"Of course. You didn't think I had met with a change, did you?" "Hardly." Carolyn clasped her hands, and gazed down at them. A cloud was on her face. "You are not worrying about that great strapping fellow up-stairs, are you?" Prudence asked the question sharply. "No." "You didn't seem to feel much when you met him just now," remarked Prudence. "I didn't want to make a scene," was the reply. Prudence contemplated her companion for a moment in silence. Then she said that she had a bit of advice to offer; advice was easily given, and it never hurt any one, because no one ever followed it. "What is it?" "Don't be quite so self-controlled, or Rodney will begin to think you seem indifferent because you feel so. You know men are creatures who have no intuition, and who can't see the fraction of an inch below the surface. And though they say they don't like scenes, they do, when it's love for them that makes the scene. I don't charge you a cent for this information. I do wish I had a cigarette; I'd try it this very minute. "''Twas off the blue Canary Isle I smoked my last cigar!'" Prudence sang in a deep bass that threatened to choke her. She grew red in the face, and did not try to go on any further with the song. Carolyn glanced at her and laughed. "Somehow," she said, "I believe I thought Carlsbad would make you over." "You see I think I might have been made over if I had taken mud baths myself," was the reply; "but only seeing mamma take them didn't seem to have much effect,--only to bore me almost to death. Did you ever notice that, after you have been bored to extinction, and have escaped, you are liable to commit very nearly anything? You are so exhilarated, you know. Now I'm going to do something startling. I don't know yet whether I shall steal the Ffolliott silver, or--" here the girl paused to laugh--"or Carolyn Ffolliott's lover. For the first I might be put in jail; for the latter there's no punishment that I know." Prudence leaned back now and clasped her hands over the top of her head. "I do wish you wouldn't talk so!" Carolyn exclaimed. "Why? It's fun to take out the stopper and let yourself bubble over." "Prudence--" "Ma'am?" "I want to ask you something." "Go right ahead. Questions cheerfully answered; estimates given upon application." But Carolyn hesitated. Then she said that she wished her cousin would be serious. "Serious! You don't call me gay, do you? Why, the solemnity that dribbled over me from mamma isn't washed off yet. It will take a whole summer, and several men in love with me at once, and fighting about me, to take away the melancholy that I acquired at Carlsbad." As she finished speaking, Prudence rose, and stepped out on to the lawn. She ran across it and leaned on the wall at the end of it. Beyond lay the bay, flashing brightly in the sunlight; but her strong eyes did not blench as she gazed. "Is that the _Vireo_ in the sandy cove?" she asked. "Yes."