When Katie demurred that she would have been less outrageous had she had the slightest notion Mrs.Prescott would be there to be received, it developed that Wayne was further irritated because he had come to take Ann out for a boat ride--and Katie had gone in the boat--heaven only knew where! Then when Katie sought to demolish that irritation with the suggestion that just then was the most beautiful time of day for the river--and she knew it would do Ann good to go--Wayne clung manfully to his grievance, this time labeling it worry.

He forbade Katie's going any more by herself.

It was preposterous she should have stayed so long.

He would have been out looking for her had it not been that Watts had been able to get a glimpse of the boat pulled in on the upper island.
Katie wondered what else Watts had been able to get a glimpse of.
Wayne was so bent on being abused (hot days affected people differently) that the only way she could get him to relinquish a grievance for a pleasure was to put it in the form of a duty.

Ann needed a ride on the river, Katie affirmed, and so they had gone, Wayne doing his best to cover his pleasure.
"Men never really grow up," she mused to Wayne's back.