I promised, and the next day about twenty minutes before twelve I saw Lottie going down the lane in the direction of the pine-woods, and felt a little curiosity as to the result of her experiment. I had been a week in the family and had learned their habits pretty well, while they had learned mine, and knew that I liked quiet and regular meals because, as Mrs. Parks said, my “digester was out of kilter and needed toning up,” and it was my digester which she used as one argument to hurry up the delinquent Lottie, when she stood on the rail fence, calling: “Charlotte Ann! Charlotte Ann! Charlotte Ann Parks! Where be you?” It was nearly half-past twelve when Lottie returned, looking flushed and excited. Like Sam, I believed the whole thing rot, but was anxious to hear what she had to tell me. “Did you see Sam?” I asked, when we were alone. “Yes, bodily,” she answered with a laugh. “He saw me on the way to the woods and followed, and just as a shadow was beginning to come on the glass, or I thought it was, he seized me round my shoulders and said, ‘Let me see how our faces look together!’ I came near falling into the well, and should have done so, if he had not held me back. He just spoiled it, but I mean to try again after the young ladies are here. They are coming to-morrow. Mother has a letter. Here it is.” She handed it to me and I read as follows: “New York, July —, 18—. “Mrs. Parks, “Madam:—You may expect me on Wednesday, with my cousin Rena. “Yours, Miss Irene Burdick.”