But she was either busy with business or with pleasure somewhere or other--and he never found her at home; so he went South without hearing from her.
[Illustration: "Querida had laughed ...

and returned compliment for compliment."] After he arrived, it is true, he received from her a cigarette case and a very gay and frank Christmas greeting--happy and untroubled apparently, brimming with gossip, inconsequences, and nonsense.

In it she thanked him for his letter and his gift, hoped he was happy with his parents, and expressed an almost conventional desire to see him on his return.
Then his parents came back to New York with him.

Two days before New Year's Day they went to Spindrift House instead of sailing for Egypt, where for some years now they had been accustomed to spend the winters shivering at Shepherd's.

And he and his sister and brother-in-law and Stephanie dined together that evening.