"That's a fine cove," he said, his eyes fixed on the far reaches of the sea.
"So the yachtsmen think," returned Kathleen.
"Let's look at it a minute," said Phil.
The girl paused obediently and a smile touched the corners of her lips. Phil's impersonality with regard to herself was novel; for Kathleen had the intangible quality called charm to such a degree that nothing masculine had ever before been able to approach so near to her without striving to win her favor.
From that first Sunday in the stable studio she had perceived that if she were going to see more of this new factor in the family circle she must do the striving if she were to become a factor to him. A dread that she might desire to do this had beset her ever since, and warned her away from him with a sense of self-preservation.
He stood forgetful of her now, and narrowed his eyes to the picture.
"Well, have you looked enough?" she asked. "How are the pangs?"
"Yes, yes," he replied hurriedly. "I can come back."
"Certainly, we promise not to lock you up," she answered, half-laughing. "We'll get better views of it, too, as we go on," she added, and turned at a right angle into a green ribbon road leading up a second incline.