at least three eager nurses, while the 
 neighbour had testified by way of the policeman that 
 apparently he had not deigned to give a thought to 
 his departed family. Nevertheless, he did repine, not 
 querulously, but with full-lunged, full-throated, vehe- 
 ment decision. In other words, he kicked against 
 the pricks, and his kickings were by no means always 
 of the spirit. It took the entire time of at least one 
 person to keep him even mildly acquiescent; but, 
 with a whole half-dozen junior nurses eager to take 
 their turn, he had no lack of care. 
 
 To be sure, these junior nurses were not always
 
 JANET AT ODDS 285 
 
 wholly sympathetic. They made him as comfortable 
 as lay within their power, far, far more comfortable 
 than he had ever been of old; but, that done, they 
 laughed at his repinings, made merry over his grim- 
 aces, and obviously rejoiced when he stretched forth 
 his lusty little legs and kicked at them angrily, as 
 they drew near to offer food and toys. All in all, 
 he was not a pleasant baby to have about. Never- 
 theless, the girls assumed the care of him hilariously, 
 and proceeded to make the best of him, while Amy 
 Pope decided what to do next. 
 
 " It 's just exactly the way my Boston terrier 
 puppy behaved, when I first had him," Amy Browne 
 sighed, the second night. " For the first week, he 
 yelped every single instant, day and night, yelped 
 and tore the furniture to pieces. Really, I thought 
 we never could live through it, and I have n't been 
 through such an experience since, till now." 
 
 Paul echoed her sigh. 
 
 " I should think once would have been quite 
 enough," he suggested. 
 
 " It was, quite. And yet, this infant is funny. 
 Besides, you have n't anything to say. It was you 
 who brought him down on all our heads. What do 
 you suppose " 
 
 "Well?" Paul jogged her. 
 
 Amy changed her accent, seeking to lay even greater 
 stress upon her question. 
 
 " What do you suppose Amy ever means to do 
 with him?"
 
 286 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Paul shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Ask Amy," he responded tersely. 
 
 And they did ask Amy, at least forty times a day ; 
 but a smile was the only answer she vouchsafed to 
 all their questions. At last, however, towards the 
 close of the sixth day, she did grant to Kob Argyle 
 some meagre satisfaction. 
 
 " Feed him up a little till he gets fat ; have Elsie 
 scour him till he is enough accustomed to the process 
 not to look too shiny afterwards, and then get him 
 a little fitted to his clothes." 
 
 " And then ? " 
 
 Amy laughed. 
 
 " Then ? Then we '11 see." 
 
 " Amy, you fraud ! " Day interposed, from her 
 seat across the room. " You Ve something in your 
 brain. Out with it." 
 
 " It would swamp you utterly," Amy answered 
 gravely. " I should hate to see you swamped." 
 
 " I don't mean everything you know ; only just 
 about the baby." 
 
 Amy smiled at her benevolently. 
 
 " He is mine, by right of possession. The police 
 gave him to Paul. Paul presented him to me. The 
 rest I '11 tell you, when I get ready." 
 
 " Then there really is a rest ? " 
 
 " Not at night," Kob interposed. " He goes 
 beddy-by exactly under me, and Really, Amy, I 
 am just learning that, in comparison with some things, 
 snoring can be sweet music."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 287 
 
 " Does he carouse, all night long, Rob ? " Day 
 queried. " I should n't suppose he 'd have enough 
 vitality to keep it up, the whole twenty-four hours." 
 
 " I thought it was he that I heard," Rob said 
 guardedly. " Of course, it might have been there 's 
 no sure telling from the room overhead it might 
 have been Mrs. Blanchard." 
 
 " Poor Mrs. Blanchard ! " Day's voice was full of 
 thoughtful chiding. " Does n't your conscience ever 
 prick you, Amy ? " 
 
 " Yes, now and then a little bit," Amy made an- 
 swer grimly. " However, Mrs. Blanchard is the 
 unconscious means to a good end. Besides, when I 
 think of Jack " She paused ; then added, with 
 apparent inconsequence, " And this child is n't very 
 gentlemanly, either." 
 
 But Amy was a little less remorseless in the matter 
 than she sounded. Although an unconscious means 
 to some good end, Mrs. Blanchard was by no means 
 an unwilling one. She was of the 'mental feather- 
 bolster type of woman, one whose first conviction on 
 beholding a baby was that no one else could take one 
 half so good care of it as she herself. It never 
 would have occurred to her in the first place to annex 
 a baby of unknown ancestry and too easily discov- 
 ered disposition. Now that Amy Pope had annexed 
 one, however, she promptly brushed aside all inter- 
 ference and, in essential matters, she assumed it as 
 her own especial care. That is to say, she put in 
 pins and tied up strings; she prescribed his proper
 
 288 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 diet, and she ordained that, at a fixed and suitable 
 hour, he should be put to bed. At that exact point, 
 however, her jurisdiction stopped. Xot all the Mrs. 
 Blanchards in creation, although armed with sooth- 
 ing syrups by the pint, could coerce the baby into 
 going to sleep against his will. Moreover, his infant 
 lungs operated to the very best advantage, when he 
 lay prone on top of the blanket he had promptly 
 kicked aside. 
 
 Mrs. Blanch ard was past seventy, and fragile. 
 None the less, she bore her new burden valiantly, 
 and stuck to it that the child must sleep in a .crib 
 beside her bed; that he merely fretted just a little 
 bit, but that it did not disturb her in the least. Per- 
 haps, after all, there was a grain of truth in her 
 assertion. It might have been that the fretting, 
 fussing baby boy served to break the dull monotony 
 of the long, wakeful hours when she lay and thought 
 of her own boy who, against her will, but for the 
 sake of conscience, was riding, riding, the whole 
 night through. It might have been even a relief 
 when an infant temper distracted her mind from 
 watching the slow passing of the moments from two 
 o'clock to three, from thinking of her Jack, sitting 
 in a corner of the car, tired out, dull and alone, and 
 waiting with what patience he could gather up out 
 of the tedious day, for the coming of the time when 
 the regulations of his uniform allowed him to turn 
 in. As a rule, both Mrs. Blanchard and the baby 
 had their soundest sleep, after three o'clock.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 289 
 
 But Jack, meanwhile, was by no means wholly 
 wretched. True, his hours were long, his duties 
 tiresome, his passengers a good deal of a bore. 
 Nevertheless, there was a certain interest in fitting 
 himself back into the well-remembered groove, in 
 seeing it fit itself about him; in finding out, best 
 of all, that his years of prosperous growth, instead 
 of spoiling him for the old task, had trained him 
 until he seemed to know by instinct just how to 
 make the very most of it. It was as if his groove 
 had broadened with his own broadening. Phases 
 of his work which, in the old days, never would have 
 occurred to him as being necessary, or even possible, 
 now appeared to him mere matters of routine. 
 
