Mrs. Fleming readily guessed that money was no consideration with the lady, and as it was of much importance to her, she decided to ask the highest possible price at first, and then fall if necessary. After a moment, during which she seemed to be thinking, she said: “I don’t know but I can accommodate you with three rooms, though I do not often rent an extra parlor, and if I do so now my daughter Josephine must give up the room she occupies when she is here.” “Then she is not at home?” Beatrice said, feeling that she must know that fact before she engaged board, where the only attraction was Josephine who, she found, had only gone for a week or so to Oak Bluffs, with a party of friends, and was expected daily. The price named for the three rooms, though high for Holburton, did not seem unreasonable to Beatrice, and the bargain was closed with the understanding that Beatrice was to take immediate possession. “It will be a change for Mrs. Morton; a relief to Aunt Nancy; a possible benefit to Everard, and an amusement to me,” Beatrice thought, as she hurried back to Bronson, where she found the Rev. Theodore himself, handsomer, more elegant in appearance, because better dressed, than when she saw him last, and very glad to see her, as an old friend who was kind to his wife and children. To the Holburton plan he listened approvingly. It would do Mollie good, he said, for two sick people in one house were quite too many for the comfort of either. But Mollie demurred; she could not sleep in new places unless everything were right, and she presumed there were swarms of crickets and tree-toads, and possibly bull-frogs, there among the mountains, to make the night hideous. It would be impossible to portray the scorn and disgust which blazed in the black eyes of Mrs. Julia Hayden, who was present, when Mollie uttered her protest against Holburton. “Crickets, and tree-toads, and bull-frogs, indeed! She’d like to see the bull-frog which could keep her awake, even if it sat on her pillow and croaked in her ear; it was all nonsense, such fidgets. Just use your will and a little common sense, and you will sleep through everything.”