it, proved to have
deteriorated sadly since his last visit. The cool interior that he
remembered had been inopportunely opened to the hottest blast of the
day's heat, and hermetically sealed again, or at least so it
seemed to Dick; and the furniture was all red and thickly, almost
suffocatingly, upholstered. Nancy had no comment on the torrid air of
the dining-room,--she rarely complained about anything. Even the
presence of a fly in her bouillon jelly scarcely disturbed her
equanimity, but Dick knew that she was secretly sustained by the
conviction that such an accident was impossible under her system
of supervision at Outside Inn, and resented her tranquillity
accordingly.

Caroline, behaving not so well, seemed to him a much more human and
sympathetic figure, though her nose took on a high shine unknown to
Nancy's demurer and more discreetly served features; but Billy
evidently preferred Nancy's deportment, which was on the surface calm
and reassuring.

"Nancy's a sport," he pointed out to Caroline enthusiastically, "no
fly in the ointment gets her goat. She enjoys herself even when she's
perfectly miserable."

"She doesn't feel the heat the way I do," Caroline snapped.

"I feel the heat," Nancy said, "but I--"

"She's got a system," Dick cut in savagely: "she stands it just as
long as she can, and then she takes it out of me in some diabolical
fashion."

Nancy's gray-blue eyes took on the far-away look that those who loved
her had learned to associate with her most baffling moments.

"Just by being especially nice to Dick," she said thoughtfully, "I can
make him more furious with me than in any other way."

Nancy and Caroline finished their sloppy ices at the table together
while Dick and Billy sought the solace of a pipe in the garage
outside.

"I don't understand coming into Connecticut to-day," Nancy said as
soon as they were alone; "it seems like such a stupid excursion for
Dick to make. He's usually pretty good at picking out places to go. In
fact, he has a kind of genius for it."

"He slipped up this time," Caroline said, "I'm so hot."

"So am I," said Nancy, slumping limply into the depths of her red
velour chair. "I want to get back to New York. Oh! what was it you
told me the other day that you had been saving up to tell me?"

Caroline brightened.

"Oh, yes! Why, it was something Collier Pratt said about you. You know
Betty has scraped up quite an acquaintance with him. She goes and sits