 Apart from that, and even more good were the 
 greetings which met him, all up and down the line: 
 the flash of white teeth shining out from the coal- 
 streaked face of a passing stoker, the grip of a hand, 
 hurriedly wiped on a bunch of cotton waste, the 
 sheepish grin of the old waiter at the breakfast 
 station, as he slid on to Jack's plate the juiciest cut 
 of steak, the hilarious greeting of an old-time pas- 
 senger: all these things assured Jack Blanchard that 
 a well-made place is never really filled by any out- 
 sider. And then, when he came back to the city, 
 often and often to find Paul or Rob on the platform 
 as the train came in, he never was really sure whether 
 his best times lay in his long evenings on the ter- 
 race with his well-tried friends, or in his ten-minute 
 calls at the Jeffrey Hale where Savarin, his anxiety 
 
 19
 
 290 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 in part allayed, was making daily strides towards 
 the regaining of his health. 
 
 There was pleasure in all these things; not sanc- 
 tified joy, but real honest, human pleasure. Ac- 
 cordingly, it was with a little feeling of regret, one 
 noon, that Jack took from the clerk at the Saint 
 Louis a note from Mr. Argyle. 
 
 " I think your experiment, from all accounts, has 
 been a grand success," the letter ran ; " and I can't 
 be glad enough that you undertook it. It doesn't 
 do us any harm to make sure, now and then, that 
 we can step back into our old shoes, and, what 's more, 
 walk off in them without tripping up. However, as 
 long as you 're coming back to the office on the first, 
 I think perhaps you 'd best stop running about the 
 country. You 'd best send in your resignation, then, 
 for the end of the week. Rob and Day are getting 
 restless without you, and I want them to stay on 
 up there and finish out the summer. And, by the 
 way, will you please endorse this check over to the 
 Savarin baby ? I did n't know the name ; but you can 
 put it through, all right." And the letter ended, 
 after a word of liking and good will so personal that 
 Jack was never willing to quote it. 
 
 Still standing by the desk, the note in one hand, 
 the check in the other, Jack was aroused from his 
 reverie by being summoned to the telephone to an- 
 swer a call from Gladys Horth. 
 
 A little later on, Gladys called up Janet. In due 
 season, Janet reported the call to the group of girls
 
 JANET AT ODDS 291 
 
 ~ \ 
 
 who were trying to coax the baby not to make a 
 
 double bow-knot of himself while Irene was seeking 
 to put on him a fresh white frock. The fresh white 
 frock's predecessor lay upon the floor with milk and 
 dark green ink struggling for mastery upon its sodden 
 surface. 
 
 " I was only just offering him a little drink," Amy 
 Browne said apologetically, while she gathered up 
 the dripping front breadth of her pale pink muslin 
 skirt. " He cried, and we had given him everything 
 else in vain, so I supposed he must be hungry. How 
 could I know it would go on his nerves like this ? " 
 
 " What did he do, anyway, Miss Amy ? " Mary 
 Browne queried from the threshold, where she stood 
 waiting to receive the discarded frock. 
 
 " Knocked the milk out of my hand, and then 
 kicked the ink off the table on top of us both. I 
 wish I knew who left the stuff uncorked ! " Amy said 
 vindictively, for she hated unneatness of any kind, 
 and even the least critical of victims would have 
 felt that ink and milk and pink muslin breadths do 
 not make an attractive combination. 
 
 " I did it," Sidney confessed. " I was marking 
 some new pages in my photograph book. Really, 
 Amy, I 'm very sorry ; but I never supposed he 
 could kick so far." 
 
 " Kick ! He 'd kick the moon," Amy made testy 
 answer. " I don't mind my gown ; it 's on its second 
 season, but do look at the rug. What do you suppose 
 Janet will say ? "
 
 292 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " She 's here to speak for herself," Paul announced, 
 from the window-seat where he sat watching the 
 infant cyclone whirl along its pathway. " Look there, 
 Janet, and behold! Now out with it, and say your 
 say frankly, like a little man." 
 
 But Janet disdained the question of the rug. 
 Instead, 
 
 " Gladys is holding the wire to know whether 
 we '11 all go down there to spend the evening," 
 she announced. " Is there any reason we can't 
 go?" 
 
 Paul frowned at Amy Pope, who frowned back 
 at him malignly. 
 
 " What about Jack ? " he asked, too low for the 
 others to hear. 
 
 Amy shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " No use. We 're bound to go. Remember that 
 nowadays it 's peace at any price." 
 
 Sidney's eye, meanwhile, was going from face to 
 face around the group. 
 
 "All right, Janet. Tell her we'll all go with 
 pleasure," she said, when her circuit was complete. 
 
 Rob, however, from the other window-seat, put in 
 a question. 
 
 " Does this include the lusty baby boy off yonder ? " 
 he inquired, in hollow accents. " If it does, I thank 
 you, I have a previous engagement of a most press- 
 ing kind." 
 
 However, it was Rob who banged with the Horth 
 knocker, that same evening, Rob in his state array
 
 JANET AT ODDS 293 
 
 and smiling from ear to ear. He had liked Gladys 
 Horth extremely, in that last long talk of theirs ; he 
 felt certain that she would make a most attractive 
 hostess. Moreover, the lusty baby boy had been left 
 behind in bed, and that alone was a sufficient cause 
 for full content to a budding Harvard senior who 
 felt far more interest in football than in infant 
 psychology. And yet, now and then in the past 
 week, Rob had regretted that his lame leg had knocked 
 him once and for all out of football. There had 
 been occasions when he had felt convinced that the 
 baby would have made an excellent substitute for 
 the more conventional pigskin, providing he himself 
 were on the playing team. Just once, he mentioned 
 this belief to Amy Pope. Amy had snubbed him 
 rudely. 
 
 " You probably did exactly the same things, your- 
 self, when you were a little baby," she argued. 
 
 Rob produced counter argument, and it was a 
 clincher. 
 
 " Look at my mother ! She has n't got any wrinkles 
 down beside her nose." 
 
 " Hush ! " Amy chid him, with seeming inconse- 
 quence. " Here comes Mrs. Blanchard now. Still, 
 it isn't all the baby; a part of it is Jack." 
 
 The baby, then, had been stowed away betimes, 
 and left with Mary Browne as jailer, since Mrs. 
 Blanchard, as now and then occurred, had been in- 
 cluded in the invitation. Dinner over and the last 
 touch added to their toilettes, they had sallied forth,
 
 294 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 Rob in the lead with Day and Sidney, Paul and Amy 
 Pope bringing up the rear. 
 
