finish
your ices; come quick."

Mrs. Bell took her eldest daughter's hand, and rushed out of the tent.
Sophy and Alice stayed behind to have one parting spoonful each of their
delicious ices. Then the whole family went helter-skelter down the five
sacred steps and on to the lawn. They saw the objects of their desire
vanishing through a gap in the hedge into a distant field. They must
pursue, they must go hotly to work. Mrs. Bell panted and puffed, and
Matty stopped once to breathe hard.

"Courage, child," said the mother. "We'll soon be up with them. I'm not
the woman to leave an innocent young man alone with that siren."

"Mother! You call Beatrice a siren?"

"Well, and what is she, Matty, when she takes your lawful sweetheart
away before your very eyes? But here, we're in hailing distance, now,
and I'll shout. Beatrice--Bee--Trixie!"

Beatrice turned. She came up at once to Mrs. Bell, took her hand, and
asked all four why they had run so fast after her.

"For I was coming back at once," she said, in a _naive_ tone.
"Captain Bertram was kind enough to walk with me to the archery field.
Then I was coming to arrange some tennis sets."

"My girls have had no tennis yet to-day, Beatrice," said Mrs. Bell,
fixing her eyes solemnly on Miss Meadowsweet. "And they are all partial
to it, more especially Matty. You're a devotee to tennis too, aren't
you, Captain Bertram?"

"Well, ah, no, I don't think I am," said the captain.

"You'd maybe rather have a quiet walk, then. For my part I approve of
young men who are prudent, and don't care to exercise themselves too
violently. Violent exercise puts you into too great a heat, and then
you're taken with a chill, and lots of mischief is done that way. Bee,
lend me your arm, love. I'm more recovered now, but I did have to hurry
after you, and that's a fact."

Determined women very often have their way, and Mrs. Bell had the
satisfaction of walking in front with Beatrice, while Captain Bertram
brought up the rear in Matty's company.

Sophy and Alice Bell no longer belonged to the group. They had found
matters so intolerably dull that they started off on their own hook to
find partners for tennis.

Mrs. Bell, as she walked in front with Beatrice heard Matty's little and
inane giggles, and her heart swelled within her.

"Poor young man, he is devoted," she whispered to her companion. "Ah,
dear me, Beatrice, I know you sympathize with me; when one has a dear
child's fate tr