wo months!" exclaimed Jane in astonishment, dropping into her seat.
"Why, what do you want to leave Yardley for? O Lucy, don't--please
don't go!"

"But you can come over, and I can come here," rejoined Lucy in a
coaxing tone.

"Yes; but I don't want to come over. I want you at home. And it's so
lovely here. I have never seen the garden look so beautiful; and you
have your own room, and this little porch is so cosey. The hotel is a
new building, and the doctor says a very damp one, with everything
freshly plastered. He won't let any of his patients go there for some
weeks, he tells me. Why should you want to go? I really couldn't think
of it, dear. I'd miss you dreadfully."

"You dear old sister," answered Lucy, laying her parasol on the small
table beside her, "you are so old-fashioned. Habit, if nothing else,
would make me go. I have hardly passed a summer in Paris or Geneva
since I left you; and you know how delightful my visits to Biarritz
used to be years ago. Since my marriage I have never stayed in any one
place so long as this. I must have the sea air."

"But the salt water is right here, Lucy, within a short walk of our
gate, and the air is the same." Jane's face wore a troubled look, and
there was an anxious, almost frightened tone in her voice.

"No, it is not exactly the same," Lucy answered positively, as if she
had made a life-long study of climate; "and if it were, the life is
very different. I love Warehold, of course; but you must admit that it
is half-asleep all the time. The hotel will be some change; there will
be new people and something to see from the piazzas. And I need it,
dear. I get tired of one thing all the time--I always have."

"But you will be just as lonely there." Jane in her astonishment was
like a blind man feeling about for a protecting wall.

"No; Max and his sister will be at Beach Haven, and lots of others I
know. No, I won't be lonely," and an amused expression twinkled in her
eyes.

Jane sat quite still. Some of Captain Holt's blunt, outspoken
criticisms floated through her brain.

"Have you any reason for wanting to leave here?" she asked, raising her
eyes and looking straight at Lucy.

"No, certainly not. How foolish, dear, to ask me! I'm never so happy as
when I am with you."

"Well, why then should you want to give up your home and all the
comforts you need--your flowers, garden, and everything you love, and
this porch, which you have just made so charming, to g