 Gladys brushed aside the maid who let them in, 
 and met them in the hall, herself, her hands held 
 out in greeting. She was more enthusiastic than it 
 was her wont to be, more elaborately dressed than 
 usual. They all took silent note of Ihe fact, silently 
 wondered what could be its explanation, while she 
 chattered on. 
 
 " It 's so good of you all to come. Janet, let Mr. 
 Argyle pull you out of that coat, while I help Mrs. 
 Blanchard with her scarf. Wait one minute. It is 
 caught on your comb. It 's so cool, to-night, I have 
 a fire in the grate. It looks cosy, even if we do have 
 to open all the windows. Now, if you 're ready, 
 come right in here." And, still chattering, she led 
 the way into the long drawing-room, dim, fire-lighted 
 and full of comfort, to where a tall, broad-shouldered 
 figure stood beside the hearth. " Mr. Blanchard is 
 here ahead of you," she added, with cheery non- 
 chalance. " I coaxed him to come down in time for 
 dinner." 
 
 Then she stood back to watch the successful work- 
 ing out of her small plan.
 
 CHAPTER TWEOTY-OKE 
 
 EALLY, Amy," Janet observed, with the 
 British bluntness that assailed her at times; 
 " I did n't think you would look so very ugly. Else, 
 I never would have told you." 
 
 " Told her what ? " 
 
 Janet poured another cup of coffee, passed the cup 
 to Paul ; then she made tranquil answer, 
 
 " Told her what Jack said, you know." 
 
 "What did he say?" 
 
 " Were n't you there ? ~No ? " Janet raised her 
 brows. " ReaHy, I remember now. It was the morn- 
 ing you and Paul were kidnapping the baby, the day 
 after Amy Browne had burned off all her hair." 
 
 " What did I say ? " Jack asked defensively, for 
 he was once more back in his old place at table, as 
 Gladys had made sure he would be. " I don't re- 
 member at all, Amy ; but I 'm willing to apologize 
 in advance." 
 
 " You said that you 'd rather girls did n't curl up 
 their hair and do things of that sort ; that you 'd 
 rather we 'd be ugly than artificial," Janet reminded 
 him. 
 
 There came a chorus of protesting shrieks, in the 
 midst of which Jack laid down his knife and fork and 
 clasped his hands.
 
 296 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Guilty," he admitted meekly. " However," he 
 threw an expressive glance at Amy Browne who had 
 appeared at breakfast, shorn of her becoming fluffi- 
 ness; "however, I recant." 
 
 " Is that the way you stick to your guns, Jack ? " 
 Amy Pope demanded in disdain. 
 
 Jack picked up his fork once more. 
 
 " Yes, in a case like this. You see, I took my 
 position in a hurry, without stopping to think of all 
 the consequences it might involve," he confessed. 
 " In theory, I prefer nature unadorned ; in practice," 
 his eyes twinkled, as he looked again at Amy Browne's 
 smooth, shining pate, where the hair lay in close 
 bands about her forehead ; " in practice, Amy, I be- 
 seech you to fuzz yourself up a little bit. It may 
 not be an elevated taste; but I do think it makes 
 you look a whole lot prettier." 
 
 " But what ever possessed you to tell Amy, Janet ? " 
 Sidney asked, when the laughter had subsided. 
 
 " I thought it was only fair for her to know it," 
 Janet returned, with a second attack of racial blunt- 
 ness. " She has been more curly than ever, since 
 Jack came back here, and, when I knew he hated 
 it and that she was doing it on his account, it did n't 
 seem just fair to allow it to go on." 
 
 Jack looked up alertly. 
 
 " On my account, Amy ? " he queried. 
 
 Her answer held no touch of girlish self -conscious- 
 ness, none of coquetry. 
 
 " Certainly. Lacking a fatted calf to kill, I pro-
 
 JANET AT ODDS 297 
 
 ceeded to adorn myself. How else could you know 
 how glad I was to see you ? " 
 
 How else, indeed ? Save for Janet who was pas- 
 sively polite, impersonally cordial, the entire house- 
 hold, down to Mary Browne, had been in a state of 
 extreme jubilation over Jack's return. The fact of 
 Jack's return had been established beyond a doubt, 
 before they had left Gladys Horth's that night a week 
 before. It was Gladys who settled the matter, Gladys, 
 smiling, tactful, suave, yet so masterful that Janet 
 even was powerless to stand out against her. Gladys 
 had smoothed over the momentary embarrassment of 
 their unexpected meeting, had forestalled Janet's 
 hostility by taking it for granted that Janet was 
 really pining to see Jack again and, leaving the others 
 to amuse themselves as best they could, by sitting 
 down to gossip with them in a corner. She had en- 
 gineered their talk up to the very moment when Janet 
 was beginning to enjoy it ; then she had swept Jack 
 away to make himself useful as co-host. Later, it 
 was Jack, not Rob, nor Paul, who helped to serve the 
 coffee, Jack who brought out the card tables, mended 
 the fire, Jack to whom her smiles were given. Gladys 
 understood Janet through and through. Moreover, 
 she was a thorough woman. She knew that Jack 
 would never be one half so valuable in the eyes of 
 Janet Leslie as when he basked in the smiles of one 
 of her old-time Canadian girl friends. 
 
 Jack, meanwhile, although slightly mystified by 
 this sudden change of front, yet accepted it all with
 
 298 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 imperturbable calm, and enjoyed to the full the eager 
 friendliness of his dainty little hostess. The others, 
 half comprehending and wholly in sympathy with 
 Gladys' plan, whatever it might prove to be, threw 
 themselves heart and soul into making the evening 
 a success. Gladys would have achieved that selfsame 
 end without help, however. For the moment, she was 
 completely mistress of the situation, and there was 
 a wicked, victorious little sparkle in her eyes when, 
 at the last, she put Janet down to play cards with 
 Jack as partner and herself and Rob as opposites. 
 The sparkle came again, when they all rose to say 
 good night. 
 
 " How soon do you go back to live under your 
 mother's wing, Mr. Blanchard ? " she asked auda- 
 ciously. 
 
 Before there could come even an instant's pause, 
 Rob had flung himself into the breach. 
 
 " I say, why don't you come along up with us 
 now ? " he inquired, with cheery, casual unconcern. 
 " You might as well. My room carries double, and 
 I hate to have to spread all over it alone. Come 
 along, man ; now 's the accepted time." 
 
 Gladys nodded in quick acquiescence. 
 
 " Do you mind going upstairs to telephone ? " she 
 asked Rob, with a casualness equal to his own. " You 
 may as well settle the matter with the Saint Louis 
 people from here, so his things will be sent right 
 up. You can telephone, while Mr. Blanchard is 
 hunting up my mother. I think you '11 find her in
 
 JANET AT ODDS 299 
 
 the other room. Xo ? Janet dear, would you mind 
 looking in her room upstairs ? " 
 
 And, by the time Janet had reappeared with Mrs. 
 Horth beside her, the matter was too fully decided 
 to make any indifference on Janet's part a thing to 
 count, one way or the other. 
 
