the family that he gives voice to his decision, and because his decision often coincides with the conclusion the family has reached"
"Do the family ever reach a unanimous decision?"
"If you could have heard how fully agreed we were that Finch must come home"
"Oh, that I can understand! I wish I had not told you where he is working."
"My dear, I shall not try to force Finch in the very least. You shall be present, if you will, when we meet, then you'll see that I only want an affectionate talk with him."
"But what are you going to do, then? Bribe him to go home with the promise of music lessons? Has Renny descended to bribing the boys?"
Ernest answered impressively: "Renny had no intention of stopping Finch from playing the piano except till his examinations should be over. Once he has written on them, Renny intends, and has intended all along, that Finch shall begin taking lessons again. He may spend the whole summer making music if he likes."
"Hmph," muttered Alayne, grudgingly. She wished she could have felt more enthusiastic over the family's plans for Finch.
Nevertheless, Ernest was a dear. She loved to see him sitting in her most comfortable chair making attractive but rather vague gestures with his graceful hands. She was proud of him when Rosamond Trent came in and discovered them. She had the feeling that when she had talked of Eden's uncles Rosamond had pictured two rather frowsty old men, quaint relics of a bygone day. Now she saw that Rosamond found Ernest charming. She was impressed by the pleasant modulations in his voice. These he had acquired at Oxford, along with the notion that, while it might be well for some to slave, it was not well for Ernest Whiteoak.
Ernest invited the two to luncheon with him. As he walked along Fifth Avenue with them beside him, there was spring in his step and in his blood. Alayne had a look of breeding; he admired that in a woman above all things. Rosamond looked essentially a woman of the
