They made a few hen-tracks. Noticing his shoulder was just touching hers, and feeling a trifle weary on her camp-stool, she leaned back a little. "It is very pleasant to have you here," she said dreamily. "It is very heavenly to be here," he said. "How generous you are to give us so much of your time!" murmured Drusilla. "I think so, too," said Flavilla, washing a badger brush. "And I am becoming almost as fond of you as Drusilla is." "Don't you like him as well as I do?" asked Drusilla. Flavilla turned on her camp-stool and inspected them both. "Not quite as well," she said frankly. "You know, Drusilla, you are very nearly in love with him." And she resumed her sketching. Drusilla gazed at the purple horizon unembarrassed. "Am I?" she said absently. [Illustration: "Perhaps,' he said, 'I had better hold your pencil again'"] "Are you?" he repeated, close to her shoulder. She turned and looked into his sun-tanned face curiously. "What is it--to love? Is it"--she looked at him undisturbed--"is it to be quite happy and lazy with a man like you?" He was silent. "I thought," she continued, "that there would be some hesitation, some shyness about it--some embarrassment. But there, has been none between you and me." He said nothing. She went on absently: "You said, the other day, very simply, that you cared a great deal for me; and I was not very much surprised. And I said that I cared very much for you.... And, by the way, I meant to ask you yesterday; are we engaged?" "Are we?" he asked. "Yes--if you wish.... Is _that_ all there is to an engagement?" "There's a ring," observed Flavilla, dabbing on too much ultramarine and using a sponge. "You've got to get her one, Mr. Yates." Drusilla looked at the man beside her and smiled. "How simple it is, after all!" she said. "I have read in the books Pa-pah permits us to read such odd things about love and lovers.... Are we lovers, Mr. Yates? But, of course, we must be, I fancy." "Yes," he said. "Some time or other, when it is convenient," observed Flavilla, "you ought to kiss each other occasionally." "That doesn't come until I'm a bride, does it?" asked Drusilla. "I believe it's a matter of taste," said Flavilla, rising and naively stretching her long, pretty limbs. She stood a moment on the edge of the bluff, looking down. "How curious!" she said after a moment. "There is Pa-pah on the water rowing somebody's maid about." "What!" exclaimed Yates, springing to his feet. "How extraordinary," said Drusilla, following him to the edge of the bluff; "and they're singing, too, as they row!" From far below, wafted across the sparkling waters of Oyster Bay, Mr. Carr's rich and mellifluous voice was wafted shoreward: "_I der-reamt that I dwelt in ma-arble h-a-l-ls._" The sunlight fell on the maid's coquettish cap and apron, and sparkled upon the buckle of one dainty shoe. It also glittered across the monocle of Mr. Carr. "Pa-_pah!_" cried Flavilla.