Free Daphne Deane by Grace Livingston Hill Page A

jeweled clock, and occasionally her eyes watched the hour, and she frowned petulantly.
    Then above the beating of the sea waves she heard a distant whistle; her brow relaxed and she gave an impatient sigh. The train was coming at last. Perhaps Keith would be on it. Anyway, her father would be coming and that would be a help. He had promised to come on that train.
    All the afternoon Anne had been engaged in the much discussed fashion show at the beach, modeling the skimpy bathing suits that Keith so much disliked. He had asked her for his sake to give up doing it, and she had lifted her stubborn young chin and flatly said, "I won't!" And then he had put that hard, steely look in his angry eyes and gone away. She had laughed as he went, and told herself he would come back soon enough. She had fully expected that he would be present at the fashion show. All day she had watched for him, searched the cheery throngs of onlookers, but had not been able to find his fine aristocratic face anywhere among them. And when it was all over and one of the handsomest prizes hers, and she had come to the house to rest, she had flung the expensive bauble on her dressing table more vexed than she cared to own even to herself, arrayed herself in embroidered peacocks, and sat down to sulk.
    But still, he might come even yet. Now that it was all over he probably would come quietly. It was his way; that was somehow intriguing and different from the ways of the other young men. Then things would go on as they had, and she would have won her point. At least she would have won half of it. The whole of her victory would have been won if he had come to see her in the much discussed attire. That would have been a real triumph, to have made him see and enjoy the exhibition and make him own afterward that she had been so lovely in the bathing suit that he forgot all about his objections. But at least it would be something if he came back as soon as the show was over.
    So she sat and waited, angrily, impatiently, yet more eagerly than it was her wont to await the approach of any young man. There were usually too many at her feet for her to miss a mere delinquent. Perhaps his very refusal to give in to her every whim intrigued her all the more to conquer him.
    At last she heard the car drive up and her father's voice below, speaking to the chauffeur. She sprang up and went to look through the window. No, there was no one with him! Her face took on its vexed look again. Still, Keith had only met her father once, just for a moment. He might not have made himself known at the station. It would be like his pride to take a cab, or perhaps walk, or----he might even be waiting till after dinner and calling more formally. But of course that would show that he was still holding some of his anger.
    She turned and went back to her place by the table where she could study again the face of the young man, her latest victim, who was rapidly becoming more to her than she had ever really intended.
    Sometime later there came a tap at her door and her father entered.
    Almost at once after he was seated his eyes wandered about the room and rested upon the picture.
    "Your young man didn't come to the office today. I thought you were going to send him."
    "I was, but, you see, I didn't get that far with him, Dad. He's horribly stubborn! I'm very angry at him!"
    She drew her beautiful brows into an angry scowl.
    A shade of something like amused satisfaction crossed her father's face as he watched her.
    "So!" he said grimly. "You've found somebody you can't bend at a word, have you? He must be a pretty good man if he can stand out against you."
    "Now, Dad!" reproached the daughter with a furious glance at her amused parent. "I thought you said you were a hundred percent for me !"
    "Oh, so I am! You're all right. Chip off the old block and all that. Only I can't help admiring when I see a better man than I am."
    "What do you mean, a better man than you are? I didn't say anything like