ad, who had come
in at that moment heated and breathless and full of excuses, while she
herself proceeded to the next course, which was a very well-made
omelette, bursting most agreeably at both its ends with young green
peas.

"Serve me," she directed Francesca, who again showed a
disposition to wait for the others.

"Oh, why won't they leave me alone?" Scrap asked herself when she
heard more scrunchings on the little pebbles which took the place of
grass, and therefore knew some one else was approaching.

She kept her eyes tight shut this time. Why should she go in to
lunch if she didn't want to? This wasn't a private house; she was in
no way tangled up in duties towards a tiresome hostess. For all
practical purposes San Salvatore was an hotel, and she ought to be let
alone to eat or not to eat exactly as if she really had been in an
hotel.

But the unfortunate Scrap could not just sit still and close her
eyes without rousing that desire to stroke and pet in her beholders
with which she was only too familiar. Even the cook had patted her.
And now a gentle hand--how well she knew and how much she dreaded
gentle hands--was placed on her forehead.

"I'm afraid you're not well," said a voice that was not Mrs.
Fisher's, and therefore must belong to one of the originals.

"I have a headache," murmured Scrap. Perhaps it was best to say
that; perhaps it was the shortest cut to peace.

"I'm so sorry," said Mrs. Arbuthnot softly, for it was her hand
being gentle.

"And I," said Scrap to herself, "who thought if I came here I
would escape mothers."

"Don't you think some tea would do you good?" asked Mrs.
Arbuthnot tenderly.

"Tea? The idea was abhorrent to Scrap. In this heat to be
drinking tea in the middle of the day. . .

"No," she murmured.

"I expect what would really be best for her," said another voice,
"is to be left quiet."

How sensible, thought Scrap; and raised the eye-lashes of one eye
just enough to peep through and see who was speaking.

It was the freckled original. The dark one, then, was the one
with the hand. The freckled one rose in her esteem.

"But I can't bear to think of you with a headache and nothing
being done for it," said Mrs. Arbuthnot. "Would a cup of strong black
coffee--?"

Scrap said no more. She waited, motionless and dumb, till Mrs.
Arbuthnot should remove her hand. After all, she couldn't stand there
all day, and when she went away she would have to take h