Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III The Chadwicks all had a certain sulkiness in their charming looks, and where in Barney it mingled with sweetness, in Palgrave, his younger brother, it mingled with brilliancy. It was Palgrave who, at the station, met the family friend and counsellor in the shabby, inexpensive family car. He was still a mere boy, home from Marlborough for the Easter holidays; fond of Oldmeadow, as all the Chadwicks were; but more resentful of his predominance than Barney and more indifferent to his brotherly solicitude. He had Barney’s long, narrow face and Barney’s eyes and lips; but the former were proud and the latter petulant. To-day, as he sat beside him in the car, Oldmeadow was aware of something at once fixed and vibrating in his bearing. He wanted to say something, and he had resolved to be silent. During their last encounter at Coldbrooks, he and Old- meadow had had a long, antagonistic political discussion, and Palgrave’s resentment still, no doubt, survived. Coldbrooks lay among the lower Cotswolds, three miles from the station, and near the station was the village of Chelford where Nancy Averil and her mother lived. Nancy was at Coldbrooks; Aunt Monica ? she was called aunt by the Chadwick children, though she and Mrs. Chadwick were first cousins ? was away. So Palgrave informed him. But he did not speak again until the chill, green curve of arable hillside was climbed and a stretch of wind-swept country lay before them. Then suddenlyhe volunteered: The American girl is at Cold- brooks.
Oh! Is she? When did she come? Somehow Oldmeadow had expected the later train for Miss Toner. Yesterday. She and Barney came down together in her car.
So you’ve welcomed her already, said Old- meadow, curious of the expression on the boy’s face. How does she fit into…