 That had been a full week before. Since that 
 time, Jack had ended his self-made appointment, had 
 returned his misfit uniform, and had made over to 
 Savarin, now convalescent, the three-weeks' salary 
 which dwindled into nothing in comparison with 
 Mr. Argyle's check. In the mere matter of good 
 will, however, the one was as valuable as the other; 
 and little Savarin had to take off his befogged glasses, 
 before he could look up to smile his thanks. Jack 
 had nodded in careless acquiescence, wished him good 
 luck, promised to look in again to see him soon, and 
 gone his way. For him, the episode was ended. 
 
 After all, though, it did seem rather good to Jack 
 to settle down again into a life of idleness, to punch 
 no more blue checks, to answer no more inane ques- 
 tions, to return to an existence where tea was a mere 
 matter of the day's routine, and where his bedtime 
 depended solely upon his own preferences. More- 
 over, the summer was waning fast. Here and there 
 a scarlet maple branch, a yellowing birch gave 'sign 
 that the autumn was close at hand and, with it, their 
 migration southward. Only a week or so remained 
 to them before the little party scattered, and of their 
 plans there were yet a good round dozen unfulfilled.
 
 300 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 It was as if, with the beginning of the tercentenary 
 celebrations, individual plans had ceased to be. After 
 that had come chaos : Mary Browne's invalidism, the 
 Argyles' going away, the departure of Jack. And 
 then had come the baby. 
 
 Moreover, to all appearing, the baby had come to 
 stay. In regard to any future plans, Amy Pope was 
 reticent. The others, as the days went on, were not 
 reticent in the least. The novelty of the situation 
 wore off more swiftly than did the angles of the baby's 
 temper. Besides, they had planned for days of canoe- 
 ing, days spent in the bush, or in climbing the low 
 mountains beyond Sainte Anne. Paul had insisted 
 on a day in his old haunts at Grande Riviere, and 
 there was even talk of their going in a body up the 
 Saguenay. But how could all this be accomplished, 
 when they had upon their hands this baby who was 
 so prompt about resenting the least hint of neglect ? 
 
 To be sure, Mrs. Blanchard was fast becoming the 
 baby's willing slave; but some of those same expe- 
 ditions demanded Mrs. Blanchard's presence. More- 
 over, after ten nights of strenuous activity upon the 
 baby's part, Mrs. Blanchard's dark-ringed eyes and 
 whitening cheeks bore witness to the strain she was 
 enduring. Not all the good will in the world can 
 atone for lack of sleep. One morning at the break- 
 fast table, Day studied Mrs. Blanchard; then she 
 had it out with Rob, and then she led the mutiny. 
 
 " Does it ever strike you," she demanded with 
 deliberation, as she walked in upon a sewing bee
 
 JANET AT ODDS 301 
 
 where Irene and Sidney and the Amys were busy 
 with white nainsook and tiny paper patterns ; " has it 
 ever struck you that charity begins at home ? " 
 
 Amy Pope looked up. 
 
 " Exactly," she said calmly. u Please begin." 
 And she offered Day a threaded needle. 
 
 Day waved the needle aside. 
 
 " I don't mean that," she said, quite sternly for 
 easy-going Day. 
 
 " What do you mean, then, dearie ? " But Amy's 
 eyes belied her tone, for they looked a little guilty. 
 
 " I mean this," Day said bluntly. " If you girls 
 want to make geese of yourselves over a baby with 
 nobody knows what sort of inherited queernesses, 
 when you easily can afford to buy him clothes and 
 put him to board in a good place, you are quite wel- 
 come. What is it, Amy ? " 
 
 " It is personal effort that counts in a case like 
 this," Amy observed, with mock sanctity. 
 
 " Personal spankings, you 'd better say ! " Day 
 made energetic answer. " He is certainly the Grossest 
 baby I ever set my eyes on. However, if you think 
 he 's an amusing toy, keep him and welcome. Still, if 
 you do keep him, you ought in all decency to keep 
 him all the time, not tuck him off on Mrs. Blanchard, 
 when he gets to be too much for you to manage." 
 
 Irene looked up, her eyes, too, a little troubled. 
 
 " Really, Day, I think she likes the little fellow," 
 she said, in swift defence. 
 
 " Perhaps she does. So do you like Welsh rarebit.
 
 302 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 That 's no sign it 's good for you," Day answered un- 
 compromisingly. " Mrs. Blanchard is growing visibly 
 less, day by day. If that child keeps on raging, all 
 night long, the poor lady will fade away and vanish 
 before our very eyes, and then where '11 we be, I 'd 
 like to know, without our lawful chaperon ? Really 
 and truly, girls, it is n't fair at all." 
 
 " But if she insists on having him in her room, 
 nights ? And she does," Amy Browne urged. 
 
 " Stand on your heels, and tell her it is out of the 
 question," Day said firmly. " Has n't it occurred to 
 you that Mrs. Blanchard was invited to be here as 
 lady of the manor and our guest, not to slave as baby- 
 tender, all night and every night? I have been ex- 
 pecting, this whole week, that Jack would interfere. 
 It is his place ; I should n't blame him, if he did. As 
 long as he does n't I suppose he hates to do it, 
 when we 're all girls I thought it was about time 
 I took the matter up, myself." 
 
 " What do you want us to do about it, Day ? " 
 Amy Browne queried meekly, for it was not often 
 that Day Argyle spoke with so much decision. 
 
 The decision continued, even increased a little bit. 
 
 " Either send the child away ; or, if you don't do 
 that, then insist on taking the care, the whole care, of 
 him, yourselves." 
 
 A little silence followed Day's ultimatum. Amy 
 Pope broke it, and her voice lacked all its wonted tone 
 of mockery. 
 
 " Just give me two days more grace, Day," she
 
 JANET AT ODDS 303 
 
 said quietly. " Then I pledge you ray word I '11 be 
 good." 
 
 But Day, once her point was gained, swiftly cast 
 aside her unwonted decision. 
 
 " All right, Amy, two days it is ! But you 'd 
 better not give your word of honour that the baby 
 will be good. I begin to think he never can be." 
 
 Sidney caught up Day's mood of banter. 
 
 " How many babies have you ever known, Day ? " 
 she inquired, as she sheared away at the brief white 
 breadths before her. 
 
 " None intimately. However, I have observed 
 them from a distance. Speaking of babies, where is 
 Bob?" 
 
 " In his room with Jack." 
 
 Irene laughed. 
 
