"It'll never pan out. Your ways are not her ways; her thoughts and your thoughts are as far apart as—as if she spoke Chinese and you Pennsylvania Dutch."
"Mr. Stillwater, I am not easily frightened. The more difficulties I encounter, the more determined I am to win."
"Now, don't misunderstand me," added Stillwater, quickly. "My daughter's no worse than any other man's daughter—women, as women, are all all alike. But we understand and know how to get along with them. I married very young, and I continued to live with my wife, my mother-in-law, and my daughter, all different dispositions, without quarrelling."
"Yes, I have observed and admired the equilibrium of your household. It would be very valuable to me to know how you manage it. Will you let me into the secret, Mr. Stillwater?"
"Ha, ha, ha! Easy enough—I give in!"
"You give in?" Lord Canning asked, incredulously.
"Every time," replied his host, proudly. "I never stand out against them, so they can't quarrel with me—and when they quarrel between themselves, I agree with them all—separately." He looked at his guest with a self-congratulatory expression.
"I'm afraid I could not adopt that method," he said quietly, flicking the ashes from his cigar.
"There," Stillwater exclaimed, triumphantly, "I told you it wouldn't do!" They heard Mrs. Bunker laughing in the woods with Lord Stafford, and presently she came through the trees, in her scarlet cape, bare-headed, followed by her guest carrying a wicker basket, brimful of balsam sprigs.
"We've been balsaming," she said.