I suppose they're out about the place. You could send Rudolph."
Howat replied that he would find them himself. He wanted, now, to
prepare James Polder for any incidental unpleasantness. The latter, he
knew, had a hasty temper, a short store of patience. After all, he had
acted very well in a difficult situation. It had been Mariana. Howat
Penny was aware of a growing sympathy for young Polder. His was a more
engaging person than Kingsfrere's pasty presence and sharp reputation at
cards. He got his hat, and went out over the thick, smooth sod, into the
slumberous, blue radiance of the early summer noon.
He found Mariana and James Polder sitting on a bank by the Furnace.
"Peter Provost's here with Kingsfrere," he told them quietly. "They want
to see.... James, about some nonsense bantered around town." Polder
rose quickly, instantly antagonistic. "At the house?" he demanded,
already moving away. Mariana stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't pay any attention to what they may say, Jimmy," she commanded.
"It isn't Peter Provost's affair, and Kingsfrere in a fatherly pose is a
scream." They moved forward together. "I'll see them," she added
cuttingly.
"I will attend to this," James Polder told her. "I don't want any woman
explaining my actions.
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