 " Poor Paul ! I trust he does n't feel his nose is 
 out of joint. He and Rob were just beginning to 
 get on capitally, and " 
 
 Amy Pope lifted her head once more. 
 
 " I am looking out for Paul," she reassured Irene. 
 " He and the infant are my especial charges." 
 
 " Look out that they don't get jealous of each other, 
 then," the other Amy advised her. " Do you suppose 
 that yoke will fit any mortal infant ? " She held it 
 up for inspection. " It looks too small for anything 
 but a turkey's neck." She shook her restored fluff of 
 hair dubiously. Then she added, " We 've called all 
 the rest of the roll. Now does anybody know where 
 Janet is keeping herself, this morning ? "
 
 304 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 The question bro.ught them all to a little silence. 
 Then Sidney suddenly burst out, 
 
 " Is n't it all horrid ! Don't you suppose she '11 
 ever come back to her old self ? " 
 
 Day sighed. Then she shook her head. 
 
 " I wish I knew. I wish I had n't started the plan 
 for this party for I suppose 1 really was the one 
 to start it. The summer is so nearly over, we must go 
 home so soon ; and it seems as if we ought n't to let 
 it end in a fight like this." 
 
 But Irene looked up sadly. 
 
 " It takes two to make a fight," she said ; " and 
 poor Janet is doing this all alone. I wish I knew 
 just how to end it; but I don't. I don't know her 
 well enough to dare talk it over with her ; I should be 
 sure to say the wrong thing, and make it worse than 
 ever. And really, I don't see how we can well 
 apologize." 
 
 It was Amy Browne who spoke next, quietly, as 
 was her wont, yet with unwonted dignity. 
 
 " I should be ashamed of you, if you did apologize, 
 Irene. I was n't in it at the very first ; I have kept 
 out of it, all I could, have sat back and watched it 
 happen. And I honestly, truly think that you girls 
 have all been perfectly fair and kind to Janet Leslie." 
 
 " Perhaps. I hope so," Irene answered. " And 
 yet, we can't let it go on like this much longer." 
 
 Sidney burst out for a second time. 
 
 " After all, it would be hard to say what It is," 
 she said flatly. " Now that Jack is back here again,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 305 
 
 there is n't a thing that Janet says or does that you 
 can find any fault with. She is perfectly polite, per- 
 fectly good-tempered, perfectly gracious " 
 
 " And just about as sweet as a choke-cherry," Amy 
 Pope said bluntly, as she rose. " Still, like the 
 cherry, it 's her nature to, and I suppose it will go on 
 until the end of time, without our being able to mend 
 matters in the very least." 
 
 And the sewing bee disbanded, without another 
 word. 
 
 In fact, to all seeming, there was no word for it to 
 say. As far as the speakers could discover, they had 
 spoken not merely the truth, but the whole truth as 
 well. Outwardly the relations between Jack and 
 Janet had not altered in the very least. True, he 
 was once more under the Leslie roof; but Janet took 
 every possible occasion to insist upon the imperson- 
 ality of the make-up of her house-party. Not that she 
 discussed the fact, however; she merely saw to it 
 that it was tacitly understood; saw to it that Jack 
 realized that his welcome lay in other hands than hers. 
 Her manner to him was unchanged. There was the 
 same punctilious politeness, the same remote courtesy, 
 always so much more hostile than any open warfare. 
 
 All this was obvious and on the surface. Never- 
 theless, a close observer might have made out, now and 
 then, a tiny rent in Janet's cloak of superiority, a 
 sudden reservation, as if she checked herself upon the 
 very verge of some remark which might lead to a 
 
 change in the whole situation, an occasional slight 
 
 20
 
 306 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 hesitation as if she were not sure how best to wear 
 her aggressive armour, or as if she even felt the fret 
 of its weight, and longed to cast it aside once and for 
 all. For the present, the situation was unchanged. 
 None the less, as the days went on, that situation held 
 within itself a little edge of question for the future. 
 
 It was only the next afternoon, when Amy Pope 
 came prancing into the library, where the others were 
 trying to forget a pouring rain by means of books and 
 sewing and a Sally Lunn for tea. A train of shrieks 
 heralded her coming; and, when she did appear, the 
 baby rode upon her shoulder, his fat fists clinched 
 upon a handful of her hair. 
 
 Rob looked up languidly from the novel on his 
 knee. 
 
 "Did urns?" he observed. "Hullo, Amy! 
 What 's up now ? You look flustered." 
 
 " So I am." Heedless of the baby's equilibrium, 
 she pirouetted across the rug and back again. 
 
 " What 's the rumpus ? " 
 
 " I have news, great news." 
 
 " Let her go, then. Maybe you '11 feel better, once 
 it's out." 
 
 Amy pulled down the corners of her mouth; but 
 no effort on her part could subdue the sparkle in her 
 eyes. 
 
 " The little lambie is going away, to-morrow, going 
 away from us for ever," she announced. 
 
 " Thanks be ! " Rob answered with fervour. 
 " Who 's the victim ? "
 
 JANET AT ODDS 307 
 
 Amy paused for a moment, as if to emphasize a 
 climax. When the climax came, however, it needed 
 no artificial emphasis. 
 
 "Lady Wadhams." 
 
 "Amy!" 
 
 "Amy Mehitabel Pope!" 
 
 "By thunder!" 
 
 " Yes." Amy slid the protesting infant from her 
 shoulder. " There, dearest babe, go sit on Uncle 
 Robin's knee," she adjured it. 
 
 Rob dodged. 
 
 " Not if I know myself ! Get him off, Amy Pope. 
 Get out ! " 
 
 Amy laughed, transferred the burden to Jack, and 
 fell to rearranging her disordered hair. 
 
 " I done it," she said vaingloriously then. 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " The Lady Wadhams that was here ? " 
 
 " But how did you ever work it, Amy ? " 
 
 And the baby, excited by the chorus of question, 
 added his mite to the conversation by giving utterance 
 to a long-winded squeal which left him black in the 
 face and strangling audibly. 
 
 " Do tell us all about it, Amy," Sidney besought 
 her, when the human calliope was stilled. 
 
 Amy dropped into a chair and faced them, beaming. 
 
 " It was this way," she explained rapidly. " We 
 took the baby. There was n't anybody else. Paul and 
 I hunted the city over to find some relations for him. 
 It seemed a shame to put him into an asylum, for
 
 308 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 really, if one had time to discipline him, he would n't 
 be so very horrid." 
 
 " Mm possibly," Rob conceded, in a swift aside 
 to any one whom it might concern. 
 
 But Amy swept on. 
 
