"Bless their sweet faces!--pretending to be happy, just to cheer up the mistress, and make believe it is only a game they are having!" muttered the old woman, as she paused to listen. "But, if I am not mistaken, Miss Phillis, poor dear, is just ready to drop with fatigue. Only to hear her, one would think she was as perky as possible." When the evening meal was over, Mrs. Challoner leaned back in her chair and made a little speech to her daughters: "Thank you, my dears. You have done me so much good. Now, if you want to please me, you will all three put on your hats and take a nice long walk together." The girls looked at each other, and every pair of eyes said, as plainly as possible, "What a delicious idea! But only two can go, and I intend to be the filial victim." But Mrs. Challoner was too quick for them. "I said all three," she remarked, very decidedly. "If one offers to stay with me, I shall just put myself to bed and lock the door; but if you will be good, and enjoy this lovely evening, I will take my book in the garden and be quite happy until you come back to me." And when they saw that she meant it, and would only be worried by a fuss, they went off as obediently as possible. They walked very sedately down the Braidwood Road, and past the White House; but when they got into the town, Phillis hurried them on a little: "I don't want people. It is air and exercise and freedom for which I am pining." And she walked so fast that they had some trouble to keep up with her. But when they had left every trace of human habitation behind them, and were strolling down the rough, uneven beach, towards a narrow strip of sand, that would soon be covered by the advancing tide, Phillis said, in an odd, breathless way, "Nan, just look round and see if there be any one in sight, before, behind, or around us;" and Nan, though in some little surprise, did at once as she was bidden, in the most thorough manner. For she looked up at the sky first, as though she were afraid of balloons or possible angels; and then at the sea, which she scanned narrowly, so that not even a fish could escape her; and after that she beat the boundaries of the land. "No, there is not a creature in sight except ourselves and Laddie," she answered. "Very well," answered Phillis promptly. "Then, if it be all safe, and the Hadleigh wits are away wool gathering, and you will not tell mother, I mean to have a race with Dulce, as far as we can run along the shore; and if I do not win----" And here she pursed up her lips and left her sentence unfinished, as though determined to be provoking. "We shall see about that," returned Dulce, accepting the challenge in a moment; for she was always ready to follow a good lead.