pillowed upon her arm. She was drawing long, deep breaths, and looking
lazily off at a stretch of blue sky cleft in the exact centre by one great
graceful elm tree. One would have thought she had forgotten every care in
the world, not to mention the guest from the city waiting expectantly for
her hostess to appear. After ten minutes of this sort of indolence the
figure in the blue and white print dress sat up, clasped both arms about
her knees and remained regarding with half closed eyes the softly
fluttering leaves of the willows along the edge of the brook. The hot
flush died out of her cheeks; the lips whose expression a few minutes
since had indicated self-control under a combination of trying
circumstances, relaxed into their natural sweetness with a tendency toward
mirth; and her whole aspect became that merely of the young athlete
resting from one encounter and preparing herself for another.

At length she rose, shook out her skirts, and said aloud: "Now, Judith
Dearborn Carey, I'm ready to upset your expectations. Since you looked in
at me this morning you've been thinking I wished I hadn't--haven't you?
Well, you may just understand that I don't wish anything of the sort." And
in five minutes more she had walked in upon her guest by way of the front
door, her pretty face serene, her hands full of pink June roses which she
threw in a fragrant mass of beauty into her friend's lap.

"Put those into bowls for me, will you?" she requested. "Arrange them to
suit yourself. Aren't they lovely? I suppose you're getting hungry. In
half an hour you shall be served with a very modest but, I trust, not
insufficient lunch. Would you like hot chocolate or iced tea?"

"Iced tea, by all means," chose Judith, who, being used to the privileges
of selection from a variety of offered foods and beverages, was apt to
want what was not set before her, when at a private table. Juliet
understood this propensity of her friend and slyly took advantage of it.
As it happened, she knew that at the moment she was quite out of
chocolate, but she had counted advisedly upon Judith's choice on a hot
June day, and she smiled to herself as she chopped ice and sliced lemon.

At the end of the half hour, Judith, who found the coolness of the
living-room too delightful to allow her to keep watch of her friend in the
hot kitchen, much as she was tempted to do so, was summoned to an equally
cool dining-room. Upon the bare table, daintily set out upon