t gloom.

Twice it had occurred when the day was heavy with moisture, thick and
superheated by the summer's sun. The last time it happened, to the heat
was added the excitement of a police launch stopping our little
pleasure craft and demanding our names and business. When it left Page
grew silent and, until we landed, lay in the prow his face hidden by his
hat. Mental or physical I could not say. I wished I knew for it
subtracted the joy from the day as surely as dampness takes the kink out
of unnatural curls.

When I mentioned the incident to Jane, she only looked wise and smiled.
I could almost believe she was glad, for it gave her unlimited
opportunity for coddling. Zura made no comment. So great was the rebound
partial freedom induced, her spirits refused to descend from the
exhilarating heights of "having a good time and doing things." She
blandly ignored any suggestion of hidden trouble, or the possibility of
it daring to come in the future. Untiring in her preparations for our
festivities, the hour of their happening found her so gracious a
hostess, naturally she was the pivot around which the other three of us
swung.

I wondered if, in our many festivities we were not forming habits of
useless dissipation. Jane said our parties were much livelier than
church socials at home. Our experienced leader assured me, however,
these picnics were as slow as a gathering of turtles in a coral cave,
but they continued, ceasing only when the nights grew too chill for
comfort. Our pleasures were then transferred to the homeyness of the
little living-room in "The House of the Misty Star."

* * * * *

In my adoption of Zura the humor was incidental; in Zura's adoption of
Jane it was uppermost. From the first the girl assumed proprietorship
and authority that kept the little gray missionary see-sawing between
pleasure and trouble. By Zura's merry teasing Jane's naturally
stammering tongue was fatally twisted. She joked till tears were near;
then with swift compunction Jane was caught in arms tender and strong
and loved back to happiness.

Like a mother guarding a busy careless child, Zura watched Miss Gray's
comings and goings. Overshoes and wraps became a special subject of
argument. There was no denying that in the arrangement of Jane's clothes
there was a startling transformation.

My attention was called to this one morning when I heard a merry,
audacious voice cry out, "See here, Lady