 " It was a direct leading of providence. At first, I 
 was just sorry for him, and trying to think what 
 could be done with him to keep him from being neg- 
 lected. Then, all at once, it struck me that, one day, 
 Mary Browne had said Lady Wadhams would better 
 adopt an orphan, instead of wasting all her baby talk 
 on that idiot of a poodle. Really and truly, the baby 
 did seem fully as forlorn as a lost puppy, and just 
 about as useless, so I brought him home to think it 
 over, more for the fun of it than for anything else. 
 That night, I happened to remember really, I 
 never had connected the two things until then how 
 I had heard Lady Wadhams telling Mrs. Blanchard 
 that she had had a little baby who only lived a week, 
 or a month, or something, and how she had always 
 meant to adopt a baby boy, only she never seemed to 
 get about it. I was reading in the next room, while 
 she was talking; and I never liked her half so well 
 before. She was n't preposterous in the least not 
 on that one subject, I mean," Amy corrected herself 
 hastily. " I remembered it, that first night, and it 
 set me to thinking. Next day, I told Paul, and he 
 went to thinking, too." 
 
 " Dangerous business," Rob said gravely, filling 
 the pause while Amy caught her breath. " Hush, you
 
 JANET AT ODDS 309 
 
 little beggar! Listen to your betters, when they are 
 talking." 
 
 " And," Amy rushed on with her narrative ; " then 
 Paul wrote to his mother for some introductions, to 
 prove we were n't quite crazy, and we 've been corre- 
 sponding, ever since. That 's why I begged for another 
 day or two, to make sure the matter was settled." 
 
 " And is it ? " Irene asked her. 
 
 Amy rose. Then she picked up the baby who 
 was endeavouring to garrote Jack by means of his 
 necktie. 
 
 " The nurse comes down from Ottawa, this even- 
 ing," she made laconic answer. " Come along, infant, 
 come and have your paddy-paws washed, and do 
 your Auntie Amy credit." And, the child once more 
 upon her shoulder, Amy pranced away out of the 
 room. 
 
 A pause followed her going. Then Rob spoke. 
 
 " Well, I am blessed ! " he murmured. 
 
 Jack finished the untying of his necktie, tied it 
 up again, and then, 
 
 " The question is, will Lady Wadhams be ? " he 
 demanded pointedly. 
 
 And no one dared attempt an answer. Instead, 
 Paul made thoughtful observation, 
 
 " The poor poodle ! "
 
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
 
 AFTER all, it was Amy Pope who finally had it 
 out with Janet, Amy who had predicted that 
 the situation was bound to go on until the end of 
 time, Amy who, aforetime, had expressed herself as 
 dubious concerning Jack. 
 
 " It 's the inconsistency of the thing that I can't 
 comprehend," she told Janet flatly. " At Smith, you 
 and Jack were the best chums possible. Up here " 
 She let her sentence die away to an expressive pause. 
 
 " I know all that," Janet made honest answer. 
 " Down there, one does n't think so much about such 
 things. Up here, among all my friends, it 's dif- 
 ferent." 
 
 " But, if they don't care, why should you ? " Amy 
 demanded. 
 
 Janet's chin lifted. Her reply came crisply. 
 
 " I never have been used to letting my friends draw 
 my social lines for me," she announced. 
 
 Amy laughed. 
 
 " What utter nonsense ! Janet, you can be a per- 
 fect dear, when you choose ; but you 'd better go back 
 again over your first-year course in logic. Then you 
 would n't tangle yourself up in your statements as you 
 do. If your friends don't draw your social lines for 
 you, why in the world, when you come back to them,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 311 
 
 do you have to rub out all your lines and have their 
 places changed ? " 
 
 And Janet, opening her mouth to continue her own 
 defence, shut it again and fell silent. 
 
 It was now three days since the baby, kicking madly, 
 had made a shrieking exit in the arms of a crisp and 
 frilly nursemaid. The entire household, even to 
 Mary Browne, had assembled on the steps to watch 
 his departure. Then, with one consent and with the 
 precision of a military drill, the group had faced 
 inward, and a deep sigh of satisfaction had run 
 around the circle. Moreover, the satisfaction had 
 not concerned itself solely with the brightening pros- 
 pects of the child. Notwithstanding the love and pity 
 due one's lesser, weaker brethren, even Amy Pope 
 admitted that it would be good to have one undis- 
 turbed night's rest. 
 
 The baby gone, that problem settled, Amy Pope 
 promptly attacked the remaining unsolved problem. 
 In characteristic fashion, she rushed upon it energet- 
 ically and without forethought. What was more, she 
 grappled with it and fought it to a finish, although 
 more than once in the course of the struggle it seemed 
 a matter of some uncertainty what that finish was to 
 be. Janet had come down to breakfast, that morn- 
 ing, in a mood which was somewhat akin to her old- 
 time humanity. Nevertheless, it had been the merest 
 chance which had sent her and Amy Pope into Buade 
 Street at the same hour. They met in front of 
 Renfrew's, their errands done, and, lured by the
 
 312 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 charm of the cool sunshine, they turned by tacit con- 
 sent, crossed into Anne Street, went on out under the 
 Kent Gate, crossed the gray-walled park and came 
 into the Grande Allee, facing westward. Around 
 them, August was slowly dying into autumn. Now 
 and then a yellow leaf floated downward through the 
 windless air ; the distant views of hill and river were 
 already putting on their purple robes, and in the 
 amethyst light the scattered villages gleamed like 
 little knots of lustrous pearls. Talking idly or falling 
 into silence as they chose, the two girls walked on and 
 on, out the Grande Allee, divested now of all its 
 trumpery decorations and returned to at least a sem- 
 blance of its former dignity, past the Plains where 
 only the trodden grass remained to tell the story of 
 the summer's pageantry, and on again until Mount 
 Hermon was behind them and Sillery Point lay at 
 their very feet. 
 
 Half way down the flight of steps which links the 
 church above to the purple sands beneath, the two 
 girls dropped down, partly to rest, partly to enjoy 
 the picture opening out before them. Beside them, 
 Wolfe's Cove was a mere stretch of muddy flats, for 
 the tide was at its lowest ebb. Beyond, the twin cities 
 upon either bank seemed shaking hands across the 
 bending stream ; while, to the westward, the river lay 
 outrolled, a mighty roadway leading inland, its sur- 
 face fretted into little shining waves, like gleaming 
 eyes winking a defiance at the ruined bridge which 
 huddled prostrate, crumpled, upon the southern shore,
 
 JANET AT ODDS 313 
 
 powerless to throw its rein across the unbridled 
 might of the majestic stream. And behind them, the 
 little gothic church, perched on her jutting red-rock 
 wall of cliff, seemed brooding peacefully, unchang- 
 ingly above the ever-changing river. 
 
