"Blame me, Mrs. Bunker!" said Lord Canning. "Dinner is a fact that I had forgotten."
"Apparently," answered Mrs. Bunker, who looked wonderfully well pleased considering her impatience.
"That is something new for you, Thurston. You always used to be quite punctilious in the matter of meals."
"Indeed, Uncle Nelson!"
"Lord Canning has lost his memory for the time being," explained Indiana. "He is just a trifle demented—by his own confession."
"Don't be alarmed, good people!" said Lord Canning, with a far-away look. "I belong to the harmless variety. Miss Stillwater, who is my keeper for the present, can testify to that."
"Oh yes, quite harmless! He has only one delusion. He believes that he has discovered the Adirondacks, and he christens everything that he sees, with a name of his own."
As they made their way to the wagon, Lord Canning read an indescribable expression on his uncle's face, which amused him greatly.
"Thurston never went on like this at the country houses we visited in England," reflected Lord Stafford, on the homeward drive. "It seems that people act differently abroad from their manner at home."
"Don't take the old road home, Indiana!" cried Mrs. Bunker as they started. "It's too long."