"Faith, then, I'd best make myself invisible, lest when recognized I mayn't be seen." Scarlett turned to go.
"Oh, please remain," pleaded Maclane, "and help me advise with Miss Durant. Pending her father's arrival, she finds herself, er--financially embarrassed--or rather at a loss to proportion her finances to her wants in the style to which she is accustomed. Now what do you suggest?"
"The first word lies with you, Dominie." His back toward the two, Scarlett had seated himself on the veranda steps and was playing with Telegraph and Wrangel, who, after a series of critical sniffings, had taken him unreservedly into their favor.
"Oh, not with me; not with any son of man," hastily disclaimed Maclane, who quite forgot that he had tried to throw the responsibility on Scarlett. "First always comes prayer. Take your troubles, my daughter, to the Divine Footstool."
"Oh, of course," replied Evelyn, petulantly, "I always say my prayers, and make the responses in church. But just now I'm asking you how I am to pay for daily bread."
"Well," Scarlett considered, "I should advise--to begin with--well----"
"You've said well twice," Evelyn sharply pulled him up. "Best let well alone."
"Pardon," retorted Scarlett. "Truth lies at the bottom of my well."
In spite of herself Evelyn smiled, and perceiving his advantage he went on: "After all, well is the best beginning when you can't find a better. Why not for the present--just for a lark, you know--try roughing it?"
"Roughing it!" echoed Evelyn, in dismay. "Wouldn't that be a bit rough?"
"That's where the lark comes in," Scarlett assured her. "And we'd all make it as smooth as we know how."
"A capital idea!" Maclane slapped his knee and looked toward the sweet-pea vines as if calling on them to agree with him. "So--er--original. Think what letters you can write to your friends at home, Miss Durant. And then that is the only way to get the full--er--bouquet of a country, so to speak; not from the tourist standpoint, but by living the life of the people of any class who, by their work, are making it."
Miss Durant frowned, pondered a little, then smiled. "I rather like the notion. We came here largely to do good, and it will make the inhabitants feel more at ease; bridge over the social difference, as it were, if I adopt their mode of life. I really am very democratic."