Mrs. Merrill and Mrs. Humphrey were busy talking and didn’t notice what Mary Jane was doing till the veil was almost fixed. Then Mrs. Humphrey noticed it, and was all regret for coming this route. "My dear!" she exclaimed to Mrs. Merrill, "I didn’t know your little girl was so delicate! We should never have come this way! We could just as well have driven west and then she wouldn’t have felt this awful wind from the ocean! Why, it’s just too bad! We’ll have Higgins turn around at once! I should have asked you, only your little girl _looked_ so strong and I thought she and her sister might like to go in bathing at the beach. Such a dear little thing to watch and put the veil on herself at the first breath! My nephew’s children are so careless—they never _will_ wrap up as—" There seemed no hope of the good lady ever stopping, so Mrs. Merrill interrupted to say, "Don’t be a bit concerned, Mrs. Humphrey, Mary Jane is not delicate—in fact she is very strong and vigorous. But she did want to wear a veil and pretend to be grown-up, and she has taken advantage of the first breeze to think she must put it on." Mary Jane was panic-stricken. She wasn’t sick; she’d love to go swimming in the ocean, and the very thought of leaving that pretty beach they were just approaching and turning west made her sorry. What _had_ she done by putting on her veil? "Don’t you worry ’bout me," she said to Mrs. Humphrey, "I’m never sick. But I like to wear a veil—a big lady veil. Don’t you like to, too? But I like to go swimming too, I do." "Very well then," said Mrs. Humphrey, smilingly, "you shall go swimming. I guess I don’t understand little girls very well. But I know they always like to come to the beach and they like to eat—oh, ’most anything." "Then you know them pretty well after all," said Alice laughing. "But they can’t eat before they swim," said Mary Jane, "little girls can’t." "To be sure," agreed Mrs. Humphrey as the car came to a stop on the shining sand, "but if they go in the water at once—they won’t have to wait long to eat, will they?" As the girls climbed out of the car they decided that Mrs. Humphrey knew considerable about girls even if she didn’t happen to understand Mary Jane’s notions about wanting to dress up like grown folks. At the right hand end of the long beach was a private clubhouse where Mr. Humphrey had a membership, and there Mrs. Humphrey took Alice and Mary Jane to fit them out with bathing suits. "I wish someone we knew was here to go in with you," said she worriedly, as they walked toward the beach after the girls had dressed. "Of course Higgins is bringing lap rugs down close to the water and your mother and I will sit right there near. But you could have more fun with the big waves, if someone could take you out."