As if divining his thoughts Agnes said to him rather abruptly: “Guy, Ellen Laurie writes me that they are all going to Saratoga for a time, and then to Newport, and she wished I would join them. Do you think I can afford it?” “Oh, yes, that’s splendid, for I’ll stay here while you are gone, and I like Aikenside so much better than Boston. Mamma can afford it, can’t she, Guy?” Jessie exclaimed, dropping her flowers and springing upon her brother’s knee. Smoothing her bright hair and pinching her soft cheek, Guy replied: “That means, I suppose, that I can afford it, don’t it? but, puss, I was thinking just now about your staying here where you really do improve.” Then turning to Agnes he made some inquiries as to the plans proposed by the Laurie’s, ascertaining that Agnes’ plan was as follows: He should invite her to go with him to Saratoga, or Newport, or both, and that Jessie meantime should remain at Aikenside, just as she wished to do. Guy could not find much pleasure in escorting Agnes to a fashionable watering place, particularly as he was, of course, expected to pay the bills, but he sometimes did unselfish things; and as he had not been very gracious to her on the occasion of her last visit to Aikenside, he decided to martyr himself and go to Saratoga. But who would care for Jessie? She must not be left wholly with the servants. A governess of some kind must be provided, and he was about speaking of this to Agnes, when the doctor was announced, and the conversation turned into another channel. Agnes Remington would not have confessed how much she was interested in Dr. Holbrook. Indeed, only that morning in reply to a joking remark made to her by Guy, she had petulantly exclaimed: “The idea of my caring for him, except as a friend and physician. Why, he must be younger than I am, or at most about my age. A mere boy, as it were.”