"Ida! Ida!" reproved Miss Hest, "don't----"
"I will," said the young lady crossly; "and I shan't ask Colonel Towton to the ball, when father won't let me ask Conny."
"You call him that?" asked Arthur, with a shrug. Ida looked at him indignantly, evidently with a conscience ill at ease. "I shall never speak to you again," she said in an offended tone.
"Not if I get your father to let Maunders come to the ball?"
"Oh, can you; can you?" she asked, in a girlish, delighted tone on this occasion. "I wish you would. Father likes you so much. And you can tell him," she added handsomely, "that if he will let me ask Conny I shall invite Colonel Towton. There--that's fair."
"You are playing with fire," warned Frances gravely. "Better not invite Mr. Maunders. You can never marry him."
"It's indelicate to speak of my marriage in the presence of a stranger," said Ida with some heat.
"I am not a stranger, I hope," remarked Vernon quickly.
"Yes, you are, when you are horrid," and with a rosy face of sheer annoyance she flitted to the end of the verandah. Ida was rather like Titania, being sylph-like, golden-haired, and blue-eyed, whereas Miss Hest resembled Judith with her strongly-marked handsome face and black eyebrows.
"Who is horrid?" asked a voice at this juncture, and Mr. Dimsdale appeared on the threshold of the French window, which was behind the table. "Ah, Arthur, is that you? I have been expecting to see you. Come into the library."
Vernon obeyed at once, as Frances had hurried after the petulant girl to pacify her. Miss Hest treated Ida as a wilful child, and by scolding and coaxing and cajoling managed to get her to behave like a reasonable being. It must be confessed that Dimsdale had spoiled his golden-haired darling, and even the boarding-school she had attended could not supply the place of the mother, who was dead. The old man turned to Vernon when they entered the drawing-room through the French window. "Who is horrid?" he asked again.
Vernon laughed and slipped into a chair. "It's a storm in a tea-cup," he explained easily, and accepting a cigar. "Miss Hest advised Ida to give up Maunders, and I supported her. Then Ida----"
"I know, I know," broke in Dimsdale sadly. "She is wilful and is quite infatuated with the scamp. Arthur, Arthur, I should have married again, so that Ida could be trained by a good woman. I can't manage her."