ivers in the world. I'd rather stay right here and
watch the fishermen. I never had such a chance to see them so close at
hand and--I--do--not want--to go."

"Montmorency, darling! Don't turn nasty and spoil all poor Mamma's
pleasure, don't. I can't see what's the matter with you, dear? You have
been positively disagreeable ever since we took that walk. Did you get
too tired, lovey? Is Mamma's baby boy ill?"

"Oh! Mamma, please! I _shall_ be ill if you don't quit molly-coddling
me, as if I were an infant in arms."

They were speaking apart and in low tones, so that she caught but the
word "Molly" and instantly inquired:

"Is it that girl, dearest? Has she been behaving badly to you? You
mustn't mind her sharp tongue, she's only a--a Breckenridge!"

"Yes, she has been behaving outrageously. She's made me feel as cheap as
two cents. Just because I couldn't think of any remarkably funny thing
to do in this horrid old town--Oh! go on, and let me be. I'm not mad
with you, Mamma, but I shan't go on that ride and be perched on a seat
with either of those wretched girls, nor any old woman either, for the
whole afternoon. Do go--they're waiting, and they'll wish no Starks had
ever been born. I guess they wish it already."

Perforce, she had to go; but it wasn't a happy drive for her. If her
adored Monty was disgruntled over anything she felt the world a gloomy
place. She did exert herself to be agreeable to the Judge, who sat
beside her, yielding his place on the driver's seat to Molly, whose
manner was almost as "crisp" as Montmorency's own. But she would rather
have stayed behind to look after her son; and had she known what was to
happen on that sunshiny afternoon she would have been even more sorry
that she had not followed her inclination.

However, at that moment there was no cloud upon the day; and no sooner
had the buckboard disappeared from sight than Montmorency Vavasour-Stark
performed a sort of jig on the hotel verandah, threw up his cap, gave a
loud Brentnor "yell" and dashed up the stairs to his room as fast as his
short fat legs could move. Thence he soon reappeared, clad in his
"athletics"--of which a broad-striped blue-and-white sweater attracted
much attention.

He had now become "plain boy." He had shed the "young gentleman" with
vigor and completeness and was bent upon any sort of "lark" that would
restore his usual good nature and complacency. He had observed whither
disappeared the various bell-boy