Patricia was ennuyee to the last degree. That morning Sir Charles had ridden to Green Spring with her father; Mistress Lettice was in the still room decocting a face wash from rose leaves, dew and honey; young Shaw on his knees in the master's room, disconsolately poring over piles of musty papers in search of a misplaced deed which the colonel had ordered him to find against his return. It was a hot and listless afternoon. Patricia read a page of "The Rival Ladies," tried her spinet, had a languid romp with her spaniels, and finally sauntered into the porch, and leaning her white arms upon the railing, looked towards the dazzling blue waters of the Chesapeake. Presently an idea came to her. She went swiftly into the hall, and called for Darkeih. When that handmaiden appeared:-- "Darkeih, go down to the quarters, and tell the first man you meet to find Woodson, and send him to me." Darkeih departed, and in half an hour's time the overseer appeared at the foot of the porch steps, red and heated from his rapid walk from the Three-Mile field. "What's wrong, Mistress Patricia?" he asked quickly. Patricia opened her lovely eyes. "Nothing is wrong, Woodson. What should be? I sent for you, because I want to go to Rosemead." "To Rosemead!" exclaimed the overseer. "Yes, to Rosemead, and I want a couple of men to take me." The overseer gave a short, vexed laugh. "I can't spare the men, Mistress Patricia. You ought to have known that every man jack on the plantation is busy cutting. If I had a known this was all that was wanted! Fegs! I thought something dreadful was the matter." "Something dreadful is the matter," said the young lady calmly. "I am bored to death." "Sorry for ye, missy, but I can't spare the men." "Oh, yes, you can!" said Patricia with unruffled composure. The overseer, knowing his lady, began to weaken. "Anyhow, you wouldn't want two men. You might go on a pillion behind old Abraham. I could spare _him_." "I shall not go a-horseback. 'Tis too hot and dusty. I shall go in one of the sail-boats--the Bluebird, I think." "Now, in the name of all that's contrary, what do you want to do that for, Mistress Patricia?" cried the harassed overseer. "It's twice as far by water." "I'll reach Rosemead before dark. The men can bring the boat back to-night, and Major Carrington will send me home on a pillion to-morrow." "Have you forgotten that to-morrow is Sunday?" said the overseer severely, and with a new-born anxiety for the proper observance of the holy day. "Will you have the Colonel pay a fine for you?" "I will go to service with the Carringtons then, and come home on Monday," said the lady serenely. "There's a squall coming up this afternoon." "There isn't a cloud in the sky," said his mistress with calm conviction, looking straight before her at a low, tumbled line of creamy peaks along the horizon. "If the Colonel were here--"