 The picture of itself was quite enough to hold one 
 speechless. Yet Amy, though her eyes were wander- 
 ing to and fro across the landscape, had her own other 
 reasons for her silence. All at once, finding her- 
 self there alone with Janet Leslie who, as a rule, had 
 never been her chosen comrade, there had flashed 
 up into her mind the memory of her talk with Paul, 
 the night before, the memory of the sombre grav- 
 ity in his gray eyes as, leaning on the terrace rail, 
 he had rested them by turns upon her face and on 
 the moving lights that flitted to and fro above the 
 inky river. 
 
 " I believe," he had burst out suddenly, as he 
 halted at the upper end of the terrace and plumped 
 his elbows on the rail, in token that he meant to stop 
 there for a little while ; " I believe that, after all, Pax 
 vobiscum is a good deal my creed." 
 
 Amy laughed scoffingly, for as yet she had no 
 notion that Paul's usual mood of chaff had fled away 
 and left him earnest. 
 
 " You ! You 're a born squabbler," she objected. 
 
 Paul rested his chin on his fists, then turned, fists 
 and all, to face her. In the glare of the light above 
 their heads, Amy was surprised at the expression in 
 his honest eyes.
 
 314 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 " Like beauty, it 's only just skin deep," he told 
 her, after a little pause. " Besides, a squabble is n't 
 a real row. What 's more, I 've had precious little ex- 
 perience in rows. I don't seem to know their precise 
 code of manners." 
 
 " You mean ? " Amy asked him, with a glance over 
 her left shoulder. 
 
 Paul nodded. 
 
 " Yes, Jack and Janet, of course. To my mind, 
 the matter is a good deal worse than ever. I 'd rather 
 she she clawed his eyes out and then wept over the 
 ruin she 'd created, than treated him in this sniffy 
 fashion. To watch her, you 'd think he had done her 
 a mortal injury in letting himself be insulted by 
 her. Yes. I mean insult. It amounts to that, in 
 the long run." 
 
 " And yet," Amy reflectively traced a pattern in 
 the dew which lay heavy on the iron rail before her ; 
 " Janet does n't really do a single thing." 
 
 " Of course. That 's the pesky part of it all," 
 Paul responded. " It 's what she does n't do, and 
 the way she goes about it, that 's the trouble. After a 
 fashion, I can't help liking Janet; we used to be 
 good chums, and I must say she has put up with a few 
 expressions of my candid opinion in a most saintly 
 fashion, even in this last summer. Still, if I were in 
 Jack's place, Amy Pope, I 'd be hanged if I would n't 
 knock her down." 
 
 " I wish he would," Amy made unexpected answer. 
 
 Paul shrugged his shoulders.
 
 JANET AT ODDS 315 
 
 " Horrid bad form," he suggested tersely. " She 's 
 a girl." 
 
 " Of course. It would n't be sanctified for him ; 
 but I suspect it would be the best thing in the world 
 for Janet. She needs a good, sound drubbing, to 
 bring her to her senses." 
 
 There came another pause, before Paul spoke 
 again. 
 
 " I don't pretend to know any too much about 
 girls," he said slowly then ; " but I 've a sneaking 
 notion that Janet has come to her senses, and that 
 that 's the clue to the whole trouble." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 Paul's reply was pithy. 
 
 " It 's a" long sight easier to climb gracefully up on 
 one's high horse than to climb gracefully down again." 
 
 " Perhaps." Amy wiped away her pattern with 
 her muslin-puffed elbows. " What then ? " she made 
 demand, after a minute or two of futile reflection. 
 
 " That somebody has got to get a good grip on her, 
 and then yank her down," Paul made inelegant 
 response. " What 's more, Amy, I rather think " 
 
 " Well ? " she prodded him. 
 
 " Think it 's up to you." 
 
 "Me? I? Paul! I won't!" Amy faced him in 
 sudden consternation. 
 
 " Don't be too sure ; at least, not until you 've had 
 a chance to think it out," he argued. " In a way, 
 even if it is a thankless task, there 's a good deal in 
 your favour. On your own showing, you 've never
 
 316 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 been especial chums with either Jack or Janet. She 
 can't well accuse you of taking sides. The others 
 won't : Sidney because she does n't dare trust her 
 temper, Day because she is too much on the one side, 
 the others because why, because it is n't in them. 
 As for me," he laughed shortly ; " I 'm a boy. It 
 never would do for me to be .tackling a girl. But 
 you You see' all sides of a thing ; you go straight 
 to your point, and, what 's more, you have a trick of 
 not putting a fellow's back up by the way you go 
 about it" 
 
 Amy's smile was very gentle. In all her popular 
 young life, she had never had a compliment that 
 pleased her more. 
 
 " Thank you, Paul," she answered slowly. " I 'm 
 glad if I 've seemed that way to you. But, about 
 Janet, I really could n't do it. I should only make 
 more trouble, not prevent it." 
 
 " Not you," he urged. " You could do it all right, 
 and really, it must be done." His eyes dropped to 
 the river below, and he spoke more slowly, with a 
 lowered voice and level accent. " Amy," he went on ; 
 " do you know I can't help feeling there 's a certain 
 disgrace about this thing, a certain shame hanging 
 around us all. It really does n't sound a pretty sort 
 of story, our coming up here to spend the summer and 
 have a rousing time of it together, and then our getting 
 into a fight that would disgrace a slum kindergarten. 
 In a way, of course, we did n't make the fight. Still, 
 we 're all in it more or less, all a little bit to blame."
 
 JANET AT ODDS 317 
 
 " We 're not to blame, Paul," Amy objected 
 quickly. 
 
 But Paul maintained his ground, unshaken by the 
 vehemence of her protest. 
 
 " Once a row of this kind is on," he told her 
 gravely ; " there 's a blame hanging on to every single 
 fellow who looks on, without doing his level best to 
 break it up." 
 
 The band, far down the terrace, filled the pause 
 with God Save the King. That ended, Paul put on 
 his cap, crossed his arms upon the rail before him, 
 and gave a little sigh. 
 
 " I hate like fury to lose a chum," he said incon- 
 sequently. 
 
 Amy made no pretext of a lack of comprehension. 
 
 " You '11 find her again," she predicted confidently. 
 
 Paul shook his head. 
 
 " Mayhaps," he answered, and his accent was a 
 little dreary. " I 'm willing to go three quarters of 
 the way; but, in a case like this, all my sense of 
 justice makes me wait for her to take the first step. 
 And, what 's more," he shook his head again ; " know- 
 ing Janet Leslie as I do, I 'm precious fearful she '11 
 never take it." 
 
