“Walk? Is that feat one of the Overlook stunts? If it is I must accomplish it before I leave. I haven’t done so rash a thing yet. A friend happened to be motoring down, and he was kind enough to bring me up to Sally’s. I intended to stay there a few days before throwing myself on your hospitality; but the Robinsons are full to overflowing--one of the young men occupied a couch hammock last night. Not that I mind sleeping in the open, I enjoy it myself; but Sally vetoed that at once, so here I am, a beggar at your door! Later she says she will be delighted to have me with them. So I shall only be changing the time of my visit to you.” Of course, Polly voiced as warm a welcome as she could compass at the moment, and it evidently satisfied Marietta; to the hostess herself it sounded stiff and cold. The visitor talked incessantly, so that Polly’s silence was able to pass unnoticed. She felt that Marietta had an object in coming; but it was long before she decided what that object could be. Had it anything to do with David? His name was not mentioned at first. Polly hesitated to speak it, and it was finally Marietta who forestalled her. “You ought to see how changed David is,” she said to Polly. “You’d hardly know him.” “Has he grown so stout?” inquired Lilith innocently. This sent Marietta off in a convulsion of laughter. “Oh, if that isn’t the very funniest thing!” she exclaimed at the end of her fit of mirth. “I must repeat that to David. How he will enjoy it!” Lilith sat silent with reddening face. Polly’s eyes showed warning glints of displeasure. Finally Miss Converse was ready to explain. “Oh, I did not mean that at all!” she smiled, halting a moment as if in satisfied recollections. “Of course, you live so very quietly here, it isn’t strange that you didn’t understand.” She glanced at Lilith. “David is a changed man. Why, he is the very life of the camp! He leads everything that’s going, and there’s something on all the time. We almost never get a day of rest. I’m actually glad to be where I can breathe quietly. Up there in the daytime it is rowing or bathing or hiking or tennis or golf or motor picnic, and there’s a party somewhere nearly every night. David is in the heart of it all, and the girls just adore him! He is really adorable! You’d never know him, never, for the dignified, reticent David Collins of Fair Harbor.” A little amused smile on Polly’s face made Lilith wonder; but neither of them said much. Miss Converse did not need assistance. She talked until Lilith actually felt sleepy and finally excused herself on plea of some urgent duty. Polly longed to follow; but her guest gave her no chance for withdrawal, and it was late before she could obtain a release. On the morning after Marietta’s arrival as Polly was passing through the kitchen, Benedicta called her aside and with a show of secrecy closed the door which opened on the dining-room porch.