"Be patient, dear friend," he said to her quite clearly. Could she have looked on Sperry at that moment she would have found him playing billiards at his club, his whole mind occupied in making a difficult carom shot. When he made it he ordered a fresh brandy and soda. The roar of Big Shanty continued. An owl screamed hoarsely from somewhere in the timber below. Alice shuddered, her cheeks burning against the palms of her cold hands, and crept back to bed. Margaret, too, had been gazing out of her window. Big Shanty to her meant a new life--she, too, had been crying, but from sheer happiness. CHAPTER TWELVE Some mornings after Alice's arrival--she had spent most of the hours in her room in the interim--she came gaily into the room where her husband and Margaret were at breakfast, her face all smiles, her figure clothed in a jaunty walking dress which fitted her to perfection. Thayor looked up from his coffee and bacon; he thought he had never seen her look so pretty. "Why, Alice!" he exclaimed, all his love for her in his eyes. "Yes--I don't wonder you are astonished," she said, regarding them both mischievously. "The day is too glorious to breakfast in bed; besides, I've slept like a top. Sam, the camp is exceedingly pretty," she went on, as Blakeman ceremoniously pushed a chair beneath her and hurriedly laid the unexpected cover. "And now may I ask where you two gad-abouts are going?" she inquired, noticing Margaret's short skirt and Sam in a pair of stout tramping boots. "To a pond, mother--the nearest, I believe. Think of it--we have four of them," announced Margaret proudly. "Then I'm going too," declared her mother. "Good!" cried Thayor. "Holcomb says he can easily take us there and back in time for luncheon." Alice turned to her husband, and patting the back of his hand, said: "Sam, you'll forgive me for my lack of enthusiasm since I came, won't you? I was really ill; the heat was something frightful coming up." The tone of her voice was captivating. Thayor covered her hand with his own. "Of course I will--you were tired out, dear--that was all. Hurry up and drink your coffee," he continued, looking at the clock over the chimney-piece in the breakfast room; "Holcomb is waiting for us. But put on your heaviest boots, Alice, before you start; the trail is apt to be damp in places after the misty night. We are lucky not to have waked up in a drizzling rain." Margaret looked across the table at her mother: "Oh, what a night it was!" she burst out. "Could there be anything more beautiful than the wilderness in the moonlight? It really seemed a sin to go to bed. I hope you saw it too--I was coming to wake you, it was so lovely." "And so I gather," returned Alice with a smile, "that you went to bed very late."