 Against the background of the shining river and 
 of the sunny purple hills, the little scene flashed up 
 again before Amy's thoughtful eyes. She could see it 
 all quite plainly: Paul's strong, wide shoulders, his 
 earnest, freckled face, his troubled eyes, could even 
 hear the dropping note of sorrow in his voice. She
 
 318 JANET AT ODDS 
 
 had liked his depression, knowing, as she did, its 
 cause. She had liked his arguments, his sense of the 
 responsibility that lay upon them all, liked, above 
 all, his loyal regret for his broken trust in his old- 
 time chum. And beside her the chum was sitting 
 now, her chin on her hands, her sharp eyes grown 
 strangely gentle with some hidden thought which 
 was curling the corners of her lips into a smile far 
 more attractive than any they had worn for many a 
 week. 
 
 Amy watched her silently for a moment, letting one 
 picture rest upon the other, as if to form a composite 
 photograph of the good will which yet might come 
 again between them. Then, 
 
 " Janet ? " she said suddenly. 
 
 Without speaking, even without losing her con- 
 tented little smile, Janet turned her dreamy eyes on 
 her companion. 
 
 " Well ? " she asked. 
 
 " Do you realize how nearly the summer is over ? " 
 
 For her sole response, Janet pointed to the yellow- 
 ing trees that backed the Cove upon their left. Then 
 she resumed her old position. 
 
 " And it might have been so perfect," Amy went 
 on slowly. " Dearie, I only wish it had." 
 
 To her surprise, Janet did not resent her words. 
 Instead, she gave a little sigh. 
 
 " I wish so, too. Still, I suppose it could n't." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " We did n't fit. People don't, always, when you
 
 JANET AT ODDS 319 
 
 get them under one roof, no matter what good friends 
 they Ve been before. And then, besides " She 
 hesitated, paused. 
 
 " Yes," Amy told her fearlessly ; " besides that, 
 there was Jack." 
 
 Slowly Janet nodded, once and yet again. 
 
 " Yes," she assented gravely. " Yes, there was 
 always Jack and me." 
 
 For a minute, Amy's fingers shut together, as if 
 she gripped something, possibly her courage, between 
 her strong, brown little hands. Then she turned to 
 Janet, and, turning, her gravity matched Janet's 
 own. 
 
 " Janet, dear," she said then ; " there are two sides 
 to any question that comes up. Still, I don't know 
 but it 's something worth the doing, to prove to the 
 world at large that a railroad uniform may possibly be 
 holding a man inside it." 
 
 The words were quiet, friendly, wholly kind; yet 
 Amy's courage failed her, as she saw the scarlet tide 
 roll up across Janet's cheeks and brow. For one in- 
 stant, Janet's composure left her; her face broke 
 away from its steady lines. Then she rallied swiftly, 
 and, turning, she shut her hands on those of Amy. 
 
 " I do know it," she said breathlessly. " What is 
 more, I told Jack Blanchard so, last night." 
 
 But not all of Amy's tact and petting could ever 
 bring Janet Leslie to disclose Jack's answer. 
 
 THE END
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY'S 
 
 "SIDNEY" STORIES 
 
 Having completed the " Teddy " books, which delighted and continue to entertain 
 thousands of readers, Miss Ray in her new " Sidney " books utilizes new scenes and 
 an entirely new set of characters. 
 
 Anna Chapin Ray is to the present generation of youthful readers what Louisa M. 
 Alcott was to her generation. Her stories may be commended for their straight- 
 forward, simple style, their clean atmosphere, and their uplifting influence on the 
 characters of all who peruse them. Boston Transcript. 
 
 SIDNEY: HER SUMMER ON THE 
 ST. LAWRENCE 
 
 Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 Sidney Stayre is another of this author's true, helpful, earnest girl characters. 
 Denver Republican. 
 
 JANET: HER WINTER IN QUEBEC 
 
 Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. iamo. $1.50. 
 
 Gives a delightful picture of Canadian life and introduces a group of young people 
 who are bright and wholesome and good to read about. New York Globe. 
 
 DAY: HER YEAR IN NEW YORK 
 
 Illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards. I2mo. $1.50. 
 
 The third volume of the "Sidney Books," in which Phyllis, Sidney's younger 
 sister, develops from a well-meaning blunderer into an affectionate, tactful character. 
 The Bookman, New York. 
 
 SIDNEY AT COLLEGE 
 
 Illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards. I2mo. $1.50. 
 
 In this new volume Sidney Stayre is shown as a freshman at Smith College, en- 
 joying to the full the pleasures that fill her days, having her individual difficulties, 
 and with all the freshman's adoration for upper class girls and happenings. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, fc? COMPANY, Publishers 
 254 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
 
 ANNA CHAPIN RAY'S 
 
 "TEDDY" STORIES 
 
 Miss Ray's work draws instant comparison with the best of Miss Alcott's : first, 
 because she has the same genuine sympathy with boy and girl life ; secondly, 
 because she creates real characters, individual and natural, like the young people 
 one knows, actually working out the same kind of problems ; and, finally, because 
 her style of writing is equally unaffected and straightforward. Christian Register, 
 Boston. 
 
 TEDDY: HER BOOK. A Story of Sweet Sixteen 
 
 Illustrated by Vesper L. George. 12010. $1.50. 
 
 This bewitching story of "Sweet Sixteen," with its earnestness, impetuosity, 
 merry pranks, and unconscious love for her hero, has the same spring-like charm. 
 Kate Sanborn. 
 
 PHEBE: HER PROFESSION. A Sequel to "Teddy: 
 
 Her Book" 
 
 Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. I2mo. $1.50. 
 
 This is one of the few books written for young people in which there is to be 
 found the same vigor and grace that one demands in a good story for older people. 
 Worcester Spy. 
 
 TEDDY: HER DAUGHTER 
 
 A Sequel to "Teddy: Her Book," and " Phebe : Her Profession" 
 
 Illustrated by J. B. Graff. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 It is a human story, all the characters breathing life and activity. Buffalo Times. 
 
 NATHALIE'S CHUM 
 
 Illustrated by Ellen Bernard Thompson. I2mo. $1.50. 
 
 Nathalie is the sort of a young girl whom other girls like to read about. Hartford 
 
 Cou rant, 
 
 URSULA'S FRESHMAN. A Sequel to "Nathalie's Chum" 
 Illustrated by Harriet Roosevelt Richards. I2mo. $1.50. 
 The best of a series already the best of its kind. Boston Herald. 
 
 NATHALIE'S SISTER. A *ffi t0 " UrSUla>S FrCSh " 
 
 Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. i2mo. $1.50. 
 Peggy, the heroine, is a most original little lady who says and does all sorts of 
 interesting things. She has pluck and spirit, and a temper, but she is very lovable, 
 and girls will find her delightful to read about. Louisville Evening Post. 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY, Publishers 
 254 WASHINGTON ST., BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
 
 A 000128405 8