“Florence is keen,” said Alison and gave Kit a thoughtful glance. “She thinks you the English college and country house type: for example, the Netherhall type.”
“Sometimes I did stop at Netherhall for a holiday, but it was not my home. My father was not rich, and my poverty’s obvious. Why does Miss Grey hate the Netherhall type?”
“I don’t altogether know, Kit, but I feel she has good grounds—— Well, I oughtn’t to speculate about it, and I owe her much. She got me my post at the creamery, and, in order to be with me, she stops at the boarding-house. We have one room, the dining-room, for fourteen people; you cannot be alone, and sometimes you get tired of the crowd.”
“A crowd is tiresome,” Kit agreed in a sympathetic voice. “In Canada one is never alone. The Canadians are a co-operative, gregarious lot; anyhow they go about in flocks. If Miss Grey went to another house, I expect she would not get much space and quiet.”
“The grocery is large. Jason is old and his wife gets infirm. They are kind people and want Florence to live with them; but, for my sake, she comes to the boarding-house as soon as the store is shut.”
“Ah,” said Kit, “I begin to like Miss Grey; but if she had waited a little longer I would not have grumbled——”
He indicated a large red motorcycle. A tall thin young man leaned over the handles and his glance was fixed in front; Miss Grey was on the carrier, and her clothes blew in the wind. The machine lurched and jolted, the engine fired explosively, and the blue exhaust stained the tossing dust. Kit, studying the broken trail, understood the driver’s concentration. At the edge of the bluff Miss Grey jumped down and the other stopped the motorcycle.
“She made it!” he shouted in a triumphant voice. “The sand belt was fierce, but we went through like a snow-plow.”
“We came off twice,” Miss Grey remarked, and beat her dusty clothes.
Then she called her companion, and Kit was presented to Mr. Ted Harries. Harries was tall and carried himself awkwardly. His bony wrists and ankles were conspicuous, as if his clothes had been made for a standard figure. Miss Grey stated that he was a grain storage company’s clerk, and he gave Kit a friendly grin.