"Yes; I admit there seemed to be 'too much Polydores.' We all had a happy reunion, and I devoted the forenoon to the entertainment of the famous family so I could be entitled to the afternoon off to spend with Beth. At noon we built a fire and cooked a sumptuous dinner. Beth baked up some things to keep them supplied a couple of days longer. After dinner I asked her to go for a row. She insisted on taking Diogenes along, and the others all followed us on a raft. So I decided to cut the water sports short, and Beth and I started for a walk in the woods. Three or more were constantly right on our trail. I begged and bribed, but to no avail. They were sticktights all right, and," he added morosely, "she seemed covertly to aid and abet them. When we started for home, I found that the young fiends had broken the cart, so I had to carry Diogenes most of the way, and of course he bellowed as usual at being parted from the whelps." [Illustration: I had to carry Diogenes most of the way] "They aren't such 'fine little chaps' after all," I couldn't resist commenting. "Familiarity breeds contempt, you see. I am sorry Diogenes had so much of their society. He'll be unendurable tomorrow. Well, you had some day!" "So did the Polydores. Demetrius and Diogenes fell in the fire twice. Emerald threw a finger out of joint, but Ptolemy quickly jerked it into place. Pythagoras was kicked off the raft twice, following a mutiny. Demetrius threw a lighted match into the vines and set fire to the house. They said it was a 'beaut of a day', though, and urged us to come tomorrow and repeat the program. By the way, they went across the lake on their raft yesterday and bought a tent of some campers. They have pitched it in the woods beyond the house." When I went upstairs Silvia met me disconsolately. "He didn't propose," she said disappointedly. "She wouldn't let him." "Did you wake her up to find out?" I asked. "She hadn't gone to bed and she wasn't sleepy. She was trimming a hat." "Why wouldn't she let him propose, if she cares for him?" I asked perplexedly. "Well, you see," explained Silvia, "that when a girl--a coquette girl like Beth--is as sure of a man as she is of Rob, she gets a touch of contrariness or offishness or something. She said it would have been too prosaic and cut and dried if they had gone away for a day in the woods and come back engaged. She wants the unexpected." "Do you think she loves him?" I asked interestedly. "She doesn't say so. You can't tell from what she says anyway. Still, I think she is hovering around the danger point." "She'd better watch out. Rob isn't the kind of a man who will stand for too much thwarting," I replied. "If he'd only play up a little bit to some one else, it would bring things to a climax," said my wife sagely. "There's no one else to play up to. The blonde left today because it was so slow here."